CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

VIDEO POKER

Columns

• Back to Bob's index

• Back to columnist index

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 more details and a schedule of Bob's free classes, visit www.bobdancer.com.

Oct. 20, 2009

What Should I Do With Her?

I was teaching 9/5 Super Double Bonus at Eastside Cannery. SDB is a variation of Double Bonus Poker with two idiosyncrasies. First, four Jacks, Queens, and Kings return 600 rather than 250, and second, a straight flush returns 400 rather than 250.

When the straight flush pays this much, you should prefer holding an open-ended 4-card straight flush over a 5-card straight. That is, with single quotes indicating cards are suited with each other:

a. From '4567' 8, hold '4567'

b. From '4568' 7, hold 45678

As is typical in my classes, I go through the strategy, with examples, and then at the end of the class give a test to see how much the students absorbed during the class. During the test, I gave the hand Kh Qh Jh Tc 9h. The "correct" play, according to the strategy provided, was to hold all five cards. Four-card straight flushes with an inside are not as valuable as a 5-card straight, even when the straight flush draw has one or more high cards.

I asked the class how many would hold three cards, four cards, and five cards. Most students got the correct answer of five cards, about a third erroneously picked four cards, and one lady, "Sandy," said she'd go for the 3-card royal flush, 'KQJ'.

Although I probably shouldn't be, I'm still surprised when players make REALLY bad plays, especially when we discussed the hands a half hour previously. So partly to provide more foundation as to how bad this play was and partly to demonstrate how to use the software, I asked my assistant to put the hand on Video Poker for Winners and display it on the overhead projector.

It turns out that KQJT9 has an EV (5-coin Expected Value) of 20. This shouldn't be a surprise as you get 20 coins when you end up with a straight. This is a GUARANTEED 20 coins. If we were playing for dollars, five coins at a time, this means $20. Putting it in terms of dollars and cents is easier for some people.

Holding 'KQJ9' has an EV of $14.57. This is not guaranteed. You can earn $400 (straight flush), $25 (flush), $20 (straight), $5 (high pair), or $0 (none of the above). If you play the hand a zillion times, the average will be $14.57. By the way, voluntarily giving up $5.43 (i.e. $20 -$14.57 = $5.43) is a HUGE mistake. Many of the plays we teach have differences of less than a dime.

Holding the 3-card royal 'KQJ' is worth $6.74. Although you will earn a $4,000 royal one time in 1,081 you draw to this combination, you end up with nothing at all most of the time. Holding 'KQJ' is voluntarily giving up about 2/3 of the value of the hand. If $5.43 was huge, this is somewhere between double huge and triple huge. Sandy, however, was unconvinced. She still would hold 'KQJ' on this hand and my arguments to the contrary fell on deaf ears.

After class, "Jim," Sandy's husband came up and asked me what to about Sandy. "We've been married 28 years. Murder and divorce are not options I'm actively considering. She always goes for the royal. Although she connects every now and then, she loses a lot of money playing video poker. It's really more than we can afford. What should I do?"

This could be expensive. A number of people consider my strategies "gospel" and are willing to follow them whether they agree with them or not. Clearly Sandy wasn't overly impressed by who I was or what my suggestions were.

Were I in Jim's shoes I'd try to get Sandy to consider a hobby other than video poker. Most hobbies would be cheaper than video poker the way Sandy plays it. If that didn't work, I'd try to get her to play on progressives only. With progressives, it's appropriate to go for the royal flush more than you do with a royal of 4,000 coins. On the other hand, you need to be selective about which progressives you play because most of them offer a pretty bad gamble most of the time.

Another option would be to keep bringing Sandy to the classes. Over time, she'll become more familiar with my methods and perhaps they'll make more sense to her.

Other than that, I didn't have any suggestions, useful or otherwise. While video poker is a beatable game when played well, it can be a very expensive game when not played well. I've never been good at forcing someone to do something they didn't want to do. I try to instruct and inspire, but it's always someone's choice about whether to follow my instruction or not.