"My play is tolerated at some places under a sort of unspoken agreement that: 1) I will behave well while I'm there, 2) I will say something nice about the casino in my columns (on the theory that if my readers know Bob Dancer plays somewhere then that must be a good place to play --- even if relatively few of my readers bring the same skill set that I do), and 3) if I win more than a little bit, I'll take a few months off before frequenting the same place again. No casino wants to be Bob Dancer's personal money tree."
His advantage play always depends on the comps and cash-back that he earns, and he usually is playing with an advantage of well less than 1%. That kind of slim margin with the huge volatility of VP can hardly be characterized as a 'money tree'. Certainly he probably plays a near perfect game of VP, but that still in and of itself doesn't get you into the advantage territory. And I agree that he exhibited quite a bit of doochebaggery in this column, with the 'I am the King of VP' attitude throughout.
Well, I have to say that I think he is somewhat right in how he handled this person ... he does not owe the man his time for questions and arguments about how to play various promotions and situations. But yeah, the way the column was written was full of a lot of "I'm kind of a big deal" attitude.
What really makes him look like a jerk is that this comment was totally unnecessary for the article and actually interrupts the article's flow. Also I think it would be quite untrue. Much poorer video poker players would have stop reading his "I'm better than you" attitude long ago.
I have read Dancer's book about winning a million dollars and his articles. I find his approach and attitude fact driven without emotion. I remember his comment about a couple making Mass at a particular time and giving up airline bumps that were very lucrative. I think this is his train of thinking about choices. I go to Mass when I am in Vegas, I did not take offense at his "advantage play". I also think he was explaining his situation as a player, not bragging. I have never met him, but from reading his book, you get a sense of a person. Just my opinion for what it worth.
It seems to me that Bob's point here is that even though he makes a profit playing VP, some casinos are happy to have him there as he draws other players. Many of those other players do not end up making money off the casino, so in the end the casino nets an overall win.
Honestly I'm not sure how many people would argue against him being a jerk. He really doesn't come across as the most pleasant person. I'm pretty confident he hates me simple because I like to gamble without an advantage. That said, I will always still read his column. He is one of the few in his position so it is nice that for free I can read some insight into that situation. Expert views are often hard to come by and often you need to pay a huge sum of money to get those views. I'm guessing most people here would consider him an expert in Video Poker and maybe even slot comp systems in Vegas.
Well, that may have been his point, but he made it by slamming his audience...lol "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Bob definitely loves his vinegar. Well, I'm sure he personally doesn't "hate" you, and he shouldn't because rec gamblers help allow casinos to still offer 99+% video poker. It's just that Bob has a very condescending attitude in his writing that is largely unnecessary. This being said, I would never turn down any of his advice for free. Especially over the topic of "casino comps" as that is a significant part of being able to profit from video poker today. Unfortunately, I'm too poor to be able to take advantage of most of those opportunities.
He sounds like a dick in pretty much every column. The only way he could achieve that if he really is a major dick right down to his core. He doesn't even have any good reason to be condescending. He's a grown man who hustles comps for a living. Flaming d0uche. Anyone that would pay him $200/hr for private sessions should make sure to lube up real well for the assraping they're gonna take.