Question of the Day - 21 October 2021

[Editor's Note: As is our wont with questions on video poker, we went straight to Bob Dancer for this answer.]

The odds don’t change. A 99.54% game on single line, Ten Play, or Spin Poker all return the same.

The games differ in variance. To understand why, let’s say you’re dealt 4-to-the-royal. On Ten Play, you’re happy to get one and very occasionally get two. On Spin Poker, when you get any royals from this position, 80% of the time it’s three royals. You can get two royals 13.3% of the time you get a royal and five royals 6.7% of the time you get a royal. These last two cases happen when the one non-royal card on the deal occurs in the center. The only way to get exactly one royal playing Spin Poker (assuming you’re playing all nine lines) is to draw at least two cards.

This means you’ll go longer between royals when you play Spin Poker than when you play Ten Play, but when you get these royals, they’ll come in clumps. This doesn’t affect your average score, but makes losing sessions more frequent and your scores on your less-frequent winning sessions larger.

For quarter players, more than one royal at a time has W2G consequences. Higher denominations can get more W2gs as well, particularly on a $400 jackpot that you get exactly three times.

One advantage of Spin Poker over Ten Play is that on Spin Poker you can play one line at max bet. On Ten Play, if you bet less than maximum on all ten lines, you don’t get full value for the royal when it comes.

For me, sometimes Spin Poker the highest returning game in a casino and if so, I’ll play it. If not, I won’t. I’ll prefer Ten Play to Spin Poker with the same game and pay schedule, because Ten Play is often faster and has 11% more coin-in, so I’ll get my play in faster. But other than these things, I’m neutral between the games.

Some players have strong preferences for or against Spin Poker. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether or not you care that much.