You know, if you take one look around at all the video poker boards and you were new to all this, you’d come to the conclusion that the game is at or near its end, and it’s impossible to beat these days because the casinos have turned all the screws against the players. Well guess who it is doing all the doom & gloom talk? Yep, it’s the LOSERS!

And why not? These are the ones who get frustrated at losing, they blame everyone and every entity but themselves for their poor results, and they are experts at remaining in denial forever and a day. Take a look at my sports betting “career” on my home page as a for-instance: Three years ago I won $2000 and was in the mid 50% range, and two years ago I won the same while achieving nearly 60%. At the same time, because every one of my bets were documented on my site as well as in the first year on the LVA Sports forum (something NO ONE ELSE ANYWHERE HAS EVER DONE IN ITS ENTIRETY, including any of the so-called “professional bettors and handicappers” out there who’d just as soon sell you a pick than make a real bet) this year you could have followed me as I failed to produce.

So do I do as these so-called video poker “advantage players” are doing these days by whining about this and that and everything else, while they refuse personal accountability for their bad results? Of course not. I’ve done poorly (losing over $5000 this year and quitting) and it is only my fault because I am the one who chose to do what I did. They were my picks; they didn’t go as hoped, so I lost. There is no escape-hatch spin available.

In contrast, take a look anytime at vpFREE and you’ll see a whirlwind of cry babying, moaning and bellyaching over the supposed lack of “playable” games, why they feel that is, and of course these losers will ALWAYS bring up how well they have done in the past – sans the proof, of course. And the more they lose the more they cry.

Let’s look at the case of one very vocal whiner who’s recently been picking on Bob Dancer and his working for the casinos against the players. This guy calls himself “WP” and says he runs paladingaming.com website – one laced with on-line casino ads and rants against myself and Dancer. As soon as I saw the site I immediately put him in the same phony bunch as all the rest of the self-proclaimed “professional gamblers” who for some reason just can’t make it in the real world without generating all kinds of income either from a website or from selling gambling trinkets – or both. And a common theme among these “icons” is "Hey everyone, I’ve been BANNED from this and that casino so I MUST be good enough to send your money to!”

So now his purpose in life seems to be bad mouthing Dancer almost daily for how he’s supposedly leading the charge to eliminate full-pay +EV video poker in Las Vegas. His pal MickeyCrimm then inserts an in-memoriam piece about some supposed big deal video poker player out of where else—the PAST. I think he calls him Tuna Lund, and naturally, upon looking him up nowhere can anyone find any proof that the guy won more than he lost – which tends to say it all. He was more a LIVE poker player who won a few bracelets, but a study of most of those guys results in the majority of them losing it all and more in private games when no one’s looking. And if you look at his wins on his website, I’ve done twice as good playing the machines! As far as HIM being a video poker specialist -- which Crimm makes a big deal out of – it sounds like nothing more than the typical advantage player fantasy. The guy just passed away on Nov. 6th from, what else--cancer, and whenever that happens I can’t help wondering how much longer he may have been able to live had he not adopted a four-decades-long unhealthy total casino lifestyle.

Yes, some people show their displeasure with their results by blaming other people, and as we’ve just seen, some people choose to live in a pretend feel-good world by telling unsubstantiated stories about people they’ve made into their heroes. But that’s what the game of video poker does to those enthralled by it. They can’t leave it, they can’t beat it, so they rail on it and create make believe idols whom they wish to emulate in their own minds.

How many times have you seen so-called "advantage players" come on and cry out loud over the cutbacks in pay tables at all Harrah’s properties? Yet as I’ve pointed out in the past, there are hundreds of Seven Stars members (meaning at least a million dollars thru the machines yearly) including multiple famous names who claim they only "play with an edge" who play there regularly BECAUSE THEY ARE ADDICTED TO PLAYING FOR TOTAL REWARDS STATUS & POINTS. Surely you can see how this makes no sense and makes total hypocrites out of these people, but most everyone wants their heroes to be successful so they too can someday “be like Mike”. As a result, no one but me whispers a WORD about any of it--and my whispers are heard.

Others put the blame on the so-called demise of video poker on those that would go out and play a good pay table until it is no more. So what! Who cares if all the 100%+ games have their pay tables lowered? I’ve regularly won on –EV games for many years now, and I’ve won more DIRECTLY FROM THE MACHINES than anyone else who's played or plays the game. That's easily verifiable by the fact that I'm the only one in history to publish a challenge to disbelievers on the front page of a major Las Vegas gambling publication that I could back up my words. And just IMAGINE if I ever chose to include all those comps, all those freebies, all that free-play and all that cash back LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ADVANTAGE-PLAY WORLD REGULARLY DOES (WITH SELF-OVERVALUATION) IN ORDER TO CLAIM THEY'RE ON THE PLUS SIDE OF THE LEDGER! My >$984,000 income could easily triple in a heartbeat….

I recently read a thread on LVA Free-For-All where a guy sat at one of five seats of a $5 9/5 DDB progressive at Harrah’s Rincon that was over $35,000. A so-called professional team of four players sat next to him for several days before the $37,210 royal was hit...by him. So let’s say that play was theoretically worth 101% with comps thrown in. How often does ANYONE attain that? All the percentage means is if played perfectly into infinity and if you get the correct number of Royals, you will end up at 101%. That’s why advantage play is nothing more than a continuous state of mind...one that leads every one of these type players into becoming pathological gamblers chasing casino-owned mathematics.

On a final note, if you read my most recent e-newsletter you saw where a disgruntled AP whined and cried because of missing a few hundred points here and there due to being “overcharged” by the South Point for his precious gasoline cards. In this case, this guy blamed the casino for his losing and took no responsibility other than to cry foul to the Nevada Gaming Commission. I’ve been one of those losing AP’s in my past, and believe me, I understand where the irritation and frustration comes from. But all it takes is winning to eliminate yourself from that attitude that says how you’re gonna “get back at the casino for taking your money”. Yes, all it takes is being a consistent winner...and not a continuous whiner.