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On this page you will find ALL the important Video Poker Questions and Answers from The GameMaster Advisor over the last 2+ years. This is a big page with a ton of information. Enjoy!
I like to play dollar bonus poker in Vegas but also at an Indian reservation nearby. My problem is I have been losing 400-500 dollars a day lately. I need some advice to help improve my play. First, are you using proper playing strategy that you learned from a recognized authority like Dan Paymar or Lenny Frome? Are the machines set up so that they will be hotter when playing only one coin or would you get the same hand if full coins were played? You will get the same hand, regardless of how many coins are played. What is a reasonable amount of money to risk in one machine? What parameters do you use to determine that a machine is cold and you should move to another machine? There are no parameters like that; all that matters is the pay schedule. Look at it this way: if you were dealing hands from an actual deck of cards, would you expect to see any difference if you changed to a new deck? So, as long as the pay schedule is the same, it doesn't matter whether you switch machines or not. Would it be better to take small profits at of several machines and hope you get a four of a kind or better or keep playing the machine even if you start losing figuring a good hand will bring you back up? If you are using proper playing strategy at a machine where you have a long term edge, it doesn't matter how long you play it; in the long run, you will make money. I define the long run as 100,000 hands or about 200 hours of play. I usually start by playing one coin for about twenty plays and if the machine starts well then I alternate three and five coins in and if the machine is hot I go to five coins continuously. More often than not it seems I do fairly well playing one coin and then when I switch to full coins I get about eight hands in a row without even a return on my money and then I start wondering if I should continue playing full coins and try and make my money back or just quit and move to another machine. I know you should always play full coins for maximum payout but I have had so many times when I have dropped 300 dollars in about a half hour playing five coins. Maybe I just have bad luck. Thanks for any help, It's not 'bad luck', it's just a typical short term run at a video poker machine. Only you can determine how much money you want to risk, but if you're at $1 Double Bonus poker machines, you could very easily lose $30,000 before the money starts flowing back to you.
Yours for winning, What a breath of fresh air, to see the title of your posting on that newsgroup. I'm relatively new to playing Casino games, and right now my interest is in VP, and slots. Although, it appears the "slots" are a constant ripoff. I have plugged a few quarters into those things, and come up basically a big loser. Unfortunately, I don't have any better track record with VP. That's why
I'm writing to you... I need to talk to somebody in the "know". I must
be doing something VERY wrong. I decided before I would waste a lot of money in the Casino, I would try to learn everything I could about VP. To that end, I purchased a copy of the WinPoker Tutor, by Bob Dancer, from Zamzow. As far as a tutor, for learning how to discard, I think it is great, however, after playing in excess of 28,000 hands, I have detected what I believe to be a flaw in the program. I reported this to Zamzow, but they just blew me off, and didn't want to talk about it. (Yes, I defined a Jacks or Better Game, which matches the Pay Table at the Casino where I play.) Now before I tell you about the flaw, let me tell you that I'm a retired Programmer/Analyst. Computers and software are not totally a foreign entity to me, although I have never written game software. What I found is what I believe to be a problem with the Pseudo Random Number Generator, in WinPoker Tutor, that is used to select the cards, after a shuffle. To me, it produces FAR more "pairs", than anything I ever see at the Casino. Further more, these "pairs" lead to "2-pair", "3-of-kind", "Full Hse" and "4-of-kind"; after the discard, and again seem to produce FAR more of these hands than I