Title:
Video Poker Player: You are player number 1421 Description: Video poker game in Flash
How To Win at video Poker
DIGGING THE DEUCES
The other popular wild-card video poker game is Deuces Wild. Because it has four wild cards, it complicates the strategy that is necessary to succeed at the machines.
Just as in other varieties of video poker, it’s important to note the pay table on Deuces Wild. But it’s not as easy as with Jacks-or-better. Casino executives have discovered several different ways to alter the pay tables that will alter the payback percentages.
DEUCES WILD PAYBACK PERCENTAGES
The pay tables below are just three examples of Deuces Wild games available today. The small variations in the pay table are the reason for the variation in payback percentage for expert play.
WORKING THE DEUCES
The object of Deuces Wild, obviously, is to obtain the wild
cards to get those valuable hands. But what does it mean when you start off the hand with Deuces?
Even in the highest paying version of Deuces Wild—at 100.6 percent—you will receive No Deuce hands 66 percent of the time, which means that 80 percent of your hands will be losers. Another 14 percent will be the minimum three-of-a-kind winner, which is actually just a push. So if you don’t get a Deuce before the draw, you will actually win only six percent of the time.
When you get one Deuce in the initial hand—only 31) percent of the time—45 percent of your hands will be losers, and another 38 percent will get the three-of-a-kind push, leaving only 17 percent that will actually win. Another nine percent will be near-minimum winners as straights and flushes. Two Deuces in the initial hand—dea}t only four percent of the time-—means that you must take every advantage of this hand, despite the fact that 70 percent of these hands will wind up being flushes or lower. About one in four will end up as four-of-a-kind, and one in 98 will wind up as five-of-a-kind.
DEUCES STRATEGY
The following strategy is a little more complicated than the other two versions covered in this chapter. Some basic rules are not to play any machine that does not pay five-for-one for four-of-a-kind. And most important of all, even if you’ve got a shot at a natural royal, do not discard any Deuce!
I Stand with any ,wtural winning hand, except for a
natural straight flush starling with Nine. Discard the Nine and go for the royal.
THE SYSTEMS APPROACH
PLAYING MAXIMUM COINS
Ellen arrived at her favorite casino with a group of friends at about noon, but it hasn’t been her day. Ellen is an avid video poker player, and understands that she should always play the maximum coins. Coin limit play is essential, she believes, because if she hits the royal flush, she wants to be eligible for the top award thai winners who have the maximum coin in receive, After all, the pay tables on most modem machines are set to offer the coin- limit player a better payback percentage by setting a higher jackpot on the top hand for coin-limit play. Most machines start the hand automatically when five coins are inserted. Every machine has one button that orders maximum play. Ellen believes that it is the only way to play.
But Ellen’s bankroll has been depleted and she believes it’s time to drop down to less than coin limit to stretch her remaining bankroll. Ellen has seen players who have been burned by hitting a royal flush or five-of-a-kind while playing less than coin limit. The disdain from the neighboring players was more difficult to bear than the monetary shortfall.
lInt before coming to the casino this time, Ellen read up on coin limit play and was surprised to find that on her favorite 9/6 Jacks-or-better machines, she would be losing less per hand by playrng one coin than by playing
five coins.
By playing expert strategy, and even taking into account the 800-for-one payout for five-coin play and only a 250- for-one payoff for anything less, Ellen can take solace in the fact that her single-coin play keeps her almost even with maximum play, even without the hitting the top jackpot.
Ellen wasn’t so surprised to find that novice players who don’t understand expert strategy are much better off playing less than five coins. Her friends who love the slots have occasionally wandered over into the video poker sections, but have always headed back quickly. They don’t understand that it’s important to know the strategy of the game.
Progressive jackpots would seem to demand coin-limit play, but Ellen learned that a typical progressive 815 Jacks-or-better machine pays only 97.3 percent to experts when the jackpot is minimum at 800 for 1, or $1,000 on a five-quarter coin-limit machine. Single-coin play returns only 95.9 percent so the loss rate is very poor at all levels. That’s why experts don’t play them until the jackpot is above $2,200 and then only at coIn-limit. Ellen will continue to play one coin at a time until it’s time to head home with her friends. She’ll protect her bankroll and will even have a chance to get even before leaving. Games
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