As requested, Bob Dancer responds:
This is a tough question for me, because it goes against the overall process I believe in. My whole approach to video poker is that it’s a grind-it-out process, where you pick the best game + slot club + promotion. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but if you’re making good choices in game selection, over time you will prosper.
I don’t know the name of the person who submitted the question, but I’ll call him John to make him easier to talk about. John seems particularly impressed that he’s ahead over the past few days. Good for him! Let’s assume he’s ahead $500, which is half of a 25¢ royal. So now he wants to go for it.
I don’t know what his parameters are. If he’s willing to risk the entire $500 and wants the best chance of being ahead $2,000 or more, then he should try Triple Double Bonus. He’ll reach his goal with a royal or aces-with-a-kicker, but most of the time he’ll lose his entire nut.
If he wants to play for bigger stakes but with minimal increased risk, probably Jacks or Better is the best choice.
If he wants a good chance to increase his win, he needs to look at pay schedule + slot club + promotion for all the games in question and play the one that adds up to the most. It’s likely going to be a different game this month than it will be next month. It’s very possible that it will be a different casino than it was last month. It’s very likely that the best game for quarters is not the best game for dollars.
Keep in mind that no one knows how to play every game, and John needs to limit his search to the games he knows best. If it turns out that Double Bonus Deuces Wild is the best game and he has never played it, then that needs to come off the list.
He also needs to do his own searching. No one knows the video poker inventory at every casino, nor how the slot clubs work, nor what promotions are in effect. The website vpfree2.com is a good place to get machine information, but it’s not always accurate. Various places give promotion information, including a Slot Club Bonus Points feature maintained by Scot Krause and Jean Scott at LasVegasAdvisor.com. But new promotions get announced or changed all the time and it’s difficult to keep up with everything.
Point multipliers change regularly. If one casino has a .3% slot club and another has a .6% slot club, that can change the best play -- assuming both have the same machines (which is usually not true). But casinos change their offers all the time, so the best play will likely change from month to month.
I suspect John was looking for a precise recommendation for a specific game, such as, "It’s always best to play Deuces Wild at the xyz casino." If that’s what he wanted, I’m afraid I’ve failed him. Making a decision on the best game to play is way too complicated to be defined by a simplistic rule like that.
[Editor’s Note: We agree with Bob that the best way to take this shot is to go with the highest-yielding opportunity. This will often come down to an available promotion and there are currently two rebate-on-loss promos that fit the bill perfectly. The Tropicana offers a $200-rebate deal, but you have to have an out-of-state ID. The Cannery and Eastside Cannery both have $500-rebate deals, but you have to be from Nevada, Arizona, or Utah for the former and a local for the latter. Because of those restrictions (and you must also be a new club member), you can’t do them all. But you’ll qualify for at least one and "going for it" with $200 or $500 in loss protection is a pretty juicy proposition. A detailed discussion of these promotions appears in the December issue of the Las Vegas Advisor newsletter.]
