Voila... "But like arcimede$ has said, the more hands you play, the closer the sum total of all your play will approach the machine's EV." Exactly. And this (brace yourselves) is part of Singer's strategy: don't play more than you have to.

Because the more you play, as you point out a2a, the closer you will approach the machine's EV. So, who the heck wants to be sitting in a chair for hours and days only to make a return of 0.5% ?? As I said early on in this debate, the money that is cycled through video poker would gain a much better return selling covered calls on Wall Street. Of course Arc criticized me for that, but he never sold a covered call in his life.