For the past two weeks, I’ve been posting about using different software in order to learn to play. A comment on the first such post read (lightly edited):
“Just some of plays worth two cents or less if you make the wrong one are sometimes on the rare side and some are somewhat common. So, for me personally, I wouldn’t sweat making this mistake once an hour or so. I’d compare this article to a card counter learning every single playing index for blackjack. While there is an index for splitting 10’s vs 2 and then doubling if one of them receives an ace, is it really worth learning?”
I am a player whose goal is to play every hand perfectly on games where that is possible. I understand that many players do not have the same goal.
If a 5-coin dollar player had a goal of playing well enough that he gave up less than an extra 25¢ an hour while playing a simplified strategy, that’s probably a reasonable goal for the vast majority of players. Indeed, most players give up far more than that.
The question is how do you attain such a goal? A strategy such as Level 3 on the Dancer/Daily cards is surely strong enough to meet that goal if you play it perfectly. The last five words of that sentence are critical, namely: IF YOU PLAY IT PERFECTLY. That doesn’t mean play the game perfectly. It means play the simplified strategy perfectly.
Most players need to practice a lot to play at that level. If you’re not practicing with a computer that corrects your mistakes, it’s close to impossible to play that well.
I know from teaching classes for more than 20 years that many players don’t understand the simplified strategy rules at first. I’ll explain the rules and put a problem hand on the board. Several students usually miss the hand the first time they see it. To be sure, the problem hands in class tend to be trickier than average. But still, if it were easy for everybody to understand the rules without studying, nobody would be missing them.
So, while you’re practicing on the computer, sometimes you’ll be dealt a hand that the simplified strategy misplays. An easy example from 9/6 Jacks or Better: The basic strategy says to play both K♣ J♦ T♦ 4♥ 3♣ and K♣ J♦ T♦ 4♦ 3♣ identically, but strong players know you hold JT in the first and KJ in the second.
So, the question becomes: When you play JT on the second hand and the computer says you made a mistake, what do you do? Do you look up how much the error is worth? If you do, it’s about a penny. Do you try to figure out how often it occurs? If you do, it’s about once in 2,000 hands, although some of those include a seven which reduces the error to 0.3 cents. Others include an eight or nine in them which reduce the size of the error to a half cent.
This was one simple case. There are several such cases in every game. There is some overlap between games and between errors, but each one is a little different.
It takes a lot of work to figure out whether a specific error is small enough and infrequent enough to make it safe enough to skip. In the comment to my blog, the commenter seemed to imply that he knows these things and can decide each time whether this is an error he can ignore or not. My point is, it’s not that easy to know this. It’s arguably about as difficult to learn WHY the hands are played differently as it is to know how big and rare an error is.
In one of the examples in my blog, I cited the case in NSU Deuces Wild of A♠ T♠ 9♥ 7♣ 5♦, where the correct play is AT, which is worth an eighth of a cent more than throwing all the cards away. It happens every 108,000 hands or so and truly is an error that takes more time to memorize than it’s worth. But few hands are that cut and dried.
There is no way to win without practicing with computer software.
I can find no way to contact you other than this. I just booked a week at South Point so I could also participate in the video poker lessons you always give there only to find that you don’t give them anymore?
I still teach two 10-week semesters each year — except due to Covid the ones that normally would start in September 2020 and January 2021 have been cancelled. I’m expecting to begin again in September 2021 — but right now who knows what the Covid situation will be then?
Bob
Bob: Thanks for the heads up. You are a great teacher and I was always pretty happy when I got one right and learned from when I got them wrong. Looking forward to see you in September. SP does a real service for its customers by bringing you in.,
Thank you for an informative read. I am not as strong as the player who gives up 25 cents per hour but am, like yourself, losing less per hour than most.
One question prompted by this read: What is your take on risk buydowns–that is, would you be willing to, in Jacks or Better for example, hold four to a flush instead of three to a royal flush when doing so would bring the variance down significantly? There is a cost to doing so, of course, but with the variance that much lower, would you consider this “money well spent”?
I miss the good videopoker games as over here in Europe , this game is basically unknown and to the very few players that there are (mostly in France), the rules are terrible. You may find a 13-16 Deuces Wild game here and there, but the tax format is just ridiculous and comps and points are a scarce thing. Austria’s casinos have removed 6-9 J-o-B some years back and some have even eliminated all videopoker machines of the older generations. New games are hard to find.
Because of the corona-situation international traveling is still unavailable to most of us so all we can do is wait. I am happy to have this videopoker software on my computer so sometimes I practice 9-15 fpdw and 10-16 nsud. I heard that most casinos have cut down the comps and promotions, which can be understand but which makes the play even more wothless.
p.s. in my last sentence I was referring to the situation as it presents in Las Vegas. Just to clarify.
I still don’t understand the suited K 10 hold in 8/5 BP, it seems to have something to do with whether or not there is any other cards of that suit involved in the hand but I don’t know the rule of thumb, otherwise I have very few errors in winpoker until I move to 9/6 Bonus Deluxe
Nick, with the suited K 10 and no other high card, you hold K 10 w/o any flush penalty card. There is only one straight penalty to a K 10 hold, which is a 9, and with that 9 straight penalty you are still ok holding the K 10. This should be fairly simple.
Thanks for the info.
I was mostly playing NSUD when I bought my copy of VPW. One of the first things I did to familiarize myself with the software was to see if I could find which starting hands allow you to play a suited AT. I’ve never forgotten the rule, and at least one time I got to chase the AT (after seeing that a 5-7-9 rainbow would be my discards).
To me, one of the first things i learned when memorizing the more difficult hands….4 card straights (inside) or 3 card straight-flush make a difference, depending on how many gaps there are. It’s simple to hold any deuce, lol, but once it comes to hands such as 7h-9s-10c-2-Qc, then it’s time to double-check on the cheat-sheets….
Boris, In the hand you present, the two potential holds would be the 3 card dirty royal (2+ 10c Qc) or deuce only. The 3 wild royal hold is more than 20% better than the deuce only. Am I missing something on your comparison? Think of it this way, if you spot an item at store A for $100 and store B has it for less than $80, which store will you buy it from?
It’s not easy to win from SOFTWARE.
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Regards
martin
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I also learn something new from your post.
Regards
martin
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