This is a new program developed by Tom Ski which will produce the proper playing strategy for most common video poker games. It's not a simulator and it isn't a 'game', but it's the perfect companion to "Bob Dancer Presents WinPoker" which I reviewed in a previous column. Available on an e-mail or snail-mail basis from Tom, this program sets up easily and has a lot of features which make it very user-friendly. I'll give you all the details on how to get it at the end of this column.

The timing couldn't have been better when my copy arrived. A friend had asked me for the playing strategy for a Full House VP game he found at the local Harrah's casino and, while one of my other programs had it, copying the strategy isn't possible from that program, so I turned to VP Strategy Master (VPSM). I simply opened the program, then selected the pay table for Bonus poker where I made the appropriate changes to match the schedule of Full House Poker, and then requested a strategy chart (both 'basic' and 'advanced' strategies can be generated). It took only a few seconds for the program to display the strategy chart and then I used a very nice option on this software. By clicking on "Launch Wordpad", the strategy chart was automatically transferred to that word processing program which can be found in virtually all versions of Windows. There, I was able to edit the strategy chart (giving it a customized title, removing obvious plays like "hold a pat royal flush" to shorten it and changing the type font to make it easier to read) and convert it to Rich Text Format so that my friend could open it on his Mac. (In case you don't know, .rtf is a 'universal' format for documents, as opposed to .doc files which can be read by Windows only.) Anyway, what resulted was a chart which I could e-mail to my friend, or print out for myself. VPSM also supports Notepad, if you don't have Wordpad.

Here's the strategy that was generated:

The values to the left are the expected value per coin played and you may or may not have an interest in them; I don't. I just want to know the priority of a hand which is dealt to me and that's what I play. The values of VPSM are several. First, instead buying a book which has the strategy you desire, this program will create it for you. If the video poker machine you saw recently is a variation of a popular game, you can modify the pay schedule and get the proper strategy for it, instantly. Then, through the interface with the aforementioned word processing programs, you can print it out and head back to the casino. Now understand that VPSM doesn't evalute a game's long term return; it only tells you how to play it. That's why this is a good companion to Bob Dancer Presents WinPoker; that program will analyze the game and VPSM will show you how to take advantage of it. Another feature of VPSM is the color-coding of the various plays. For example, all Royal Flush draws are shown in red, straight draws are shown in brown, etc. If you have a color printer, this is very helpful for complicated strategies like the one for All American Poker.

You may be wondering how accurate these strategies are. Tom told me that 'Jazbo' Burns, a well-respected VP programmer about whom I've written in the past, checked the strategies for many of the popular games and found them to be very close to the optimum. For example, 10/7 Double Bonus has a theoretical long term return of 100.1725%, and with the VPSM advanced strategy, a return of 100.1692% can be attained. Trust me, that's close enough.

VPSM helped me hit a Royal recently (Thanks, Tom!), since I had used it to generate a strategy table for 9/7 Double Bonus with a progressive Royal. It told me to break two-pair in favor of a three-card Royal draw and I got The Big One; a move I otherwise would have never made. This is a good investment if you have a program which will tell you whether or not the game is worth playing in the first place, so if you do, go get it. VPSM isn't a program you'll use every day, but with all the variations of games which are showing up, you'll be glad you have it when you find some machine with a 101% payback. You may order the program by writing Tom at tomskilv@yahoo.com or by sending him a check via snail mail to:

Tom Ski
8749 Potenza Lane
Las Vegas, NV 89117

The cost is $29.95 for an e-mail delivery or $29.95 plus $3 shipping for a floppy.