I got FIVE, count-em,
FIVE royal flushes, more than I've had
in my entire lifetime before or since. Regrettably,
I had been
day-dreaming at the time, and it had just been my
scampish left hand sneaking pennies into the machine
at a penny a hand, so the total payout for my wondrous
five royals didn't even pay for my prime rib buffet,
a funerary celebration of my video poker triumph.
Multi-Hand Video Poker is played just like conventional
video poker, except you can play "up to"
100 hands at once.
You begin by choosing
the number of hands you wish to play by clicking
one of the numbers across the bottom of the video
poker screen: 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 or 100.
Next, you place a bet
-- the machine being multi-denominational, it
accepts bets ranging from pennies to $1 units --
and click the Deal button. If you decide to play
the maximum coin amount, just click Bet Max for
five credits for every hand you choose to play.
After you click Deal, you are presented with five
cards. On the screen, each hand you are playing
(from the 1st to the 100th) will contain these same
five cards. Just as in conventional video poker,
you choose your keepers.
All of the favorable cards you choose to hold from
the initial hand are copied to each remaining hand
played. When you're ready to draw new cards, click
the Deal button. For each hand you play, a random
set of replacement cards is drawn for each successive
hand.
To show 100 hands on a video screen, each hand has
to be teensy weensy in size making it all but impossible
for anyone to keep track of what's going on as 100
hands simultaneously play out at high speed, so
forget about trying to watch each individual draw.
The end result is
that the computer driving the game will highlight
all your winners, displaying the amount returned,
and the total accumulated credits. In addition,
at the bottom of each winning hand, a color-coded
bar appears, indicating the type of hand and coins
won. Also, in the bottom left or right corner of
the screen, a corresponding chart appears, telling
how many of each type of winning hands the player
has hit.
The odds for multi-hand
video poker are the same as for the single-hand
version. Playing each hand multiple times magnifies
its strength or weakness, but overall, the odds
don't change.
Therefore, strategies
for optimizing your return at the single-hand versions
carry over to the multiple-hand versions, so long
as you shop for the best paytables.
So, is there a downside
to Multi-Hand Video Poker? You betcha!
Speed kills in a casino,
meaning, the more hands you play per hour, the more
you subject your gambling funds to the house edge.
Though playing one
hand of video poker, you are getting 100 different
results on the draw, each subject to a built-in
casino advantage. And although multi-hand Video
Poker can increase your earning potential on good
hands, it also magnifies your losing potential on
bad hands, evaporating your bankroll very quickly.
If you are playing 5-coin single-handed video poker
at a quarter a throw and are dealt "junk,"
all you have at stake is $1.25. With multi-hand
play you would have much more invested in those
same awful cards. Even if you are betting pennies,
the maximum-coins you will risk at 100 hands is
$5 per play, which is quadruple the maximum on single-hand
quarter games. Make it nickels, and you are on the
hook for $25 per hand. It ain't cheap, is it? Only
you, Nadie, know if Multi-Hand Video Poker is within
your means.
Good
Casinos Home
