James H. Haskell

As a career civil servant, I worked for the U.S. government for 45 years. I have a Master’s degree in Statistics from Virginia Tech and my government career began as a Statistician. I had duty stations in Madison, Wisconsin; Ogden, Utah; Washington, D.C.; and Fort Collins, Colorado where I now reside. Extensive travel was a part of my work life. Often I found myself in a city with casinos and that’s when I started playing video poker. I used to tell friends that when retirement came, I would travel the country to various casinos to play video poker and write a book about my experiences. It was fun to think and joke about doing this but I was never really serious. After all, that would take a large investment of time and money which I could not see myself doing. I’m not a professional video poker player. I play for entertainment and maybe I’ll win a few dollars while at it. It was during the 2020 Coronavirus shutdown and stay-at-home orders I remembered I had an account on VideoPoker.com, an online web site where you can practice playing video poker without investing any real money. I started playing to kill time during these ordered stay-at-home days. I quickly noticed that many of the new games I discovered on a recent Las Vegas trip were also on the VideoPoker.com web site. What a fantastic opportunity to scout out new and fun games without leaving my home. I played new games as well as legacy games I had never experienced in casino action. Eventually, I decided to start collecting data from my online play in hopes of finding games or strategies I could try out in the casinos once they were allowed to reopen. One day, it struck me. This is my opportunity to write the book I had dreamed about for years by developing the data online without the extensive travel and expense I had imagined. I could write my book by simulating live casino play from home using VideoPoker.com. I believe I have found Video Poker Heaven.