ever see at the Casino. When I first suspected this, I actually dealt some hands from a real deck of cards (shuffling each time), and it seemed the frequency of "pairs" were reasonable. Then, I got another VP simulation program (Diana Gruber's Jacks or Better). I played it for several thousand hands, and it appeared to produce a much more reasonable frequency of "pairs", similar at least to a real pack of cards. My first question is: Have you noticed this anomaly in WinPoker? I have not noticed such a flaw and have played over 100,000 hands at it. I guess it wouldn't matter if you were just learning the proper discards, but I wanted to utilize the program to analyze a "betting system", and the results I was seeing were encouraging, but when I took my system to the Casino, "I lost my shirt". (Don't double up in laughter, I know, I'm new at this, and I'm just learning....) The nice thing about a VP game with a 100+% return is that you don't have to utilize a betting 'system'; just play the max coins and play each hand properly. Anyway, that leads me to my next question: Are there certain Payout machines which just "should not" be played, except for pure enjoyment, or to put it another way --you may as well throw your money down in the Casino parking lot and let it blow away??? Assuming the cards are dealt randomly from a 52-card deck, the only determination of a 'good' or 'bad' machine is the long term payback, which can be figured from the pay schedule. You must also play each hand properly, of course. I am 15 minutes away from a Casino, here in Central Iowa, unfortunately, it is on an Indian Reservation, and I understand they don't have to follow ANY guidelines or rules about how their machines payout. (From what I've seen, I suspect it is very true!) That is correct; they aren't under the supervision of a state casino control commission. I have searched the Casino, and analyzed some of the Pay tables using WinPoker, and the very best machine I can find is a Quarter machine which pays 8/5, and 4000 for the RF, with 5-coins bet. It is the only machine in the Casino, like that. I found NO 9/6 machines. The nickel machines are worse, and I analyzed the Deuces Wild and Joker Wild, and they are slightly worse than the 8/5 machine I found. So... my question is: Since I can't play a 9/6, or an 8/5 Progressive, is there NO betting strategy or money management tip that will work with a flat-top 8/5 machine? Such a game has a long term return of only 97.3%, regardless of how you play it. As you can imagine, after playing in excess of 28,000 hands of WinPoker, I don't make that many discard mistakes, anymore, but since my bankroll at the Casino never goes as far as it does with WinPoker, I am about to give up playing the game altogether, and go back to the Slots. Rather than go back to slots, consider going to casinos with good VP; we have a lot of them here in the St. Louis area. Recently, I purchased a copy of Professional Video Poker, by Stanford Wong (a made up name). That was another waste of money. He only talks about 8/5 Progressive, and I guess that means 8/5 flat-top, is a waste of time (I don't know for sure). Yes, playing an 8/5 with a 4000-coin progressive is a waste of time. I guess, to summarize, I'm looking for any assistance or clues that you might be able to provide me. I hope this helps.
Yours for winning, GameMaster, Thanks for the information on slots at Lake Tahoe and Reno. Are the odds better on video poker? I guess I just considered that as a slot machine, also. Is it possible to win on them? Nickels, or quarters? My mother has better luck in Las Vegas when she switches to dollar slots (not video poker, though.)
Regards, Dear Diane, Yes, the odds are better on video poker, since they are not programmed like slots. The payback on a video poker game is determined by the schedule of how much each hand pays. For example, a machine may pay 8 coins (for 1 bet) on a full house, but another may pay 9 for 1. If all other payouts are equal, the one paying 9 for 1 has about a 1% higher longterm payback. In a competitive market like Reno, the worst video poker game probably pays back about 96% (on a quarter machine) but the best slot probably pays only 92-94%. The catch here is that you need to learn how to play the hands properly.
