Category: Video Poker

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Time to Be a Good Samaritan?

This blog suggestion was sent to me by a friend, “Al.” It happened at a casino somewhere in the Mid-West. I honestly don’t know where exactly.

Al was playing video poker near a bank of Quick Quad machines that weren’t very popular. Possibly players knew how to play the machines and avoided them because they had lousy pay schedules, or maybe they just didn’t know how to play. I don’t know. I haven’t seen them. (If you’re in the latter boat, you can get a free copy of “Quick Guide to Quick Quads” on www.videopoker.com.”)

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Random Number Generator Explained

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

A.C. says: This article addresses one of the most discussed topics relative to machine play: How does the random number generator (RNG) create results? While the fact is that it really doesn’t matter in terms of strategy considerations for players, the workings of the RNG have always been of major interest for one reason, which is how it affects the timing of jackpots. This article explains when the RNG stops and how that affects jackpots, bringing home the reality that when you walk away from a machine that immediately pays a jackpot to the next player, it almost certainly wouldn’t have hit for you had you played longer.

This article was written by Jerry Stich in association with 888Casino.

Random Number Generator Explained

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Maybe we Will Go

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a drawing at the ROW in Reno (a Caesars property where the Eldorado, Silver Legacy, and Circus Circus are all connected indoors), where Bonnie and I had each accumulated more than a half-million tickets during our stay. While that is a lot of tickets, everybody gets free tickets and daily multipliers, depending on their tier level.

I mentioned in that article that probably we won’t attend the three nights of drawings because the combination of prizes and probability of winning them wasn’t all that high. I said that would be my decision, “depending” on other factors.

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5 Easy Video Poker Tips That Every Casino Player Should Know

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

A.C. says: This article was written by Bob Dancer. Nuff said with regard to its accuracy. It was written in 2016, but the information is timeless, with the exception of the recommendation for using the Video Poker for Winners software, which is no longer available; other tutoring products are, however. These are just five basic tips, but they’re important and there are some good nuggets included, e.g., when to keep two pair in Deuces Wild. These concepts are taken much further in Dancer’s book, Video Poker for the Intelligent Beginner.

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Comparing Bonus Poker with Super Aces Bonus Poker

I recently came across a dollar 8/5 Super Aces Bonus Poker game and it’s been years since I played it. I know 8/5 Bonus Poker cold, and because the full house, flush, and straight are the same between the two games, the strategies must be similar. Still, they differ in the amount of the straight flush, quads, and two pair — all of which affect the strategy as well.

I thought it would be instructive to give you ten hands — three of which are played the same in the two games and the other seven are played differently. Even if you haven’t mastered both games, you might find it an interesting exercise trying to figure out which four are played the same before you look at the answers. 

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Low Variance or High Variance Video Poker – Which is Your Style?

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

A.C. says: You’ve probably heard the term “variance” in discussions and analyses of gambling games. This article helps you better understand what it means. Variance is an assessment of risk. In video poker, the risk of suffering a big loss is greater when variance is high. Correspondingly, high-variance schedules enhance the chances of getting a big win. Many players gravitate toward the higher-variance games because of that big-win factor, but those games often have lower overall return percentages. For example, a typical bar selection might include higher-variance 7/5 Double Double Bonus returning 96.71% and lower-variance 6/5 Bonus Poker returning 96.87%. It’s not a big discrepancy, but Bonus Poker is still the better game, yet it tends to get less play.

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This Made Me Uncomfortable

Bonnie and I were at Harrah’s in Cherokee, NC for a Caesars Seven Stars trip. Cherokee is in the Smoky Mountains and a world away from Las Vegas. Plus, they have $5 NSU Deuces Wild.

For a Seven Stars trip, you get up to $1,200 airfare, $500 in resort credit, and transportation to and from the airport. The airport means either Asheville (about 50 miles away, but not a direct flight) or Atlanta, which is 160 miles away (which is much easier to get to). We usually fly into Atlanta.

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Figuring the Return for 8/5 Bonus Poker with Four Progressives

Note to reader: The original version of this contained an arithmetic mistake. It was pointed out to me by a man who posts under the name “New2vp”. The error, which affected one of the tables in the chart, are in the section relating to quad 5s-Ks. The corrected version follows. Thank you New2vp.

I received an email:  Sam’s Town in Las Vegas has three different banks of 8/5 Bonus. Two of those banks have progressives on the royal flush only. The third has that progressive, plus three additional ones for the quads: aces, 2s-4s, and 5s-Ks. Since the game starts out at 99.17%, sometimes these games must be pretty good. How do I figure out how to calculate the return of these games quickly if I don’t bring computer software into the casino?

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