I'm not the speediest player in the world, and I occasionally play tired and make mistakes (playing tired is a mistake in itself, for that reason, but that's another story). I still can crank out 1,000 hands per hour, and I think if I played when I was most alert, I could do 1200+. I've played for years, but I only play no more than 1 to 4 hours a day, a few days in a week, about 6 to 12 times a year, so I'm not getting in the hours of practice that the pro's have, but I honestly think that there comes a point where additional hours of practice don't improve your speed much more.
Anyway, you are certainly correct that you'll need to master using the buttons to get more speed. I never use the touchscreen unless I'm having trouble with the buttons, and then I'll soon look for a machine without button trouble. I almost always keep my right hand over the "draw" button and use my left for the "hold" decisions. I agree with what others have said about scan / draw / check for errors. I very quickly repeat to myself the cards I'm throwing away, which sometimes helps me identify an error before I make my draw. Anything you can do to maintain accuracy is most important, and I say that as someone who catches himself making 1-2 errors an hour that I see too late, and must I assume an equal number miss my catching them altogether. The worst I ever committed was just last week, where I was playing a machine with sticky buttons, held a pair of kings, and as I hit draw, noticed too late that one of the kinds wasn't held -- and then
two more kings came!! Ugh. Expensive mistake. So the "check for errors" step, which is one where I'm sometimes a little lax, is an important habit to get -- no amount of additional hands per hour will compensate for the cost of too many mistakes.
A couple of speed tips that not everyone knows: (1) after the draw, hitting the draw button again as soon as the draw pops up will immediately deal the next hand for "play max credits" -- you don't have to go back to the "deal" button to deal. (2) When the credits are racking up on anything that pays, you don't have to wait for them to finish accumulating - you can (again) hit the draw button, and the credit counter will immediately go to the amount you now have and the next hand will be dealt. Time is definitely wasted waiting for credits to be added up, and a little time is wasted going back to the deal button when hitting the draw button will cause a deal to occur (but watch out - if you hit "draw" to deal the hand and then accidentally hit it again before you've selected your "hold" cards, you'll draw without any holds).
Finally, of course, you don't have to even look at what you got on the draw, although there's always a split second to do so. Once I've hit "draw", my decision is over with (even if I made a mistake) and it really no longer matters how the hand plays out, so I immediately start tapping the draw button again to get the next hand dealt as quickly as possible. If you can live with only a fleeting glance at what hand you made as the next hand is dealt, you can pick up speed, but if you feel obliged to know exactly what you ended up with on every hand, you'll probably be dealing the next hand slightly less quickly.
I'll assume you're also aware of the "speed" option at the bottom of the screen -- I don't think you could do 600-650 hands an hour on the touchscreen without the speed being set to the max. And of course, some machines don't seem to have that option, and they will always be slow playing machines, and some machines are almost-instantaneous in displaying the dealt hand and in dealing the draws, while others have three speeds to select from, with the fastest not quite instantaneous. Machine selection (including getting a machine without button problems, of course) will help with speed.
Like touch typing, start with a slow but steady pace and a rhythm such as others suggested, and then gradually try to step up the tempo. When you feel comfortable with all the "moves" you can start to press for really fast play.
--BG
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Ok, it's been long enough, and I've been very stubborn. When I play, I pick the cards on the screen. I don't make mistakes, but at the same time I probably only put out 600-650 hands an hour. I need to learn, and improve, and speed things up.
The thing is, I don't live in Vegas. So it's not like I can just stand and look over Frank Kneeland's shoulder and see how it's done. Someone's going to have to help me and explain in writing to me, how to work the buttons, and then I can practice in my local Indian Casino. Trust me, there's no one here that I can learn from. It's like Oliver and Lisa Douglas of Green Acres here.
Any tips, suggestions, personal methods from fellow VPFreers would be appreciated.
I'm an older dog, but not too old to learn and change. If I can give up sodium in my diet, well I can do this too. Think positive!
thx,
-BB
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