That sweet edge and how to find it
Dear Mark: Is there any point when the player actually
has an edge in video poker over the house? Vic D.
There
is, Vic, but you'll need to master this combination.
Play on a full pay machine, use an optimal playing
strategy against that select machine, play progressives
over a certain amount, and take full advantage of
the goodies casinos give away.
Full
pay machines are machines that pay out more for
certain winning hands than do other comparable ones.
For instance, a full pay jacks-or-better machine
pays (per coin inserted) 9 coins for a full house
and 6 coins for a flush. This payout is better than
what you get from a machine that pays only 8 coins
for a full house and 5 coins for a flush, and is
far superior to some paytables that you'll find
out there today that pay only 6 coins for a full
house and 5 coins for a flush.
You'll also need to learn an optimal playing strategy
for the type of machine that you are playing on.
What I mean by optimal playing strategy is that
you must learn which cards to hold and which ones
to discard.
A marriage of both, Vic, playing on full pay machines
and using an optimal playing strategy, will get
you pretty close to you that edge that you're looking
for in video poker.
Then pile on the advantage you take of casino comps.
For example, a video poker player playing a 9/6
machine and using optimal strategy can expect a
99.5% return. By getting cash back for your play
by using your Player's Club Card, it's very possible
for the overall return to exceed 100%.
One other possibility is playing on a progressive
machine where the jackpot exceeds a certain amount,
which creates the opportunity -- that is, if you
hit the jackpot -- to have a payback that is temporarily
over 100%.
For example, on a one-dollar jacks-or-better 8/5
progressive machine, the break-even point would
be a jackpot of $8,800. When the jackpot exceeds
that amount, there's your edge. On a quarter jacks-or-better
8/5 progressive machine, look for a jackpot over
$2,200. Again, factored in, is your chance of hitting
the royal.
Video
Poker What Cards To Hold
Playing 5-card draw with jacks or better, I draw
a pair of 5s, a king, a 7 and a 2. Do I just keep
the pair of fives, or do I keep the fives and
the king?
Video
Poker Stay Put ?
Many
players erroneously believe that if they had stayed
put and inserted just five more coins, or had
pressed the play button on a coinless machine
one more time, that royal -- that someone else
fortuitously hit -- would have been theirs.
Poker
Blind Bets and Video Poker Odds
Poker blind bets how much they cost the players
that are forced to pay them. Video poker the odds
of hitting a Triple Play video poker machine vs.
single-hand machine.
Good
Casinos Home
