Video Poker Trucks Run Over Everybody

[arcimede$]

Now you're saying that the bell curve represents the "percentage return" of video poker play. Wow. You really can pick from among the universe of possible answers to try to justify your claims.

Wrong again. A bell curve represents a sampling of random values. Since the % return represents a sampling of random values it should show up as a bell curve. Remember, the bell curve is just a graphical view of the data. It's the data itself that is important.

Even if you think a bell curve represents the "percentage return" I'd still like to see your data, because true research is based on data. And the fact is there is no research, and for all we know the "curve" looks like a "W" or a "/" or "______/" or "\____/".

At low numbers of random events the shape will not be a bell. It becomes a bell as the number of samples increases.

It was a nice discussion. At least you didn't call me an addict and I respect your knowledge.

Singer has to believe everyone is an addict or he has to admit he has a weakness. He is unable to do the latter, that makes every other VP player an addict in his eyes.

EDITED TO ADD: I just thought of a way to test your theory. There is a casino here in Southern Cal that runs weekly tournaments... usually slots but sometimes video poker. I could ask them for their print out of results. I think they have 200 players per tournament.

But then I thought about this: when VP machines (like slot machines) are switched to tournament function no machine goes negative. You start with zero points and you only add credits as you hit wins. So in tournament function there would not be the kind of curve you expect. The curve would more likely show a slowly rising base with the winners showing some "surge in points" like this: _____________/

I've played in a couple of video poker and slot tournaments and that is pretty much what the final point tally showed. Everyone was about the same and then the few "winners" had the big points because they hit the royals.

It would form a bell if the y-axis was the number of players and the x-axis any given credit range. There would be a few players way up there in credits and a few quite low. The rest would be bunched in the middle. It probably wouldn't be a perfect bell as there would not be enough hands played, but it would be somewhat bell shaped.