October 16, 2008
Rob Singer is well known as a video poker iconoclast. In summary, he believes that VP pay tables are largely irrelevant and that one can be a long term winner by setting modest session win goals and progressing in stakes until one meets that goal. I, along with the majority of the serious video poker community, believes his strategy is fundamentally flawed. I gave a very negative review to his first book, The Undeniable Truth About Video Poker. His second book is Ramblin' and Gambling' Thru Nevada.
In Ramblin' and Gamblin" Thru Nevada, Singer makes a video poker road trip through just about the entire state of Nevada. He says his goal is to play using the "long run" strategies that he perceives most serious video poker players advocate. It's unclear why he plans to do this, since he derides those who advocate playing this way, and he thinks these are losing strategies.
There are three major problems with his plan. First, serious video poker players won't play any game in which they don't have an edge. The author will basically play any video poker game he wants to, regardless of the pay table. Second, it's rare for a serious video poker player to just play as long as they feel like without taking advantage of slot club benefits such as cash back, free play, or bounce-back mailers. Singer doesn't give this much regard, and he seems to deeply misunderstand what the advantage players are trying to accomplish. Third, even though he almost seems to be trying to lose as he plays, he actually makes a little bit of money on this trip. If he's trying to convince us that his methods work and others don't, this book doesn't provide a compelling argument for either position.
I don't think he's trying to be deceptive, but he doesn't provide enough information for someone to thoroughly evaluate his play on this trip. We don't get hand counts and we aren't always told pay tables for the games he's playing. Also, he messes up either his arithmetic or his record keeping or possibly both, as in several places his numbers just don't add up. I think it's fair to say that math just isn't one of his strong points. Singer admits to not always playing "perfect" strategies, but he doesn't tell us how often and when he deviates from them. It seems to me like he may not be able to specify what he's doing himself. All of this means we really have no means to evaluate how he plays, except to say that he isn't playing a +EV game, and that he doesn't show any signs of understanding video poker "advantage play" at methods all.
Singer claims to have tried at one point in time to play the way the advantage players do, but that he was a loser using those strategies. If he played during that time anything like the way he played when he says he's trying to mimic those strategies, it's no wonder why this would be the case.
That said, there are actually two different ways in which this book almost works. By providing some descriptions of the places the author visits and the casinos he patronizes, Singer almost provides an interesting Nevada video poker travelogue. In places, it's almost a video-poker version of Barry Meadow's Blackjack Autumn. Also, in talking to many of the people he meets, he provides occasional insight into the psyche of video poker players. I think he's often projecting onto those folks the "old Rob Singer" before he found his own brand of "video poker religion", but that doesn't mean that he's never correct in his evaluation of some of the folks he encounters.
He doesn't completely succeed on these marks for a few reasons. First, the interesting information he provides is scant. The book is short enough as it is, and the sidelights just aren't featured enough to make the book worthwhile. Second, Singer's agenda rears its head throughout the book. For me, this interfered with much of the otherwise interesting narrative. Third, while the author is a capable writer, at least enough so to get his point across, in my opinion he's not skilled enough to make his adventure truly come alive.
Even though I don't recommend Ramblin' and Gamblin' Thru Nevada, I did enjoy this book more than Singer's first one and more than I expected. In fact, if the author could suppress his urge to address his silly video poker agenda, he might even have a worthwhile book in him. This isn't it, though, so I recommend that prospective readers pass again.
There are places where Ramblin' and Gamblin' Thru Nevada almost works as either a travelogue or an examination of the psychology of video poker players. However, the few instances where something worthwhile shows through are drowned out by a mess of illogic, bad math, and confused themes. This book is better than Singer's first, but that's faint praise. I still can't recommend it to anyone.
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