The road to video poker success

By John Grochowski

Q:

You have completely tantalized us video poker nuts! You mentioned expert strategy on “certain” video poker games, but which ones? I practice, practice, practice with my little hand-held video game every night – can’t go to sleep without playing it. I prefer “Jacks or Better” but are there games more likely to yield goodies?

Please, at least give us a clue! We don’t expect a row of royal flushes, but maybe a little something for the bank account. I have the following books: “Victory at Video Poker” by Frank Scoblete, “The Frugal Gambler” by Jean Scott and “Winning Strategies for Video Poker” by Lenny Frome. Whatcha think?

A:

It depends on the pay tables. In Double Bonus Poker, games with the full 10-7-5 pay table, meaning they pay 10-for-1 on full houses, 7-for-1 on flushes and 5-for-1 on straights, pay 100.17 percent with expert play. Drop the pay table to 9-7-5, and the return drops to 99.1 percent, and at 9-6-5 it’s 97.9. At 9-6-4, it’s only 96.8.

You see the pattern. Each unit that payoffs decrease makes Double Bonus a little weaker game, and it’s only with the top pay table that it’s a beatable game.
Another one is full-pay Deuces Wild, which you mainly see in Las Vegas. It’s the only fairly common Deuces game in which four of a kind pays 5-for-1, and four of a kind is a very important hand in Deuces Wild. Full pay Deuces returns 100.8 percent with expert play.

Even some games that don’t return 100 percent with expert play can become positive if you take player rewards into account. The basic game of 9-6 Jacks or Better, with full houses paying 9-for-1 and flushes 6-for-1, returns 99.5 percent with expert play. If the player rewards club at your casino returns cash and benefits in excess of 0.5 percent of your wagers, you have a positive game. The Deuces Wild version known to players as “Not So Ugly” Deuces returns 99.7 percent with expert play. On that one, four of a kind drops to 4-for-1, but full houses pay to 4-for-1, flushes to 3-for-1 and five of a kind to 16-for-1 – all a unit higher than on full-pay Deuces. The result is a game that if you play well enough, and player rewards exceed 0.3 percent of your wagers, you have a positive game.
A couple of cautions. You have to play at expert level to achieve those percentages, and most players don’t. It takes practice. I recommend any of three software packages: “Frugal Video Poker,” “Video Poker for Winners” or “Bob Dancer Presents WinPoker.”

Any will warn you whenever you’re making an incorrect play. That’s something the little hand-held units don’t do.

And no matter how good you are, the majority of video poker sessions will be losers. There’s a lot of marking time, accepting losses until the royal flushes and other big-paying hands come.

Q: Now that nearly all slot machines take currency and pay in tickets, can you tell me if there is any disadvantage for the player as opposed to playing with coins?

A: The one disadvantage is that playing with credits speeds play. Dropping coins for each play takes time. Pushing a button to play credits is nearly instantaneous. That leads to more plays per hour, and more chances for the house edge to work against you.
Of course, the casino wouldn’t see that as a disadvantage.

~ John Grochowski has covered the casino industry for 15 years in newspapers and magazines, and is the author of six books on casino games. Readers can email him at casinoanswerman@casinoanswerman.com.