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Bob Dancer writes a video poker column for beginners to experts. He also writes a column with Jeffrey Compton, "Player's Edge", featuring information on promotions at various Las Vegas casinos. Player's Edge is published each Friday in the Neon section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Click here to send Bob Dancer an e-mail.

For a 3,000-word preview of Bob's juicy new novel, "Sex, Lies, and Video Poker", visit www.bobdancer.com.

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April 03, 2007

An Unusual Promotion Calls for an Unusual Strategy

Hooter's, more known for their food and employees rather than serious gambling, have put together an interesting promotion called "Card-Of-The-Day Bar Bingo." It is definitely positive for the player, and the strategy to beat it isnÕt typical.

At their bar-top machines only, you get a 40-coin bonus whenever you hit certain 4-of-a-kinds with maximum coins and no wild cards. On 25¢ machines you get a $10 bonus, $1 machines you get a $40 bonus, up to a $200 bonus if you're playing a $5 machine. (These are all the same machine. You may play the denomination you like.) A 40-coin Card of the Day promotion doesn't sound too great, but this one is different.

At the "start" of the game, you can hit the quad in ANY suit and get the bonus. This makes 9/7 Double Bonus (one of the better games I found) worth 100.99%, in addition to the usual 0.33% cash back rate. Whichever rank gets quad first at any position at the bar (let's say kings as an example), then four kings do not get the bonus until the next game, but each of the other twelve ranks do. As each rank is hit, the return on the game is reduced by about 0.14%. With one big exception. If you hit the LAST quad, for whichever denomination you are playing, you get a $500 bonus instead of $10-$200.

On average, the more quads that are "available," the higher return the game is --- although the highest return is when there is only one quad left.

Assuming you know normal 9/7 Double Bonus strategy, a relevant question is which plays should you change in order to receive the 40-coin bonus? Consider each of the following --- assuming the paired card is still available for the 40-coin bonus. My guess is that almost everyone will miss at least one of these, and many of you will miss more than one.

a. Kh Ks Qd Qc 7h --- assume both kings and queens are available
b. 4c 4h 5s 6d 7c
c. Jh Th 9h 6c 6d
d. Kh Ks Qs Js Tc
e. Qd Jd 9d 5c 5h

The correct answer is that you should change normal strategy in NONE of these cases. That is, in a) KKQQ, in b) 4567, in c) 'JT9', in d) 'KQJ', and in e) 'QJ9'. (Some of you may have missed these because you don't know standard 9/7 Double Bonus strategy. Nobody knows every strategy, so it's no crime if you don't, but if any of these were missed, you should consider studying before you go play.)

There are a few hands that are changed. Two I found are from 'QJ9'88, you should hold 88 if the 40-coin bonus applies and from 'JT9'77, hold 77 under the same circumstances. These are NOT the same as examples e and c above because in these examples the pair provided straight interference to the 3-card straight flush and in the earlier examples there was no interference.

For the last quad the change in strategy depends on which denomination you are playing. After all, a $500 bonus is a 2,000-coin bonus if you're playing for quarters and "only" a 100-coin bonus if you're playing for $5. Not surprisingly, there are a LOT of adjustments you should make for a 2,000-coin bonus, and relatively few you should make for a 100-coin bonus.

Keep in mind that this is a bar-top promotion. Most bar customers are there to enjoy the atmosphere and look at the girls. If you are a "serious" video poker chasing the Expected Value you may well stick out like a sore thumb. Assuming this isn't your goal, you'd be well served to "join the party," or at least appear to. Also keep in mind that these bar machines fill up and that if you leave a machine (because there aren't enough quads to make it interesting), you may not get a seat back. Fortunately, it'll never be "too bad". Even with two quads left, the game returns 99.39%, plus a 0.33% slot club. Since the house has the advantage you may well want to play very slowly until you get down to ONE quad remaining, when you want to play like the dickens.

Please note that you'll find "gamesmanship" in a promotion of this kind. Let's say there are two quads left, fives and tens, and you are dealt a quad fives. You're going to hold them, of course, but the hand isn't over until you hit the draw button. If you wait until someone else claims tens, you'll get a $500 bonus instead of $10. If someone claims fives before you, you've lost out on $10 --- unless you hold a little longer and someone else claims tens and then a new round starts, at which time all quads get the bonus. At this time you can claim your fives.

Please note that waiting to claim quads until the "price is right" is against the spirit of the promotion and may well be penalized if caught. And players sitting next to you have an incentive to "turn you in" because if you get paid for a quad "out of turn," it hurts their chances. It is normal in promotions for players to think that it's the "Players Against The House." This promotion, however, pits player against player so that just might change whether players are willing to rat on other players.

There is a 99.80% Double Bonus Deuces Wild game available, although natural four of a kinds are less frequent than in the non-wild games. If you play for quarters or half-dollars, 9/5 White Hot Aces (99.57%) is available.