Q:
I was just reading the July edition of the LVA, in Anthony's article on the Eldorado takeover of Caesars, where he references playing video poker in Reno at places owned by Eldorado. He references"NSU Deuces"and "Progressive rf." Not being a video poker player, I haven't a clue what these abbreviations mean. Can you clue me in?
A:
Happy to.
NSU means "Not So Ugly Ducks." Ducks is poker slang for twos and Skip Hughes, the late VP writer, nicknamed a particular short-pay Deuces Wild paytable "Ugly Ducks."
Full-pay Deuces Wild returns 5 when you hit a 4-of-a-kind for a payback percentage of 100.76, while simply shorting the 4-of-a-kind return one unit, to pay back 4 instead of 5, reduces the payback percentage to 94.3. A subtle change, but a big difference.
A Deuces schedule appeared later that returns the ugly 4 for 4-of-a-kind, but adds an extra unit by paying 16 for a 5-of-a kind (as opposed to 15 in Full-Pay) and 10 for a straight flush (as opposed to 9). This raises the return percentage to 99.73, which isn't ugly at all; if you play perfectly, when you add in the benefits from the players club, it's a short distance to the finish line of an overall return at or more than the glorious 100%.
The "RF" in "progressive RF" signifies the jackpot for hitting a progressive royal flush. Most slot and VP jackpots are fixed, but progressive games add money to the top jackpot as players feed the machine. The progressive is usually limited to the royal flush, but some progressives have running jackpots for straight flushes and/or 4-of-of-kinds.
Video poker players look for progressive jackpot totals that are higher than a certain number (for example, for quarter 9/6 Jacks or Better, it's $1,220, $220 higher than the fixed $1,000 jackpot) that indicate the game has "gone positive" at a 100% payback.
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