An Odd Year In VP Ends – A New One Begins By Rob Singer

I waited until the new and humungous City Center opened to post this because I wanted to get some opinions on just what that monstrosity was all about first. Well, now we know: It’s nothing more than another run-of-the-mill MGM property with fancy surroundings, small guest rooms, and nothing new with the video poker other than being fully server-based. And there’s something about that I don’t trust in days like these.

My gambling year (if that’s what it can even be called) was recently depicted in my final e-newsletter last week. I’ll post it in its entirety shortly for those of you who missed it or have not signed up to receive it. Our year just about ended by us just getting back from a 4 day trip to South Carolina to do something I promised my wife we’d do….when she found the right item.

For most of the year she’s wanted to get herself an Imperial (Toy) Shih Tzu that was more chocolate color than anything else, and she finally found on on-line. It’s at a breeder’s in S. Carolina and that seemed a problem because it was just before Christmas. But that didn’t stop me making plans to go out and see it to decide on whether to get it. In fact, we just got in a few hours ago (Sat. Dec. 26) after the quick journey. If you’re thinking that’s kind of a big price to pay just to SEE a dog, you’re right. Then again, at this dog’s crazy price a few last minute plane tickets only added to the overall “adventure”. We won’t be able to get her until around Jan. 23rd when she’s flown out to Arizona at about 8 weeks of age. Now, here’s my final E-Newsletter of 2009 from VPTRUTH.COM:

E-News from VPTruth and Rob Singer End-Of-The-Year News From VPTRUTH.COM This will be the final newsletter of 2009, and my next one won't be until February because of our January vacationing up the Pacific Coast and out to Hawaii. But as I've said previously, there's a new and hopefully more exciting format coming in 2010, so stick around for the fun! This has been an odd year for my gambling in several ways. First, I won just under $11,000 at video poker early on, but I quit playing for profit after that. Actually, I quit playing professionally for good, and now I'll go back to playing up to $2 recreationally if and when I do go to Nevada or anywhere else (other than Indian casinos, with the possible exception of extraordinary anomalies like Foxwoods & Mohegan Sun if I choose to visit them on our annual trips around the country). I turned 60 in May, and although this may not be the standard for others who enjoy the game, I no longer have the desire to go to and be in casinos the amount of time a true pro would need to in order to make a decent profit. My time has come and gone, and I came up almost $16,000 short of my lifetime goal of winning a million dollars directly from the machines since 1997. Some say I'm crazy for stopping when I'm so close. Maybe so, but I come first. 2009 saw me fail in NFL sportsbetting for the only time in just 3 short seasons. This year's poor results not only wiped out the $4000 I won in 2006 & 2007 combined - I lost a thousand more. It also chased me away early as I did not last the entire season. Lessons learned, although you'll always have to listen to me blame the failure on 2008, when I took the year off due to taking several vacations during the games. I've talked to a LOT of video poker high-rolling Advantage Players in LV over the years, and they all had one thing in common: They said they were unable to beat the video poker machines, ever....but they made it up in sportsbetting and live poker. Is this true? Well, I certainly believe their vp results! After all, they're AP's, and as everyone knows, these people are led around by the collar by every casino manager and slot club in town. My most interesting effort this year had to be how I'm trying to determine exactly how the vp machines are programmed to operate. While some believe them to perfectly random, I hold no such belief. Not only have I been able to detect certain hot & cold cycles as well as witness a large deviation from standard when it comes to fifth card flipovers -- it is clear from several sources as well as from a common sense standpoint that the public has never been privy to ALL the Regs from any Gaming Commission. As a result, I consider that enough to confirm suspicions I've had for a long time. The only thing I haven't been able to determine is if any of these can hurt the player or not. That may never be resolved, but one more thing I am doing is testing an actual machine in my garage at home. It's one of the newer machines and it wasn't easy getting - nor was the test set I needed, which I could only find at Rohde & Schwarz in Germany. As you can guess, this is not a frugal endeavor, but it is very, very interesting. More about it in 2010. Finally, a word about the many, many players who've written me saying they've never seen such bad results playing as they have in 2009. This comes from all sorts of players with all kinds of beliefs. All I can say is, look at the state of the economy and look at the struggles of the casinos. Would you cross the line if your career, family & livelihood depended on it? That's a question to ponder. And remember, I stopped playing in April of this year. Did any of this affect my decision? Yes. Everyone have a fabulous Holiday Season and a successful & healthy New Year! Rob