Dan Paymar
Dan Paymar got a late start in the gambling world but that definitely didn't stop him from eventually becoming one of the most trusted and respected video poker authors in the country. Dan's story is an interesting one because although his video poker career began later in life, you can see that all the factors were slowly coming together for years before he finally published his breakthrough work, "Video Poker - Precision Play."
Dan's Beginnings
Dan was raised in Flint, Michigan and then graduated from Michigan Technical University with a degree in engineering. Upon graduation in the early 1960's, Dan went to work for a variety of computer companies and accumulated an impressive resume of computer industry jobs over the next 30 years.
At various points in his career, he worked for Bendix Computers, Encyclopedia Britannica and Control Data. As a natural born numbers cruncher, Dan became an accomplished computer specialist way before the computer ever became the mainstream product it is today. At one point he even helped start a company called Educational Data Systems (which would later be renamed to Point 4 Data Corp.).
During his time with Educational Data Systems, Dan and his company developed products for the Data General Nova computer. He left Educational Data Systems in 1982 in order to market his own products for the Apple II computer.
Gambling Background
An interesting thing about Dan is that although he never got many chances to gamble, he was an avid fan of gambling strategy. He'd use his knack for math to play cards against his friends once in a while but most of the time he had to study the games from a theoretical perspective. To this day, Dan has never spent a day of his life as a professional gambler. Even so, his books remain incredibly valuable to professional gamblers all around the world.
His first big brush with real gambling came when Dan moved to Las Vegas in 1988. He took on a job as a poker dealer in a local casino and got a lot experience with both traditional poker and video poker. It didn't take long for the gifted ex-computer engineer to figure out that video poker was one of the few games in the casino where the player could gain an edge over the house.
The new job gave Dan a chance to examine the video poker games closely during his free time and before long, he'd gathered a compendium of the best video poker games for players looking to gain an advantage over the casino.
Video Poker Publications
In 1992, Dan included this compendium in his inaugural publication, "Video Poker - Precision Play." This book was a complete success and it officially kicked off his career as a professional gambling author. In total, he has written four widely-published books:
- Video Poker - Precision Play (1992)
- The Best of Video Poker Times (1996)
- The Professional Poker Dealer's Handbook (1998)
- Video Poker - Optimum Play (1998)
His last book, Video Poker - Optimum Play, was his best selling book and is generally considered one of the best books available for video poker enthusiasts. The book explains advanced video poker strategy in a way that's approachable and lends itself to easy reading for new video poker players.
The book does more than just explain the mathematically perfect strategy for each video poker variant. It goes beyond that by showing you not only the correct strategy, but how you can realistically follow a winning video poker strategy without overexerting yourself.
In addition to his books, Dan has also written a regular newsletter and spends his spare time analyzing the mathematics behind popular video poker games. He has also released a video poker statistics and trainer program called "Optimum Video Poker" and spent several years teaching at the Casino Gaming School of Nevada.
Not surprisingly, Dan Paymar is a member of the Video Poker Hall of Fame. His works have been revered for several decades now and he is still an active member in the video poker community. He now lives with his wife and family in New Mexico.
