B-O-B: They are in-house, yes.
Frank: So what you've sensed could very well be true. You have been able through observation and that sixth sense of yours to actually pick the right machines. You could have a whole bank of joker-poker machines, all looking alike, all with the same payout scales, and one or two are programmed to hit like crazy and the others are programmed to be tight as hell. That's because they are actually slot machines and not video poker machines.

B-O-B: I've always felt this. I've always felt that the machines weren't exactly like the video-poker machines in Vegas.

Frank: They're not. Or, at least, they don't have to be.
Bulletman: So strategy decisions would be much more important for Vegas than for Atlantic City?

Frank: Machine selection would be of paramount importance in Atlantic City because you don't know what you're getting. In Vegas, you know what you're getting—unless the casino is cheating. But what would be cheating in Vegas would be abiding by the rules in Atlantic City.

B-O-B: Other players have found this out too. The machines I like to play are heavily played. I have to get to them early and keep them all day because the regulars want them. So I guess without realizing it, people have sensed the same things I have.
Frank: So sum it up for me.

B-O-B: I enjoy going away and when I play my video-poker machines, I go away. It's relaxing and thrilling simultaneously. I also like the solitariness of it. It's just me. I teach sixth graders and I'm on the go all the time in the classroom. I'd say I answer some 400 questions a day. It's a very intense job. I love it but this video-poker gives me a chance to get away and be…

Frank: A hermit?
B-O-B: Something like that. Playing video poker has
refreshed me. It makes me ready to deal with the tremendous activity of my regular life.
Frank: Well, I hope you have continued success and I appreciate the fact that you shared with my readers your ideas.

B-O-B: My pleasure.
Three weeks after this chapter was finished and in the hands of my publisher, Angela called me. She had gone on an overnight trip to Atlantic City. In a span of 12 hours she won_hold your breath—three progressive jackpots at three different locations in the same casino. As far as I know, this is an all-time record.

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B-O-B: But as we started playing more and more, we started to be courted. Our weekend room rates fell to a $100, then $75, then $45, then fully comped.
Bu I let man: When we really started getting comped was when the casinos began with their computer tracking of machine players. B-O-B always puts in long hours at the machines. But before that, I was always hesitant to ask for comps. I felt funny about asking for something. It was a psychological thing. You've written about that in your books—to always ask for everything you can get.

Frank: I write that to remind myself because I used to have that problem of feeling funny about asking for a comp. I have to overcome that.
B-O-B: I don't have that problem.

Frank: When did you discover video poker?
B-O-B: I think I played them the way you would play the slots. I wasn't really that conscious of them. But when I won my first jackpot, I realized that I enjoyed this game more than slots. It just seemed easier to win at them. It's skill and knowing that every so often something will happen. At the casino where we go, I know the exact machines to play. Which areas they're found in. I know the exact machines. I only play the progressives in Atlantic City. I know that video-poker machines are supposed to be based on their payout scale but in Atlantic City I'm willing to swear that some machines are loose and some are tight—even the exact same machines. Playing so much has shown me which machines these are.

Frank: How long do you play for.
B-O-B: I'll play for ten straight hours at one machine in a carousel. I know everyone in the place. I know which machines are loose. I always play machines that have hit a lot. I prefer to play these because they keep hitting.

Frank: I think you've discovered the secret of the Atlantic City machines. They are very much like slot machines and their placement probably follows the placement philosophy of Mr. Handle [see Break the One-Armed Bandits1.]. So you know where to find the loose machines.

B-O-B: I am a joker poker player…
Bulletman: A joker-poker fanatic.

B-O-B: Exclusively. That's my game. And I only play the progressives. Now in joker poker, you want to get five of a kind. But to get this, you have to be willing to spend a long time playing. You need a big bankroll.
Frank: So you combine bankroll with machine selection and you stick to joker poker only?
B-O-B: That's right.

Frank: You play ten hours straight—how do you do that?
B-O-B: Right from breakfast to the machines and except for bathroom breaks when I have them hold my machine for me, I just play and play and play until it's time for dinner. After dinner I'll hit the machines again.

Bulletman: She combines a solid strategy with enough of a bankroll. She also plays fast. She is like lightning.

B-O-B: I also must say that I do have hunches.
Bulletman: The amount she's won, some of our friends jokingly say that she was born with a horseshoe, uh, around her neck.

