Videopoker

Videopoker

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Playing videopoker

If you decide you want to try video poker, this section can help you with all the ins and outs of playing the game. You can usually locate the video poker machines in carousels in the same section of the casino as slot machines. Like slots, almost every modern video poker machine takes bilis, which it converts into credits. So you use those credits instead of hand-feeding coins for each play. Video poker machines also have buttons similar to slot machines, which you use to start the game process.

Making your bet at videopoker

On most machines, you can play from one to five coins at a time. In other words, you can increase your bet — and winnings — based on how many coins you play per game. Most video poker machines are either quarter or dollar machines, but they’re also available in denominations from a nickel to $100. Some machines are even multidenominational, and you can pick which level you want to bet. Machines have a Max Bet button if you want to bet five coins every time. If you want to bet more than one coin but fewer than five, you simply press the Bet One button the appropriate number of times.
The benefit to playing the maximum five coins? You qualify for the royal flush jackpot available only in the five-coin line.

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Stretching your bankroll
Video poker’s high return is based on hitting a royal flush, but that only hap- pens about once in every 40,000 hands. So patience is important. A royal flush usually takes a long time (80 hours on average), and you need a hefty bankroll to ride out the swings, so I recommend starting off with quarter machines rather than dollar machines. Unfortunately you can go several trips without hitting a royal flush.
The minimum bankroll I recommend for tackling the quarter machines is $1,000. For dollar machines, that figure jumps up to $5,000. Seems steep? I’m actually scaling down the amount for beginning gamblers and weekend warriors. You can still play video poker with a smaller bankroll, but your chance of surviving long enough to hit a royal flush diminishes accordingly. Remember that you can play up to 500 hands an hour, so be prepared for some crazy swings to your bankroll.

Making your best hand in one draw
After you feed your money into the machine (or play credits) and hit the Deal button, five cards pop up on your screen, dealt from a standard 52-card deck. After you receive your initial starting cards, the game closely resembles Five¬Card Draw poker. You can push any of the five buttons — one for each card — on the front of each machine to hold, or keep, any cards. You have three
options available with each hand:
*Hold all your cards.
*Discard all your cards.
*Hold some cards and toss others.
After you receive your first five cards, many machines automatically highlight winning hands for you on the payout table, and some even suggest which cards to hold. Following the machine’s suggestions can prevent you from accidentally throwing away a big winner. The pay scale rewards the better hands and uses standard poker rankings. If you’re unsure of the poker hand rankings.
The machine replaces whatever cards you throw away with new cards from the remaining 47 cards in the deck. Because you have no other opponents to beat, your objective is to make the highest poker hand possible with your one draw.
After you’re happy with your selections, press the Deal/Draw button to receive your new cards. You can change your mind on the Hold buttons by pressing them again at any time before you hit Draw. For example, hitting the Hold button a second time reverses the action and throws away the card you were going to hold.
Some older machines may have sticky buttons (too many people playing while eating cinnamon buns, I guess), so always make sure you’re discarding the correct cards, especially when you have a great hand. I’ve lost some big payoffs because of malfunctioning buttons when I inadvertently broke up four of a kind or a straight.

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Collecting your winnings
The machine pays you in coins or credits. After your hand is finished and you’re done celebrating, simply press the Deal/Draw button, and the entire process starts over. When you’re done playing, hit the Cash Out button, and the machine either spits your coins into the hopper or prints a cash-out ticket for you to redeem at the cashier’s cage.

Putting your money on the best videopoker machines

The most important decision you make in video poker isn’t what to hold or discard but which machine to play. Video poker comes in a wide variety of machines, such as
*All American Poker
*Deuces Wild
*Double Bonus
*Double Double Bonus
*Jacks or Better
*Joker Wild
*Triple Play
Many of these games look alike to the untrained eye, which can be a problem. The strategies for different machines can get quite complex, and frequently new versions of video poker come and go with the wind. Some very profitable games (for the players) have become extinct, and newer games that are prof¬itable only for the house have replaced them. Despite their similarities, the machines may offer returns for players that vary dramatically. For example, over four hours of play, you lose (on average) approximately $50 playing max coins on a dollar Jacks or Better 9/6 machine, but that loss jumps up to $500 for the same scenario on a Jacks or Better 6/5 machine.

lHolding Out for the highest payout.
You want the video poker machine with the best —highest — payout schedule, which is reflected in the numbers separated with a slash. These numbers are based on the payout for a full house and flush for anyone playing a single coin. For example, in a 9/6 machine, one coin pays out nine coins on a full house and six on a flush, while an 8/5 machine pays out only eight coins for a full house and five for a flush.
The small difference in the pay structure from a 9/6 machine to a 8/5 machine may not seem like much, but your expected return drops from 99.5 percent (for 9/6) to 97.3 percent (for 8/5). Translation: Your bankroll gets chewed up about six times faster with the lower payout because your return is only $97.30 for every $100 played. A typical weekend playing % (12 hours of play with max coins on a dollar machine) costs you about $40, but with 8/5, that loss swells to about $240.
Avoid video poker machines in places such as airports and convenience stores. These machines usually have some of the lowest payouts.

