Video Poker FAQ Can I Win at Video Poker? What is unique about video poker that makes it a good bet? You say that video poker is the only casino game that the average person can win at. I know people who win at other games. How do you reconcile that? Is it really possible to be a winner in the long run at video poker? Optimum play? That sounds like work, and I just want to have some fun. Can I have fun and win, too? Do I have to learn to count cards? When I hold and draw, are the cards dealt off the top of the deck, or do they "line up behind" the dealt cards? What if there are none of the recommended games in my area. Can I still be a winner? With your method, will I win every time I play video poker? Okay, but what about machines in other gaming areas? Can you beat the random number generators of video poker? If so, what software can I purchase to do it? Isn't all of this a sales pitch? Good Games - What, Where, and Why? You say I must select a good game. How will I recognize a good game when I see it? What is meant by a game's "payback" or "rated payback"? Where can I find good games? You use the term "full pay" a lot. What does this mean? Where can I find full pay Deuces Wild machines in Tunica? Do you expect more good games to become available, especially outside southern Nevada? Why do some casinos offer games with over 100% payback? Doesn't the casino lose money on them? Have any games been taken out or changed because the casino was losing money on them? The Williams multi-game machines have two unusual games, Money Fever which pays a bonus for seven hands after a flush, and Multi Pay which pays for more than one payoff (e.g., a full house also yields the payoff for three-of-a-kind and two pair, and for a high pair if applicable). Are these games worth playing? What is the best video poker game available in Atlantic City? Where is it located, and who has strategy cards for it? If a video poker machine uses only one standard 52-card deck, how can you draw the card that you discard? It happens to me all the time. I hold 10,J,Q,K of spades and discard the jack of hearts to draw to the royal flush, but many times I get the jack of hearts back on the draw. How is this possible? There are a lot of "Aces & Faces" machines that pay a bonus for Four of a Kind if they are aces or face cards. The also pay 2-for-1 on two pair, which seems to be unusual nowadays. Are they a good bet, and are there any changes in strategy from Precision Play? I have played some double-double machines that pay 10/7 but cut down on the lower hands. Are these machines worth playing, or should I stick to 9/6 when I can find them? You say that in Las Vegas you recommend Deuces Wild over Double Bonus Poker. I like to play dollars or multi-play machines, and there are very few if any full pay Deuces Wild but many full pay Double Bonus games on such machines. Do you still recommend Deuces for me? I hear that the pros prefer Double Bonus over Deuces Wild. Why? I play mostly at the Isle of Capri and Players Island boats in Lake Charles, the Grand Casino Coushatta in Kender, and the Grand Casino Avoyelles in Marksville (all in Louisiana). I love Deuces Wild and Jacks or Better video poker. I have noticed Jacks or Better "Aces or Faces" machines at the Grand Casinos. Are these good? What machines do you recommend at each of these casinos? What is the best way to select a video poker machine? What does it mean when you talk about 10/7, 9/6, 8/6, 8/5 machines, etc.? Bankroll Considerations How big a bankroll do I need to be a successful video poker winner? If I have $200 to play with on video poker, should I play one machine or several? If your answer is to stay on one machine, does that mean even if it is not paying off at first? And should I stay on the same machine even after I hit a royal flush or other large payoff? What forms of money management do you recommend? How long do I have to play to be sure of achieving a game's rated payback? When I go to the casino to play video poker, I divide my bankroll into three sessions. What, in your opinion, is a good starting bankroll? You use the term "action" a lot. Just what does that mean? Playing Strategies What is Precision Play? You say that your cue cards give the strategy as a hand rank table. What is that? Are the cue cards hard to use? Does playing on a multi-play machine alter the payback odds and/or the bankroll necessary to hit the royal (as compared to the single play version of the same game)? I know the correct strategy for 9/6 Jacks or Better, but we like to sit at the bar and have free drinks while we play, and most of the machines are 8/5. What kind of different play do we use for those machines? Some of the bar areas have a progressive, but it's seldom very high. I like to play Deuces Wild but would like some advice. When dealt two matching royal cards and three deuces, is it best to hold all or should I hold only the deuces hoping for the last one to show? Are there different guidelines for playing multi-game or multi-play machines? I often play the IGT MultiPoker machines. I will play Deuces Wild to try for the four deuces, but when I run low on credits