Tag Archives: hands

Video Poker or Slots? (Page 1 of 2)

June 23, 2019   Game guide   No comments

Taking into consideration the ‘long-term’ results, the average slot machine offers higher profit than video poker. The reason is obvious: a poker is a game of skill, and market competition forces all types of casinos (online and land-based) to award winners of games of skill higher than games of luck. Most people are not skilled in playing casino games, so casino can afford high awards for those who have mastered hazard games, assuming that a profit will come from other players’ mistakes.

I can show you how to get the maximum return out of a video poker machine, but you need to remember that the maximum return may still be less than 100%. Any theoretical return of a video poker machine that’s less than 100% means the casino has an edge over you, and this takes place in slot machines, Baccarat, or Roulette. The difference is that the casino’s edge in a video poker game may be (but isn’t always) comparatively small; in the neighborhood of 1% or so. Even by making a lot of mistakes, the average player can likely achieve a long-term return of over 97% when playing a good video poker game. By ‘good’, I mean a game like full-pay Jacks or Better, which is widely available on the Internet. This version of video poker offers a return of 99.54% if the player uses the proper playing strategy. That translates into a casino edge of about 0.50% which is similar to the average Blackjack game and is undoubtedly a lower edge than the average slot machine, which is typically 3-5% at best.

However, to effectively realize the total return of a video poker game one must, at one point or another, receive a Royal Flush and its cousin, the Straight Flush. These are rare; a Royal will come only once every 40,000 hands and a Straight Flush once every 9000 hands, on average. Because we’re dealing with averages in a random game, there’s nothing to stop you from getting a Royal on your very first hand, but it’s not likely to happen. And the short-term lack of such hands alters the return you can expect when you play, say, 1000 hands of video poker, which is two or three hours of gaming. I don’t want to get too involved with mathematics here, but the Royal Flush and Straight Flush add a total of 2.53% to the 99.54% return of the full-pay Jacks or Better video poker game that I mentioned earlier. Because it’s not realistic to hit either a Royal or a Straight Flush during the course of 1000 hands of play, your return will likely be more in the area of 99.54% minus 2.53% or 97%. That translates into a 3% casino edge, which is not far removed from that of a good slot machine.

What is a ‘good’ slot machine? Well, I don’t know, because they cannot be measured like a video poker game. But, just for discussion purposes, let’s say we can identify a slot machine that has a long-term return of 97% (a 3% casino edge) and it requires 3 quarters per spin. Generally, a quarter video poker game will require 5 quarters per hand and both slots and video poker games can usually be played at a rate of about 400 spins or hands per hour. You can easily see that playing 400 spins on a slot machine at $.75 per spin means you’ll be betting $300 per hour and playing 400 hands of video poker means you’ll be betting $500 per hour. If the casino’s edge, in the short-term, is 3% on each game, your expectation is to lose $12 per hour while playing the slot machine and $15 per hour when playing the video poker game, assuming you use the proper strategy.

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Micro Limit Games – Pre-flop Strategy (Page 1 of 2)

June 21, 2019   Game guide   No comments

I will describe the pre-flop holdem strategy on full-hand tables (10max) here.

Micro limit games (~0.02/0.04) have some peculiarities in comparison to a poker game with higher limits. You will find the highest ratio of an average bank size to a big blind size here. This means that the highest percent of drawn combinations are paid-out. Contenders play very freely and lose their stacks easily. The best strategy for this game will be a reliable tight play if you are a new player. Of course, that strategy is not very profitable, but a new player would fare better playing this way. You shouldn’t play weak hands which may cause difficulties when you play the post-flop.

Early positions (1-3)

Play tightly here. Raises are very possible from late positions. Having no position will lead to difficulties on the post-flop. So, tight play is the best at these positions.

AK, JJ+ – Raise 5??, if there has been a raise. If you have JJ-QQ, AK, you should call if the re-raise is not more than 15??. If the re-raise is higher, having JJ and AK fold, you should call with QQ up to 20??. Having KK, re-raise (three times that of a contender’s raise), up to all-in. If you have AA, and nobody has called in your re-raise (having only one opponent), you may simply call to outwit your contender later and play a check-raise on the flop. If more than one opponent stays in a bank, you shouldn’t play call with AA. The best play is to make a re-raise in three times bigger than the last. It’s more difficult to play AA against two contenders if you have no position on the flop. A raise of 5?? is recommended in this situation. Though, if you see too many contenders calling your raise, you should increase the amount. If your contenders are very aggressive and often play raise on the pre-flop, you should call in an early position having AA. In the event that there is a raise after you, you‘ll be able to make a re-raise.

AJ-AQ – call. It’s too tight but good for a new player. A raise with a hand like this may be too risky.

22-TT – call and call a raise in hopes of making three of a kind

Fold all other hands.

Middle positions (4-6)

TT+, AQ+, AJ – raise, if no raises have been made. If there is a re-raise up to 15??, call with TT-QQ and AK. KK and AA are played as it is described in the early positions.

If there have been raises, play a re-raise. With the hands AK and QQ+, re-raise by tripling the original. If there has been a raise and then somebody has re-raised, play a re-raise only if you have KK+. If you have QQ, you should call. Fold JJ and lower cards.

KQs, ATs – start with a raise of 5?? (to start means that all opponents before you have folded and you are the first getting into the game). If somebody has limped (to limp – getting into a game without a raise), it’s best to call.

KQo, ATo – call if there have been no raises.

JTs+, QTs, KJs – call, if two or more players have gone into the game. Having such hands we need many contenders in a pot to make bank chance better. These hands are too weak to make them stronger drawing by a pair. But they can form very strong combinations – straights and flushes. To make the possibility of drawing those combinations profitable, you will need many potential losers to pay for it.

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