Tag Archives: video poker game

How to Win at Video Poker

September 10, 2019   Game type   No comments

Video poker is a game of cold, calculated exactness. A pitting of man against machine, the often daunting mathematical odds prove that only the very brave step up to face the sickly, menacing glow of screen of the online casino video poker game.

And some are willing. A few brave souls rise, unwavering, to the task, and with mathematical prowess, offer tangible human challenge to the terrifyingly alien and inhuman stare of the video poker game.

But for those without that mathematical prowess, there are ways to meet the video poker machine head-on.

You know you’re brave enough, and the day is far in the future where you succumb to a mere machine.

The Tips

The first rule to besting video poker is to know the fundamentals of the game. You may be battling an entity devoid of emotion, a cold steel box from which you cannot pluck an inkling of feeling, or a bluff or a give-away. Knowing the basics of the game will help with this factor. As it is only when we know the basics that all other aspects are disregarded and the game becomes raw, stripped and real; which the only way a computer knows how to play.

Next, use those like you. Join a players’ club and practice the fundamentals. A human-being can conduct thought patterns which transcend those of a randomly generating machine brain. Practicing with fellow poker enthusiasts will open you up to those levels, and if mastered, will help you operate as a poker player, far beyond the linear capabilities of the video poker machine.

Check card combinations online. There are websites available that have on-hand, an array of possible video poker card combinations. If you know the combinations which favour retaining certain cards and discarding others, you automatically stand a chance of better anticipating the machine’s next move. These card combinations can obviously be used with many hands, and it’s up to you to decide whether to ‘stand’ or ‘fold’ as these combinations come at you. Memorising these combinations can only stand you in good stead, whatever the hand.

Adding to this, each game comes with certain pay tables afforded to it and knowing these pay tables, gives you another distinct advantage when deciding on cards. Remember, you need to retain the cards that improve your hand, and discard those that don’t. Knowing the pay tables allows you to decipher which combinations match with which paying structures, and gives you a head start advantage over that stationary opponent.

At the end of the day, though, it’s always best to cut your losses. Decide on a total loss and stop playing when you reach that total. The Online Casino video poker machine can never be the true winner, as it cannot turn from the challenge and live to fight another day. As you practice, memorise combinations, get familiar with different hands and pay tables, and build your poker assault with practice and the knowledge of the basics, you’ll triumph…you’ll triumph in the glow of that inhuman stare, and you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.

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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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