Lenny Frome
Lenny Frome was a talented mathematician and pioneer in the world of video poker. In fact, he is often referred to as "The Godfather of Video Poker" because of his part in bringing popularity and legitimacy to the game. Before Lenny Frome ever came around, most gambling experts had already dismissed video poker as unprofitable as slot machines.
Lenny had an uncanny knack for math and spent 40 years in the aerospace engineering industry before he even became interested in video poker. At some point, he crossed paths with the little-known game of video poker and his interest was immediately piqued. With math skills in hand, Lenny decided to take a crack at the game and see if there was more to it than pure luck.
Video Poker Beginnings
At the time it was a relatively obscure casino game, and of the few casinos that did offer video poker, they were mostly stuffed away in corners to catch dust. The other gambling gurus of the time had already dismissed video poker in favor of more popular games. Despite that, Lenny thought it was worth learning the ins and outs of video poker and find out if it really was as bad as everyone thought it was.
Little did he know it but he was already setting the stage for big things to come. As he put his mind to the game, he soon learned that video poker wasn't such a bad game after all. In fact, he quickly learned that some video poker machines were so good that players could actually gain an advantage over the house with proper play.
Despite his findings, Lenny had a hard time converting people to the game at first. After all, he was just one guy and the actual strategies for video poker took time to prove themselves viable. What he did instead was compile everything he had learned into a single book.
Lenny's Publications
Using everything he'd learned to date, Lenny released his first book in 1989. The book was called "Expert Video Poker for Las Vegas" and although it wasn't a massive success, it did pave the way for later book releases that would bring Lenny to the forefront of the video poker revolution.
He also started writing articles for gaming magazines at this time in an effort to get his name out there and publicize the world of video poker. His continuous writing helped a little bit but his premier work, "Winning Strategies for Video Poker," sealed his place in the video poker world and earned him the legendary nickname "The Godfather of Video Poker."
Lenny didn't just limit his writings to video poker, however. Using his talent for numbers to its fullest, Lenny also tackled other casino games such as Let It Ride, Spanish 21, Caribbean Stud and others. In total, he was the author of 9 different casino gambling books and provided perfect strategy for dozens of video poker variants.
An unexpected heart attack took Lenny in 1998 but his video poker books are still read vigorously by gamblers to this day. His son, Elliot, has taken up the tradition and now writes gambling strategy articles for several major publications, including the family website Compu-Flyers.
