You know, there’s times I sit here shaking my head and wonder when video poker players will ever wake up to the fact that much of the information on successful play that originated prior to me showing up and still constantly circulating around out there, is not only geared towards certain people making money off of other players – it is completely and utterly bogus from top to bottom.

The only chance anyone’s ever had of escaping all the phony BS and misleading assertions has been me – thru my Undeniable Truth column in Gaming Today that I wrote for 7-1/2 years, thru my two books, thru my website, thru meeting and training sessions with me, and thru various places on the Internet whenever I choose to debate…and bury…the competition. And aside from the books, which I’m required by contract to charge for, everything I do and have always done for the playing public has and will always be for free and without there ever being any strings attached whatsoever. You see, when players get tired of getting duped, raked over the coals, and made fools of by all the others, the refreshing truths are always available on or via the vptruth.com vehicle.

I’ve spent some time recently figuring out which path would be best for me to suggest newly disgusted players follow in order to get a quick understanding of all the misinformation floating around about the game and the machines, and how they can go about deleting all that tiring nonsense from their minds. It wasn’t long before I found it, and not surprisingly, it too was at the top of my list back in 1996 when I finally woke up from the optimal-play nightmare so many people are experiencing today.

Back then, the budding experts of the game all taught the player that it was very possible to beat the casinos at their own game: The Math. These guys were serious, folks, and the obvious driver was visualizing all the money that would be rolling their way once a machine-addicted public read or heard about a way to beat the video poker machines. These newly crowned “experts” chose to feed the playing public a sweet treat indeed with one hand, and then had no shame in picking their pockets with the other. The casinos watched all this and ever since, they’ve had one big laugh after another after another, and it continues even stronger to this day. The famous names along with the math geeks - and their blinded followers who WANT & NEED them to be right – know this. But the fact that players cannot prevail over the machines in their short-term without a very good dose of luck and not skill, doesn’t sell for one group, it doesn’t add up for the other, and it would put a great big dent into the pathological gambling habits of the final group. It not only gives new, crystal clear meaning to the word DENIAL – it allows beautiful new resorts to continue to be built, even in these Obama/Pelosi-led recession-like times.

My very first lesson for players interested in the truth about the game has to do with a very popular cry among those who fit into the above three categories. It can be found in many of their books, columns, and ramblings. One of the easiest ways is to look through some of the video poker forums, and keep an eye out for someone to post the self-confidence building “I’ll only play a machine where I have the advantage over the casino” or “You won’t see me playing it unless I know I have the edge” or “That game, at 99.17309%, just isn’t a playable game” or “Losers play less than 100% opportunities and winners always play greater than 100% opportunities”. Occasionally, you’ll see a very stupid characterization of such players by another in the crowd as “strong players” or “knowledgeable players”. It is as foolish and delirious as it gets in the world of video poker.

In theory, what these misled players say is all good and well, that is, from the comfort of their chairs behind the safety of their computers. They all know the idea sells – either for money or for building their expanded egos - because they believe they have pure math to back them up. And in a utopia that may be true. But in this world my friends, where one must deal with reality, individual idiosyncrasies, human greed & impatience, and distractions every second of the day, what looks like it works in the classroom will never cut it TO THE DEGREE IT NEEDS TO BE CUT in order to have any chance of making it in the real world.

One of the issues these groups choose to pretend doesn’t exist is that the machines in no way run in 100% random mode. The book I’m busy working on will explain this in intricate and mesmerizing detail, however, those who play the game regularly AND WHO’S PROBLEM GAMBLING WORLDS WILL NOT BE PUT ON A DEVASTATING TILT, easily understand this fact. And that’s easy to explain why. Their extreme denial whenever I’ve even just touched on this issue over the years always culminates in their desperate scrambling on the Internet to post Gaming Commission Regs that do not say what I’m saying.

But even that is easily challenged successfully. Remember how I’m always saying that if you do just what the casinos want (i.e., play for the points, play more during promotions, use casino credit/ATM’s & markers, tip the floor people a piece of all your hand pays, take a shot at higher denominations after hitting a jackpot on the lower ones, staying hour after hour instead of leaving after pre-set goals are attained, etc. etc. etc.) then you will be a loser who will always be welcome back with wide open arms? Well, what do you think the Gaming Commissions want those same players to see? Something that will scare them away? Something that they already know, but actual acceptance of will cause many of them deep psychological distress? Or do you think the GC's are most interested in working with the casinos in a way that keeps the status quo from crumbling? Just as with how the game manufacturers have strict confidentiality agreements on information disclosure about the true operation of their machines, it’s what’s NOT available from the Gaming Commissions to the public that’s the key.

Now I’ll throw some simple common sense into the equation….and here’s where the critics REALLY squirm. These people who say they only “play when there’s an edge”….who do you think they’re fooling? If one of these self-proclaimed optimal-play experts goes into a casino and sits pounding away at a theoretically >100% machine for 36 hours straight, do you think anybody cares about him or her? Is such a player truly attaining “long-term” results when he/she eventually stumbles out of there like a zombie, after putting in only a slight portion of the # of hands supposedly required to become a theoretical member of that elite club?

So how in the world can ANYONE claim to “play with an edge” when it’s the CASINO and the MACHINE that always has the mathematical advantage? And this is all predicated on wrongfully assuming the machines run in perfectly random order and the player plays like a flawless robot, you know, like the MACHINE DOES! Do you see how incredibly stupid such claims are, and better yet, can you see how saying them would be a catalyst for transferring another person’s money and/or praise the way of any of the aforementioned three groups of players?

It’s not difficult to see why most of those included in the three groups I’ve mentioned either despise me, and/or lie about me, and/or are terrified that anyone who comes on the video poker forums and expresses some form of agreement with me on the game, just HAS to be me! That’s where I’ve always had my best - and the last – laughs, because I’ve never used an alias anywhere without first announcing what user name I was posting under. Everyone knows my pen name: Rob Singer; everyone knows my real name: Rob Argentino; and everyone knows why the critics and the rest of that crowd prefers anonymity in front of their "peers".

I’m guessing they don’t like that statement either!