Can anybody really make that much money at video poker? Dollar video poker? Maybe not day-in and day-out, but I did it for almost 3 weeks in July. You see, the President Casino in St. Louis held, for the second time, their great 'Points Challenge' from July 13-31and the $137/hr. I'm referring to up there is what I made, before taxes.

The contest is simple: whoever racks up the most slot club points wins. In this version of the 'Challenge', play was divided by those who were on dollar, quarter or nickel machines, since the slot club points are awarded at a rate of 1 point for each $1 played. Ten winners were paid varying prizes for each category, with $20,000 going to the winner of the dollar division, $7500 to the winner of the quarter division and $2500 to the winner of the nickel division (Damn! That's 50,000 nickels!). There was also one daily prize for each category: the top point scorer for each day in the dollar division got $800, the top quarter player got $300 and the top nickel player got $100. In addition, each player's points still counted for the usual cash-back which is a paltry .2%.

I had competed in the first 'Challenge' back in February where I ended up making $56 an hour; not bad, but I had also learned a lot about this kind of tournament and knew I could do better. Back in February, it was about 'Winning' - I'm a very competitive person and like to win. This time, a little older and a lot wiser, it was about 'Take the Casino's Money'. I intended to maximize my earnings per hour which meant playing effectively and not losing $$$ in an attempt to move up in the standings. That wasn't easy, because the video poker at the Admiral basically sucks. They have some All American games in 25-cent format on Bally 'GameMaker' machines, but for some odd reason points earned on multi-game machines weren't eligible. Their other quarter games are all 'short-pay' versions, as are the dollar games. They have some 3-dollar 9/6 Jacks or Better games, but the Royal pays only $1875 (it should be $2400), so the long term return is 99.1%. They have one $1 Double Bonus machine which is a 9/7 schedule (99.1%) and a few others of that type. But, every Tuesday and Wednesday, the slot club points are doubled and on Wednesdays, they choose a 'card of the day' which, if a player gets a 4-of-a-Kind of, wins a 100-coin bonus. Also, they choose a 'suit-of-the-day' and if a player gets a Royal in that suit, s/he wins a 1000-coin bonus. So, on Tuesdays, the return on all machines is upped by .4% due to the double point value and on Wednesdays, it's even more.

Naturally, I concentrated my play on those two days, because my biggest concern wasn't the number of points I racked up, but how much I lost in doing so. If I played dollar machines (some at $3 per hand and some at $5 per hand) at a rate of 800 hands an hour with an average payback of 99.1%, my expectation would be to lose about $27 an hour. From my experience in the last tournament, I figured it would take 80 hours of play to get into the serious money. So, I simply counted on losing about $2000 in my play; anything less would be a bonus. At the same time, the cash back on my slot club points would total about $6-700, so my net loss should be cut to $1500 or so.

Risking $1500 to make $20,000 is a good investment; I'll take it any day. But, we have to be realistic when assessing risk. First, I could lose a lot more; $1500 is the expectation and expectation only applies in long term situations and 80 hours of play is very short term when it comes to video poker. My playing loss could very well approach $6000 in that time, based upon betting an average of $3000 an hour. (Did you think it would be that high? That's amazing, isn't it? Eight hours of play and I'd bet $25,000.) Second, there was no guarantee that I would win first place. In the last tournament, a retired guy put in about 10 hours' play every day and sped away from the rest of the pack like we were standing still. I figured the same thing would happen this time as well, so I never really thought I'd get the first place prize. Second place ($10,000) was feasible, so I set my sights on that. So, here I was, risking $6000 to make $10,000, also figuring I could pick up a few $800 daily prizes, so my 80 hours' play would net out to about $50 an hour or $4000. That's not bad.

As most of you know, I play in the casinos under my real name and I'd rather they not know what it is, so I can't tell you how I placed in the tournament, but I did much better than expected. When all was said and done, I had earned $136.88 an hour. It was primarily a combination of less hours played and fewer losses at the machines.

The lesson here? Check out the tournaments at local casinos to see if they might be profitable for you, join the slot club and learn how to play video poker.

©copyright, 1998 The GameMaster Online, Inc.