V I D E O P O K E R BASICS Video Poker machines simulate the game of draw poker and have become a very popular form of casino entertainment. They feature the comfort and convenience of slot machines while giving the player decision making ability influencing winning or losing. As a game of skill, "locals" or people who live in gambling areas particularly prefer video poker. The video poker machine physically looks like a slot machine and may be placed next them. Payoff schedules will be shown either at the top of the machine or on the video screen that displays the playing cards. From 1 to 5 coins may be played on most machines. Below the video screen will be a row of buttons. The button labeled "Deal" will cause the initial five cards to be displayed. Five buttons will be assigned to "Hold" or "Hold/Cancel" the five playing cards on the screen. The "Draw" button will draw additional cards after the player has identified the cards to hold. The "Deal" and "Draw" buttons may be combined on machines. ___ | | +-------------------------------+ | | | PAYOFF SCHEDULE | |_______________________________| | ______________________ | | | | Play | | | VIDEO | 1 | | | | to | | | SCREEN | 5 | | | | Coins| | |______________________| | |____________________________ | | HOLD HOLD HOLD HOLD HOLD |___| | DRAW CANCEL DEAL | |-------------------------------| | D O L L A R | | D R A W P O K E R | |_______________________________| | | +-------------------------------+ Other buttons that may be provided involve playing and dispositioning credits. On these machines, payoffs get registered as credits. Press the appropriate button to play credits or if wanted cash them out. Building and playing credits reduces the effort of inserting coins. When inserting a coin or a group of coins and pressing "Deal," five cards will be initially displayed on the video screen. If inserting the maximum limit coins, the machine will deal automatically. From the five cards, the player will select those that they wish to "Hold." The strategy is to try for the highest ranking of the cards. If a mistake is made, select "Cancel" and reselect. Next press "Draw" and the cards not held will be discarded and their replacements displayed. Any payoffs won will be registered or if there is no payoff the machine will display "Game Over." Controlling video poker machines are computer microprocessor chips and their programmed instructions called firmware. Gambling authorities monitor and control the firmware. Every fraction of a second, the microprocessor selects one random number out of millions of combinations. This is happening whether or not anyone is playing the machine. The exact instant of time when the player presses the deal button or the limit coin drops, decides the random number selected. That random number triggers another sequence in which ten out of the scrambled fifty-cards in the deck gets randomly selected. The first five of the ten cards get displayed on the screen with the other five hidden underneath them. These are used to replace, in their position, any of the first five that get discarded when pressing the draw button. There is one common misconception of video poker players. Just because a machine was played for hours, only to have the next player hit a jackpot, doesn't mean the first player would have hit the jackpot. The exact instant of time the deal was initiated would not have been the same. Most video poker machines highlight a winning hand after the initial deal. The player must still hold the winning cards and press deal. Some machines, particularly older ones, may not highlight winning hands. RANKING OF HANDS The ranking of video poker hands is the same as in regular table poker games. They are in descending order: Hand Description ---- ----------- Royal Flush Ten, Jack, Queen, King & Ace of same suit Straight Flush 5 cards of same suit in consecutive values 4-of-a-Kind 4 cards of same value Full House 3 cards of same value + 2 cards of same value Flush 5 cards of same suit but not consecutive Straight 5 cards in consecutive values 3-of-a-Kind 3 cards of same value 2 Pair 2 sets of 2 cards of same value Jacks-or-Better Any pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces TYPES The standard video poker machine is called "Jacks or Better." If a pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces is draw the player will receive a payoff of 1 to 1 or push. Jacks or Better machines may have a standard or progressive payoff for a royal flush. Progressive machines are linked electronically to other machines usually located next to each other. The royal flush maximum coin payoff then becomes a central jackpot. As machines get played, a small part of the money put in gets added to the central jackpot. If anyone hits a royal flush with the maximum coins played on a linked machine, they win the central jackpot. Besides the standard Jacks or Better machine there are video poker wild card machines. On "Deuces Wild" machines the deuces or twos are wild cards and may substitute as any card to make up a winning hand. On "Jokers Wild" the fifty-third Joker card is wild and substitutes as any card. Deuces Wild and Jokers Wild machines have diminished payoff schedules to compensate for the greater advantage in making a winning hand. There are also standard and progressive royal flush maximum coin payoffs on wild card machines. DENOMINATIONS Video poker machines are typically available to play with nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars or dollar or greater tokens. Nickels if available, quarters and dollars are the most popular. Casinos use dollar tokens inscribed with their name. They may not be used in the casino's non-gambling facilities or in other casinos. PAYOFFS Video poker machines will display their winning payoff schedules either above the video screen or on the video screen. It is important to check and understand the payoffs before beginning to play. Most all machines have a non-proportional bonus payoff for winning the royal flush with the maximum coins played. This is very significant as shown below: Coins Payoff for Played Royal Flush ------ ----------- 1 250 2 500 3 750 4 1000 5 4000 Most all machines have proportional payoffs for all other winning hands. They are largely classified by the payoffs for the Flush and Full House respectively. For example, the "6/9" machine pays 6 coins for a flush and 9 coins for a full house. Below are typical machines, shown