See the articles I've posted on "The Strategy Page" for more information. Yours for winning, GameMaster,
Dear Ray,
Yours for winning, GameMaster, I'm trying to figure out some rules to apply in a 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker game regarding holding a suited 10 and a picture card. For example: With a suited Ace-10, never hold the suited 10; With a suited King-10, only hold the King-10 suited if there is no other high card. But how about the Queen-10 suited, and the Jack-10 suited? Can you help? Thanks Ray
Dear Ray,
Yours for winning, Gamemaster, You recently answered an interesting question regarding when one should invest in a nickel video poker machine. The writer asked about playing a vp nickel machine with a jackpot over $900 ... you advised it was a good bet. I'm curious. I always asssumed the vig on a nickel machine, slot or vp, was outrageous and too high to mess with ... am I wrong? When should I play with a nickel vp machine (aside from the obvious "when you're nearly broke!") Thanks, Dear Chase, One cannot lump nickel video poker machines together with nickel slots regarding payouts, since the return on a VP machine can be determined by the payout schedule; that's not the case with a slot where, as you say, the 'vig' is usually outrageous. The writer of the question to which you refer did not tell me what format the machine was, but as I stated in my answer, if it was an 8/5 format, the $900 jackpot made for profitable play. To see how that works, look at the "Video Poker Bible" column on the strategy page. As to when you can play 5-cent VP machines, do so when the payback is at 100% or more; they will usually be progressives. For example, on an 8/5 Jacks or Better machine, it's when the royal is at least $475. Such situations are rare but they do exist, especially in a competitive market like Vegas. If any of our readers know of the location of good nickel machines, please let me know and I'll post them. Yours for winning, On a recent trip to Las Vegas, I stayed at the Aladdin. the video poker nickels machines were at a $960 payout for a royal. The change person said it had not paid for a week and they had never seen it so high. Hype or fact? Was it a good way to spend the dollars and the time??? The GameMaster responds... Depending upon the rest of the pay schedule, ie. Flush and full house, that's a HUGE payout. At a standard Jacks or better game with an 8/5 format, such a jackpot would yield about a 105% long term return. Very worthwhile to play. Yours for winning,
Gamemaster,
Dear Debbie, We're glad you like the site; visit us often.
Yours for winning, GameMaster, I've been playing video poker for years -- like Deuces and Double Deluxe the best, however, have never gotten a Royal. A friend of mine has gotten royals at all of the casinos in town and elsewhere....What am I doing wrong? Or, it is just the luck of the game -- bad luck at that.
Dear Pat,
Yours for winning, In your video poker article Pick A Game! Part 2 you give payout charts and
stats for two games below Dueces only referred to as Double and Triple. Just
what are these games? The potential % are great! Look forward to hearing from
you. Dear Chris,
Those are also Deuces Wild games. Not common, but look for them.
Yours for winning, I just read your two video poker tips and they are both absurd. What difference does it make which 3 cards to the royal you would break up a high pair or four to flush with? You must work for a casino to recommend such things. Also your opening hand suggestion of holding just the King of hearts and not the 10 of hearts, thus killing your chance for a royal, also implies to me you are keeping the player from getting the royal payout, and that you are favoring the casino. I would never buy a book of yours suggesting such things. The casinos already have the advantage over the player and your suggestions can only give more advantage to the casinos. So, I think you work for a casino. Randy Dear Randy, I'm sorry, but you are wrong about this. First, I don't work for the casinos and secondly, every recommendation I make is verified as the proper play by the mathematical expectation, a concept which, it appears, you do not grasp. Holding a King alone (as in your second example above) does, indeed, exclude you from receiving a Royal, but you're forgetting that a Royal isn't the only hand a player can get. By cycling through all the possible combinations which a player can get, s/he gains a better average return by holding the King alone. As for you purchasing any book I may publish, I'm sure you wouldn't; in fact, I'm sure you've never read a book on the game, or we wouldn't be having this exchange.
Yours for winning,
Hi Gamemaster,
Dear Barb,
Yours for winning, Dear Gamemaster,
Kevin
Dear Kevin, Wong's book was the first I ever read on the topic and, while it's a good one, it is a bit dated. The 9/6 game isn't necessarily more prevalent, but it's the one you should seek out, simply because the 8/5 version has such a low long term return, at least until the progressive Royal gets very high. Check Skip Hughes' site for a listing of casinos which have full-pay games. You might also want to get Dan Paymar's book, "Video Poker-Optimum Play", since it's 'state-of-the-art'. Conjelco has it at www.conjelco.com/, As for play charts, I like Jazbo's and Skip Hughes' cards; either will work. Jazbo is at www.monmouth.com/~jburns and Skip is at www.vid-poker.com Good luck in your new venture!
Yours for winning, |