I switch to Bonus Poker Deluxe to try for the 400 coins for four-of-a-kind to build up credits. Is this a good strategy? It seems like it is rare to hit the royal or four deuces, so the bigger payoffs don't come on the Deuces Wild even though it it supposed to be 100.75% payback. You say that you should never double up (on a machine that offers that option after a winning hand). It seems to me, however, that the percentage return is actually increased when I double up. So why shouldn't I double up? When playing a full-pay Deuces Wild with 4700-coin royal, is there any change in the way I should play a hand with a 2-card royal consisting of a king and a suited queen, jack or ten? While practicing full pay Deuces Wild on WinPoker 6, I was dealt 5h-6h-7s-8h-Qc, and I held 5h-6h-7s-8h. The program indicated that this was an error, so I plugged the cards into the hand analysis, and it gave an EV of 1.7021 for both 5h-6h-7s-8h and 5h-6h-8h. Although the values are the same, I feel that the inside straight draw is superior to the double inside straight flush draw because a larger percentage of possible final hands yield a payoff, making it the lower volatility play. Why does WinPoker say that this is wrong? I keep encountering the following situation when playing Jacks or Better. I'm dealt 4c-As-3c-Qs-2c. Rule #6 of the Precision Play rules for Jacks or Better in Video Poker - Optimum Play implies that I should keep the three clubs for a SF draw, but the tutoring program gives me a warning that the better play is to hold the two high spades. In Table 2: Pre-draw hands - Jacks or Better, it appears that the EV is better with the "Straight Flush 3 h0" (0.625) than the 'A-Q suited' (0.578). Am I misinterpreting your rules? What Is Meant by "The Long Run"? You use the term "long run" a lot. What time frame constitutes a long run? What is meant by a royal cycle? If a machine has been played for that many hands, is it due to hit a royal? I only get to a casino a few weekends a year. Since I can never reach the "long run," what's the point in learning a strategy and playing only the games that are rated at over 100% payback? Does the "professional" VP Player stay at one machine even if it's "dead"? I am aware of the statistics, etc., but if playing for two hours or so on the same machine and getting very little better than pairs and two pairs at Double Bonus, do you move along and change machines? If I go to the casino once per week for a year with $1,000 each session, this would constitute continuous play wouldn't it? Based on the formula then, my Risk of Ruin is below 10%. What is the dollar value of my expected win? Internet Casinos and Indian Casinos There are now many "online" casinos on the internet where you can play for real money from your own home. Are these games honest? Do these casinos really pay off when you win? Where are the best casinos on line where you don't get stiffed (because I just did)? While looking around for a good video poker game in an Indian casino, I found a blackjack machine with fantastic rules. The dealer stood on any 17, Blackjack paid two-to-one, you could double on any first two cards, even after a split, and you could split any two cards (they didn't even have to be a pair). This should give the player a huge advantage, yet I could not score a winning session, and it appeared that other players on these machines were all losing. The machine was made in Taiwan. What gives? Regulations and Enforcement How can I be sure that a game's payback is as you state? I've heard that the machines be set for any payback the casino wants. You have cited Louisiana's rigorous regulations on how a machine must deal the cards. Nevada's regulations are not as specific on how the cards are dealt, but it specifies a test on the random number generator. It appears that many other states rely pretty much on tests performed in Nevada. Is this actually the case? Could the machine be set to eliminate these winners so the house has a greater advantage than implied by its 9/6 pay schedule? In Foxwoods, the only 9/6 Jacks or Better I could find was in $5.00 denomination. I played two hours and got one straight flush, but in all that time I did not get one full house or flush. What do you think of California's Proposition 1A constitutional amendment, which passed by a landslide two-to-one margin, legalizing Nevada style casinos on Indian reservations in that state? Can I be assured that if I play a video poker machine displaying the correct payoff schedule, for example full pay Deuces Wild which should return 100.76%, and utilize optimal play, that I will receive 100.76% payback in the long run at any casino? Is certification necessary if the pay schedule is correctly stated and visibly displayed on a video poker machine? Is it likely that some casinos displaying 100% and over pay schedules on their machines could be paying less than 100% payback, due to an EPROM (chip) reprogramming scheme? Slot Clubs and Comps How does it affect comps when two persons are signed up on the same slot card? In Las Vegas, where my wife and I are on the same card, it seems to help a great deal on the