B-O-B: Well, they don't say around my neck. It's a slightly more colorful expression.
Frank: I get the idea. Somewhat scatological. The point is.. .you're lucky.

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B-O-B: This time we decide to stay for a weekend at Caesars in Atlantic City and we take $200. We get to the casino and the man says to Bulletman: "Sorry, sir, but you can't get into the casino without a jacket." We went into AC and we walked all over the place looking for a place to buy a jacket. We asked one of the hotel workers where I could get a jacket that was reasonable. The hotel men's shops had jackets but they were all $300.

We only had $200. So we finally found a shop that was reasonable and we bought a jacket for $50. So now we're down $50. The blackjack turns out to be $25 minimums. Maybe one or two tables with $10 minimums but you can't get near them. So I go over to play the slot machines—I don't even know if there were video-poker machines at this time. If there were, they weren't a big thing. A few minutes later, I feel a tap on my shoulder. We hadn't even checked in and he says that we're going home. He had lost all the money. We hadn't even spent the night.

Bulletman: It was about midnight or one in the morning and we go out to valet and…
B-O-B: They had lost the keys to our car.

Bulletman: Some first trip to Atlantic City this was!
B-O-B: Then we had to stop every five or ten miles to get gas because at that time…
Bulletman: That was 1978 and the gas rationing.

B-O-B: So we didn't even know if we would make it back home.
Bulletman: I figured that this would cure her of any desire to gamble but it didn't.
B-O-B: What I realized was you needed a decent-sized
bankroll to go to Atlantic City. You can't play with scared money. You can't have only a couple-of-hundred bucks if you wanted to play blackjack. Now, even with the video poker this is true. I have a very big bankroll because I know how streaky the game is. I can weather any storm.

Bulletman: So we saved up a bankroll. When we went back next, we went with some friends who were fully comped.

B-O-B: That was impressive. We were treated so well. You could name the time you wanted dinner. The reservaions were made for you. They ushered you in. "How good to see you Mr. an Mrs. so and so." Just great.

Frank: You were the masters of the universe.
Bulletman: Right.

B-O-B: That did it for me. That night I hit on a slot machine. I won $600.1 split it with my girlfriend because we had put up the money together. After that I decided to see what it would take for us to get comped.

Bulletman: When we first went to Atlantic City, we weren't comped. We had to pay full room rates. I think at the time it was about $150 for a weekend night.

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Let's soar with the eagles in this chapter, shall we? I had a choice to make here and I'm making a choice that is a little uncharacteristic of me. You see, the typical chapter I had in mind for this section would detail the philosophy and strategies of players who, like myself, play cautiously and think of themselves as mundane exploiters of possible player edges. While the mathematics of video poker is clear—proper play on full-pay machines will yield long-term wins, there's nothing spectacular or elevating in that and nothing all that unusual in someone achieving wins playing the proper strategies on the right machines. It's a given.

However, Chapter Eleven may have been a somewhat depressing read, especially for Atlantic City video-poker players. The distinct possibility that you are playing slot machines in video-poker machines' clothing is no doubt an irksome, pehaps deflating, thought. But take heart. Despite this, some people do well in Atlantic City video-poker games. As you will see in this chapter, at least one player has intuitively grasped the nature of the machines in this venue and has selected her game and the locations of her machines inside the casino accordingly. If there is such a thing as a "gambling instinct," this lady possesses it. She is truly the most devastating player to hit Atlantic City in the past decade.
So meet Angela and her husband Phil.. .ah? Smith! Angela teaches elementary school on Long Island, New York. She's been doing so for some 20 years. Her husband is also a teacher, in a high school, but his gaming claim to fame concerns the fact that he was the renowned "Bulletman" of football handicapping lore. I know Bulletman because he is an aficionado of the Captain's craps systems and we have had many interesting conversations concerning the Captain and his ideas.

However, Angela is the focus here because Angela is unique among Atlantic City video-poker players. For example, in 12 recent trips to Atlantic City, she has won the progressive jackpots on joker-poker machines 13 times! In addition to this, for the past six years Angela has not had a single losing trip to the resort town by the ocean. That is remarkable. That is unheard of. That is why I want to profile her—despite the fact that she probably violates all the rules I've set down for proper play; despite the fact that she relies on "intuition" as much as on logic and computer studies.

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