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PROGRESSIVE VIDEO POKER-PART 2
WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE TEAM?
by Frank Kneeland
Frank Kneeland is the former manager of the largest progressive slot team in Las Vegas back in the 90's, and author of a book about his adventures entitled, "The Secret World of Video Poker Progressives." The book is part history and part "how to," and should be perfect for out-and-out beginners and veterans alike. You can read more about the book, and some extra info about Kneeland, on his website
www.progressivevp.com."We have met the enemy and he is us"
~Pogo, Walt KellyJust as it is nearly impossible to play progressives without ever running into a "team," it is almost impossible to bring up the subject of progressives without mentioning "teams." In light of the inevitable interconnectedness between teams and progressives, and with the current culture of anti-team sentiment, I thought it best to mention from whence teams come before teaching you how to start one. Next month, we’ll learn how to evaluate the return of progressives, but for now, here’s some material (taken from my book due to size constraints) about how and why teams form…and no, the stork isn’t in this article.
Have you ever tossed some olive oil in a pot of heated water? You look into the bowl to see if you added enough to stop your pasta from sticking. You see all sorts of little individual droplets of oil floating around, like drunken bumper car drivers at a late-night carnival. The "drunken" metaphor reminds you that it’s time to open the wine to let it breathe so you transfer most of it into a carafe (and some to your stomach). By the time you return to check your water, the little individual drops are gone, replaced by a single spherical slick staring up at you like the eye of a giant Cyclops.
Well, team formation is a lot like that. No, I take that back, team formation is exactly like that. You have the forces of physics pushing together the disparate independent drops to from a single unified pool. First, they float around randomly, but whenever they accidentally touch, they break the surface tension and self-associate. Much of the confusion about progressive teams comes from collateral damage done to their reputation by the other types of gambling teams that have set siege to casinos in years past. Unlike the blackjack, sports middling, and other illegal teams run by criminal masterminds, who merged with mischief on their minds, progressive teams have no arch-villain originator, seen only from the neck down stroking a white Persian cat. In progressive teams, the chicken came first, as they build up from regular honest players.
When you look at a progressive team player, you’re really looking at yourself a year from now (if you start playing progressives seriously). The very first time you’ve lost a few thousand and have to walk off a high meter because of fatigue, you’ll have the epiphany "Hey, if I had a partner…" and the rest will be history. More importantly, this deduction will have come to you with all the malice aforethought an out of breath person experiences when they realize they can relieve the condition by breathing.
The enormous team, which I eventually became manager, had perfectly innocent beginnings...
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