Comparinq short-pay and fullpay machines

When a casino offers a lesser-paying version of a video poker machine, it’s called a short-pay rather than a full-pay machine. Jacks or Better offers several examples, starting with 9/6, then 8/5, 7/5, and even Vs Anytime the payouts are reduced, your wallet is hurt. But another variable (progressive jackpots — see the next section) sometimes comes into the equation to offset the lower payouts.
Table shows some examples of percentage returns on some of the more popular video poker games. The percentage is how much the casino returns to you (on average) for every dollar wagered. In most cases you lose (such as when the return is 99.5 percent), but some video poker games actually offer you a positive return (100.2 percent).
Game: percentage return:
Deuces wild(full pay) 100.8%
All armerican poker 100.7%
10/7 Double bonus 100.2%
9/6 Jacks or Better 99,5%
9/6 Double bonus 97,8%
7/5 Jacks or Better 96,2%
6/5 Jacks or Better 95%
Deuces Wild (shortpay) 94,3%

Advancing to progressive machines

When choosing a video poker machine, you also can consider playing a pro-gressive machine. Flat-tops are video poker machines that have fixed jack-pots. Their maximum payout for a royal flush never changes. However, many video poker machines are progressive, meaning their jackpot increases a certain amount from every coin played that doesn’t hit the royal flush. These progressive machines usually are grouped together in the casino in a bank of machines all tied to the same meter.
Even though your chance of hitting a royal flush doesn’t increase with progressive machines, the payoff grows and a losing game can turn into a profitable situation if the jackpot gets high enough. However, most progressive jackpots are tied into the lower-paying machines (such as 7/5 instead of 9/6), so, unless the progressive is very high, you’re usually better off playing flat- tops.

Playing jacks or better

The best bet for beginners
When first starting out in video poker, concentrate your energies on one type of machine: 9/6 Jacks or Better. Jacks or Better is one simple version of video poker that’s been around since the beginning of video poker and is considered the industry standard. It’s also one of the safest bets in a casino. What’s with the name? You need at least a pair of jacks to get paid.
This section looks more closely at Jacks or Better, including the payout and some strategies you can use to improve your odds.

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Analyzing the payout

Jacks or Better is fast, fun, and very simple to understand. But even more importantly, it offers some of the best odds of any game in the casino. With optimal playing strategy, a 9/6 Jacks or Better machine offers a 99.5 percent return, which means the house has a very small edge. When you factor in cashback programs from the slot clubs and a few comps, you’re often breaking even or ahead of the game. (Cashback programs give cash back to you based on how long and how much you play. You can check Chapter 4 for more on these types of programs and other comps.)
Table 13-2 shows a pay table from 9/6 Jacks or Better.

Table 13-2 shows only the number of coins you get when you win, not the dollar amount. So if you’re playing quarters (250 machines) and hit a max coin royal flush, you win $1,000 (4,000 coins), not $4,000.
Table 13-2 shows that the higher-ranking hands offer the largest paydays. And the amounts rise in equal proportion to the number of coins you play — with one exception: The royal flush is the jackpot you and every video poker player shoot for, and the return jumps dramatically when you play five coins (the maximum amount).
Because of the jackpot potential on the royal flush with max coins, always play five coins at Jacks or Better. Otherwise, you dilute your expected return by about 1.5 percent.
Table 13-2 also includes your original wager. If you put one coin in the machine and get two jacks, your win pays you back one coin, which is really your original bet. So you only break even. But, hey, breaking even is better than losing — and hitting one pair is by far your most frequent win.

Adding strategy to the equation

Although most of the decisions that come up in Jacks or Better video poker are fairly intuitive, the game has enough complexities to turn it into a losing venture. Many gamblers usually don’t know the correct strategy for some of the difficult hands. Instead, they rely on their gut when deciding which cards to hold or discard.
Fortunately, just like blackjack, video poker has a correct strategy for each and every hand. Because video poker doesn’t hold the unknowns that tradi¬tional poker does (strength of opponent’s hand, bluffing, and so on), you can determine the optimal play for all conceivable decisions.
Some people find the full-fledged version of video poker strategy a little daunting to memorize, but two easier options are available:
*Buy a strategy card and keep it with you as you play. A strategy card is permissible and can keep you from making mistakes, though it slows your pace as you stop frequently to check the card. You can purchase these in many places, including casino gift shops.
*Study a simplified strategy. I focus the next section on using a simplified strategy that can help you in your video poker endeavors.

So have fun playing videopoker and enjoy the game