for simplicity with one coin played: "6/9" "5/8" "5/7" "5/6" "2-Pair" Winning Hand Machine Machine Machine Machine Machine ------------ ------- ------- ------- ------- -------- Royal Flush 250 250 250 250 500 Straight Flush 50 50 50 50 100 4-of-a-Kind 25 25 25 25 50 Full House 9 8 7 6 11 Flush 6 5 5 5 7 Straight 4 4 4 4 5 3-of-a-Kind 3 3 3 3 3 Two Pair 2 2 2 2 2 High Pair 1 1 1 1 0 There are other variations to these payoffs but these are the most common. CASINO PERCENTAGE ADVANTAGE The odds or frequency of getting particular cards is the same on any standard machine. The player controls how the cards get played. The casino's percentage advantage gets determined by the payoff schedule for winning hands. If the player follows a correct playing strategy, the following would be the approximate casinos percentage advantages. Machine Casino Percentage ------- -------------------- 6/9 Approximately -2.3% 5/8 Approximately -4.3% 5/7 Approximately -5.4% 5/6 Approximately -6.6% 2-Pair Approximately -7.4% SMART GAMBLER STRATEGY The first consideration to make when deciding to play video poker is what coin denomination of machine to play. Due to the significant non-proportional bonus payoff for royal flushes, it is important to play only with the maximum coins. If an individual's bankroll does not support playing dollar machines at maximum coins, they should play quarters. If it does not support quarters, play nickels if available. To play less than the maximum coins is giving the casino up to an additional -2.0 percentage points. To understand bankroll requirements, see the $mart Gambler tutorial on money management and the Planning-Money Management feature. The next consideration is to select the very best machine payoff schedule available in the gambling area visited. The difference between a "6/9" and "5/8" machine is approximately 2.0 percent. If played with five quarters and at an average speed of 240 hands per hour, that is the equivalent of $6.00 per hour difference. Over a typical three day trip, with 15 hours of total play, this is a $90 difference in a player's entertainment cost. In some areas there may not be a choice but in others it definitely pays to shop around. If playing progressive royal flush jackpot machines, always select the highest available jackpot for the denomination played. Often in one casino there will be several different progressive jackpots carousals. Find the highest jackpot and play there. If there are several casinos located close by it pays to pass through them looking for the highest jackpot. Selecting the highest royal flush jackpot is not done because it is "due." The odds of getting the royal flush remain the same on every hand. Select the highest one for the increased payoff that decreases the casino percentage. The next consideration is to follow a correct strategy on holding and discarding cards. This is the skill factor that makes video poker popular. The computer developed strategy presented here is a simple one that provides a good opportunity of obtaining the best winning hand. It is practical for casual players and is not meant to be the ultimate strategy that by its nature would be complex. Most hands received on the initial deal that result in a payoff, should be held. This is due to their payoffs being high and the chances of improving the hand being low. They are in order of value: Royal Flush Straight Flush 4-of-a-Kind Full House Flush Straight 3-of-a-Kind 2 Pair The exception to this is the High Pair. It pays one-to-one or pushes. There are two situations in which it is better to discard it and try for a better hand. The rest of the hands received on the initial deal should be played per the chart below. Starting from the top, simply work the way down and hold the cards that provides the best combination. 4 Cards of Royal Flush 4 Cards of Straight Flush High Pair (Jacks or better) 4 Cards of Flush Low Pair (Tens or less) 3 Cards of Royal Flush 4 Cards of Straight (both ends must be open) 3 High Cards (Jack, Queen, King only) 4 Cards of Inside Straight with three high cards 2 High Cards (select same suit or lowest two) 1 High Card 3 Cards of Straight Flush Discard all five cards if none of these choices are available. The odds of getting a better hand is better with five new cards. To print only this chart position, center it on your monitor and do a Print-Screen. This typically may be done by pressing the Shift key and Print Screen keys together. A high pair is two Jacks, two Queens, two Kings or two Aces. A low pair is two Tens or less. Potential straights are a source of confusion for some players. The four cards of a straight that should be held is where there are four consecutive values in a row. The required fifth card then can be below or above the consecutive values. For example a 2-3-4-5 is an open end straight as either an Ace or 6 would make it a five card winning straight. There is significant difference in the odds of making a straight with both ends open versus having only one end open or having an open in the middle. That is an Inside Straight and should not be held unless there are three high cards included. For machines such as the "2-Pair" version listed in the Payoff section above, there are minor changes to this strategy. Because they do not payoff for any high pair, do not hold two high cards or one high card. Instead hold any 3 Card Flushes and 2 Card Flushes. Lastly, accuracy is very important in video poker. Many players make errors that adds to the casino percentage. Often these are not strategy errors but mechanical errors such as getting two pair but only holding the high pair. Drawing three new cards in this situation changes the payoff from 2 to 1 to 1 to 1. Also be sure that when selecting Hold the button does record Hold. Some machines may be intermittent and may not always record holds correctly. It is recommended that before pressing Draw the player double check the video screen and particularly look at the cards that are being discarded. If the player enjoys using skill to play video poker they may wish to consider playing blackjack. $mart Gambler strategies for blackjack can reduce the casino's percentage to under 1.0 percent which is less than video poker. See the tutorial on Blackjack for more information. $mart Gamblers who play video poker and follow these guidelines will find their experiences more enjoyable and successful. Copyright 1992 PC Information Systems All Rights Reserved