I heard many a story about Tuna Lund and his machine exploits in my time spent in Reno. He was the subject of many a conversation between local gambling pros. I recently put many of those stories up in a thread about Tuna on 2+2 forums. The poker pros who knew him were surprised he was making so much money on machines. He just didn't tell them about it when he was living. He went all the way to his grave never telling people of his achievements in the video poker world.
And I heard stories about Kenny the Klone. He was a degree'd electrical engineer who showed up in Reno in the eighties. He analyzed the video poker progressives around town and found them to be exploitable. His problem was he was a compulsive gambler who couldn't keep a bankroll. So he taught the progressives to Tuna. Tuna quickly capitalized on it and continued to do so throughout his life.
Ray Zee is a famous old card player who has a ranch outside of Whitefish, Montana. He was friend with and played poker with all the old great poker players. He invested his winnings in paying off his Montana ranch. He penned the definitive works on Omaha 8 and Stud 8 for 2+2 Publishing. He "retired" to his Montana ranch long before the poker boom occurred inn 2003. He didn't get involved in the poker boom and when questioned about it he stated that he would rather spend his time where he is the most happy. And that is in Montana.
Ray recently told us some things about Tuna and the first video poker pros. He and Tuna were partners on the first plays....and Kenny the Klone was part of it too. In those days the ploppies were all short coiners on games like $1 8/5 Jacks progressives. It was rare to see a ploppie betting 5 coins. So they drove the meters sky high.
The teams first playable number on the $1 8/5 Jacks progressives was $24,000. Wow! What an advantage! Everything was going fine but then....all of a sudden another team developed. So then they were competing against another team to get the plays. They dropped their playable number down to $18,000.
But more teams developed and the competition became so fierce that everybody was diving in when the meters hit $12,000. Ray said that's when he had enough of it. It was to much of a grind to him for not that much money. So he went back to poker.
I think Bob should consider inviting Ray Zee to GWAE. I think it would be an interesting interview from an historical perspective.
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Posted by: mickeycrimm@yahoo.com
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