offers and comps we receive. In Tunica where we have separate accounts it seems to be a problem to get hosts to look at both accounts for room comps or even room availability on busy weekends. My wife and I received an offer in the mail for full RFB comps at a certain hotel if we played at least $10,000 per day in their casino. We took them up on it, and we both played quarter video poker for more than six hours per day. Since we both play over 800 hands per hour, I figure that's well over $10,000 per day, all on one slot club account. We charged all food to the room. When we checked out, however, they onlycomped about half of our charges. What should I have done? What is meant by "card pulling"? Winning Expectations What if I'm really serious about winning at video poker? What should I do? What is the average for winning at video poker? How does one increase one's odds of winning? Does a tutoring program give a realistic total return for the way I play? I like Deuces Wild because the game offers 100.76% return with perfect play, and the strategy is relatively easy to learn. I play around 900 hands per hour, and after many practice sessions WinPoker tells me that I play at 98.9% accuracy. Am I really getting less than 100% return? I often hear people refer to playing at a higher percentage, or at a higher total value because of extra points that particular day, a high progressive meter, etc. How do I go about analyzing such variables to determine the total expected value of my play? Miscellaneous Questions Some of your prices seem high. I've seen lower cost video poker books and strategies advertised. Will you match their prices? Some people will hit a big hand with a small bet and say it didn't matter because it would not have hit if they were playing maximum coins. Others say it would have hit no matter how many coins were bet. If a machine hits a good hand with only one or two coins bet, would the same hand have appeared if I had played the maximum? What is the best way to select a casino? Isn't it about time that you video poker gurus stop asking us to believe all that stuff about how we can be successful in the long term if we play certain high-return machines perfectly (or near perfectly)? If it were true, why aren't there literally millions of "easy money" players? In fact, why aren't you yourself playing 20 hours per day? Aren't you theoretically losing money when you do not play? I've heard about a breakthrough new book that's completely different from all the others I've read in the last ten years, called "The Undeniable Truth About Video Poker." I for one am interested in it. Do you know more about it? Is there a best time to play? While playing Jacks-or-Better, a rather annoying chap beside me noticed that when dealt nothing better than two unsuited high cards, I always held both high cards. He said it's better to hold only one card to try for the royal flush. Which of us is right? I would like to know the difference one could expect when you only hold one of two non-suited high cards. Also, how often does this opportunity occur, and what is the cost of making the wrong play? I was told that unless I play maximum coins in a video poker machine, I will never hit the royal flush. Is that true? Suppose you are playing 9/6 Jacks or Better and you are dealt an ace, queen, jack, jack and ten of various suits. The usual play is to keep the jacks rather than try for an inside straight. After the draw you just have the jacks, but the first draw card was a king, which would have given you the straight. Does the machine count the straight's earnings as part of the percentage return on the machine? What do you think of the video poker machines that let you play three or five or even up to 50 hands at once? Is it a good way to win quickly, or is it just a fast way to burn through your bankroll? I was watching a man play in a weird way. When he got any payoff, he would press the Max Bet button quickly. When there was no payoff, he would press the Bet One button fairly quickly, then wait a few seconds, press it again, and repeat this agonizingly slow process until five credits had been bet and the game started. What effect would this have on the results? When should I draw for a diamond flush? How can I recognize when a video poker machine is ready to pay? I recently saw an ad for a casino saying that their slot machines are 61% looser. Is this a good place to play? When practicing video poker on a tutoring program on my home computer, does the software consider whether I am playing dollars or quarters? Can the slot club track my play to determine whether I'm a skilled player? Are skilled players ever barred? Why is it that the machine is always winning and I am always losing? When dealt four to a royal on a single play machine, the probability of a royal is exactly 1/47. On a Triple Play machine, it is possible to get three royals, with equal probability of a royal on each line. So, when dealt four to a royal on a Triple Play machine, is the probability of a royal less than, equal to, or greater than 3/47? Why don't I get any slot club points when I play a lot at the Regent Las Vegas?