Slots and pots revisited
14 April 2003
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
If the house edge is only .05% on a 9/6 video
poker machine, how important is hitting the
royal flush in the overall payback? I usually
play a $1 machine. Joe L.
As stated in past columns, 9/6 (full house: 9,
flush: 6, one coin inserted) Jacks or Better
video poker is associated with a house edge of
0.5%.
But if you do not hit a royal flush, the casino
advantage will be higher. As a matter of fact,
Joe, the royal flush is so dominant in casino
payout calculations for video poker machines,
that until you hit that royal flush you'll be
losing beaucoup more than chicken scratch,
especially on a $1 machine.
Even with your keen eye identifying machines
with a decent payback, expect to lose more than
the .05% house edge on a 9/6 video poker
machine. "And why is that?" you ask, mentally
doping out the statistics of the thing. Because,
Joe, the casino trolls figure that once in every
40,000 hands, some buckaroo is going to drop a
Royal Flush on Œem, and they'd better be ready
for it. From the typical player's point of view,
that's a bit scummy, since his never wife will
never let him play 40,000 hands.
So how much of a hit are you taking without
hooking a royal flush? On a $1 Jacks or Better
9/6 machine, the kind that you play, you will
lose at a rate of 2.5% while you hope, pray, and
sweat for a royal.
Here's another way of looking at it. If you were
to play 600 hands per hour, you should expect to
lose about $75 per hour, on average, for each
hour you play without hitting that elusive
royal. Waving bye-bye to that kind of chump
change might be a mild annoyance for some, but
catastrophic for others. You recall that old
household tune: "Remember the second mortgage."
Dear Mark,
I have a question about playing slots. If I were
to play a 3 coin, $1 slot machine that states a
98% payback or better, and I put in only one or
two coins, do I still get the 98% advertised
payback? Or is that only when I play the maximum
coin amount? George A.
For almost all multiple-pay and multiple-play
slot machines, playing the maximum coin level
will yield the best percentage payback. You can
see this on the machine's paytable; note the
proportional differences among payoff
categories. For example: One coin inserted pays
500 coins, two coins 1000, and three coins a
tidy 4000. Paydirt, George, when you play three
coins, but when you play fewer, that advertised
98% payback spirals south.
If you can afford to play the maximum coins
allowed, George, do so. If you cannot hack that
on the one-dollar-eater, you might switch to a
lower denomination machine.
Dear Mark,
Compared to Caribbean Stud Poker and Let it
Ride, is Three Card Poker a better game to play?
Lowell A.
The object of Three Card Poker is to have a
three-card poker hand (no draws) that beats the
dealer's three-card poker hand. Or, if you do
not want to bet against the dealer, you can bet
instead that your three-card hand will be at
least a pair.
The casino's edge for the Pair Plus is 2.3
percent and for the Ante wager it's 3.4 percent,
based on the initial bet, or 2% and 2.3%
respectively based on the total money wagered.
The house edge for Caribbean Stud Poker is 5.3%
and 3.5% for Let it Ride. Three Card Poker,
Lowell, is clearly the better game for the
player.
Gambling quote of the week: "People are led to
believe that they can use some sort of voodoo or
crystal-ball gazing to win, then they go out and
lose their hard-earned money plying those
worthless techniques." Jean Scott, Strictly
Slots
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