We\u2019ve all heard of counting cards at blackjack. This is nothing like that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I enjoy it, I find playing video poker for hours on end to be tedious. To combat this, I count hands to keep my mind in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I\u2019m playing Jacks or Better, I count \u201cquad scares,\u201d which is the number of cards I draw that didn\u2019t fill in a four-of-a-kind. Say I\u2019m dealt 4 4 5 4 2. (No need to fill in the suits as flushes aren\u2019t relevant here.) On the deal, when I drew the 2, it could have been the case 4, so that increases my count by one. After holding the three fours, if I draw two more blanks that increases my score by two more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Straight flush scares count as two. If I were dealt 4\u2660 5\u2660 6\u2660 7\u2660 K\u2666<\/font>, I\u2019d add four to my count because when the K was dealt, it could have been either the 3\u2660 or the 8\u2660, either of which would have completed the straight flush. Yes, I know a straight flush scare is not a quad scare, but this is the way I do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I count royal scares as being worth 10. This is way less than it should be, based on the value of the hand, but it\u2019s what I use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a game such as Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker, or a variety of other games where quad 2s, 3s, and 4s pay a premium and quad aces pay a bigger premium, I weight the scares for 2s, 3s, and 4s as being worth two each and ace scares being worth three each. In games with kickers, sometimes I\u2019ll count kicker scares as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Deuces Wild, I count straight flush scares as being worth one, five-of-a-kind scares as being worth two, wild royal scares as being worth three, four deuce scares as being worth five, and royal scares as being worth 10. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the South Point, sometimes I play Five Play Jacks or Better Multi Strike. I don\u2019t count scares on this game, but completed quad, straight flushes, and royal flushes. When these happen on the 1x line, they are worth one, two, and ten, respectively. On the 2x line, these values are doubled. On the 4x line I multiply by four, and on the top line I multiply by eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I\u2019m playing Triple Play or Five Play, I usually keep the same system. If I\u2019m playing Ten Play, Fifty Play, or Hundred Play, I\u2019ll just keep track of completed hands rather than scares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been awhile since I\u2019ve played Joker Wild, Super Double Bonus, Deuces Wild Double Bonus, or other games not mentioned above. But when I do, I\u2019ll change my counting system to account for the relevant hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does it matter at the end of the day whether my count ended up 107 or 216? Absolutely not. How serious is it if I lose track of my count? It\u2019s not serious at all. I just make a guess and keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the count number itself is worthless, I find this process of counting keeps my head in the game and keeps my mind from wandering. And that, as they say, is priceless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you think this will work for you, you\u2019re welcome to adopt my system. If you don\u2019t think it would be helpful, it doesn\u2019t bother me if you don\u2019t use it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019ve all heard of counting cards at blackjack. This is nothing like that. While I enjoy it, I find playing video poker for hours on end to be tedious. To combat this, I count hands to keep my mind in the game. If I\u2019m playing Jacks or Better, I count \u201cquad scares,\u201d which is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[558,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":875825,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875824\/revisions\/875825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}