Someone can accurately tell you that their mailer is $25 a week. But if you want to know how much they won or lost each month over the last six months, including how much was played during promotions and on which machines, that information is tougher to come by. And, at some casinos, how many times did the player come into the casino? And what \u201cdiscretionary\u201d comps were issued to this player? Some or all of this information is used by at least some casinos to determine your mailer. And most casinos don\u2019t publish the formula they use.<\/p>\n
Still other players (including me) add an estimate for the value of the current promotion into the EV calculation. I wouldn\u2019t be playing at all at any casinos if it wasn\u2019t for their promotions. (Yes, I could play 100% games for low stakes in Las Vegas for less than $10 per hour. And there\u2019s money to be made playing video poker progressives. If that\u2019s your thing, welcome to it. For me, no thanks.)<\/p>\n
I was playing $1 9\/6 JoB Spin Poker on a recent double point day at the South Point, when there was another promotion going on as well. There are higher-EV games there, but only for lower stakes. With good enough promotions, playing $2 single line ($10 per hand) 99.728% NSU Deuces Wild sometimes just isn\u2019t as good as the 99.544% ($45 per hand) game.<\/p>\n
Another player was playing $1 9\/5 White Hot Aces on the same Spin Poker machine. I asked him why he chose that game instead of JoB and he responded \u201cHigher EV.\u201d Really? Not in my book.<\/p>\n
The WHA game returns 99.572% which is certainly a tad higher than the 99.544% you get from JoB. But every time you get dealt a quad, the Jacks or Better game returns \u00a0\u201conly\u201d $1,125 which, importantly, is less than W2G range. Getting two or more quad 2s, 3s, or 4s, or even one set of aces, generates additional W2Gs.<\/p>\n
For professional players who get LOTS of W2Gs, these are not particularly terrible things. We have learned how to \u201cwrite off\u201d a high percentage of them. Still, at this casino, on a double point day, it takes more than five minutes per W2G for a slot attendant to arrive and reset the machine. On a promotion that is worth, say, $36 an hour, not playing for five minutes costs you $3. Are you planning on tipping when you get paid for your W2G? If you typically tip $5, that\u2019s $8 out of every W2G. That more than eliminates the difference in EV from the game itself.<\/p>\n
You pretty much get the same number of royals in the two games, but you get more straight flushes in WHA. Why? Two reasons. First of all, you get paid $400 per straight flush rather than $250 so it only takes three to get a W2G rather than five. Also, the strategy calls for you to go for straight flushes more in WHA. For example, from a hand like 3\u2660 4\u2665 5\u2665 6\u2665 7\u2665<\/span>, you hold five cards in JoB and only four in WHA. When you do catch a straight flush on the draw, usually you get three of them — and hence a W2G.<\/p>\n Instead of EV, I use a form of \u201cexpected dollars per hour,\u201d which includes how many hands per hour I can play and at what stakes. Are my calculations different from those of other players? Maybe. Part of the calculation includes an estimate for the current promotion, and personal estimates differ. But for figuring out whether I should be playing at Casino A or B, I find the calculation very useful.<\/p>\n \u201cEV\u201d stands for expected value, which is a type of weighted average. The exact definition I\u2019ll leave to the probability and statistics textbooks. As cut and dried as the definition is in the math books, there\u2019s plenty of wiggle room in the way it\u2019s applied to video poker. Before we discuss this wiggle room, let\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[522,218,1089,1467,1424,719,220,562,1469,1468,196,718,1466],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Facebook\"](\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/96x96\/facebook.png\" "\\"Follow")
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