Multiple ways of winning,
and losing
24 January 2005
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
What is the advantage/disadvantage of playing
the multiple handed video poker machines? As
more hands are played off one original hand, are
the paybacks more or less in the favor of the
player? Nadle
Take the popular Video Poker; multiply it by
100, and what do you get? Multi-Hand Video
Poker. The math is easy so far, right?
Those good folks who have played it know the
appeal of this game, especially when dealt a pat
full house, or perhaps a hand one card shy of a
royal flush. The first time I played a
multi-hand machine I got a 10, J, Q, K, and nine
of spades on a 50-hand machine. When I discarded
the nine, I got FIVE, count-em, FIVE royal
flushes, more than I've had in my entire
lifetime before or since. Regrettably, I had
been day-dreaming at the time, and it had just
been my scampish left hand sneaking pennies into
the machine at a penny a hand, so the total
payout for my wondrous five royals didn't even
pay for my prime rib buffet, a funerary
celebration of my video poker triumph.
Multi-Hand Video Poker is played just like
conventional video poker, except you can play
"up to" 100 hands at once. You begin by choosing
the number of hands you wish to play by clicking
one of the numbers across the bottom of the
video poker screen: 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 or 100.
Next, you place a bet -- the machine being
multi-denominational, it accepts bets ranging
from pennies to $1 units -- and click the Deal
button. If you decide to play the maximum coin
amount, just click Bet Max for five credits for
every hand you choose to play. After you click
Deal, you are presented with five cards. On the
screen, each hand you are playing (from the 1st
to the 100th) will contain these same five
cards. Just as in conventional video poker, you
choose your keepers. All of the favorable cards
you choose to hold from the initial hand are
copied to each remaining hand played.When you're
ready to draw new cards, click the Deal button.
For each hand you play, a random set of
replacement cards is drawn for each successive
hand.
To show 100 hands on a video screen, each hand
has to be teensy weensy in size making it all
but impossible for anyone to keep track of
what's going on as 100 hands simultaneously play
out at high speed, so forget about trying to
watch each individual draw. The end result is
that the computer driving the game will
highlight all your winners, displaying the
amount returned, and the total accumulated
credits. In addition, at the bottom of each
winning hand, a color-coded bar appears,
indicating the type of hand and coins won. Also,
in the bottom left or right corner of the
screen, a corresponding chart appears, telling
how many of each type of winning hands the
player has hit.
The odds for multi-hand video poker are the same
as for the single-hand version. Playing each
hand multiple times magnifies its strength or
weakness, but overall, the odds don't change.
Therefore, strategies for optimizing your return
at the single-hand versions carry over to the
multiple-hand versions, so long as you shop for
the best paytables.
So, is there a downside to Multi-Hand Video
Poker? You betcha!
Speed kills in a casino, meaning, the more hands
you play per hour, the more you subject your
gambling funds to the house edge. Though playing
one hand of video poker, you are getting 100
different results on the draw, each subject to a
built-in casino advantage. And although
multi-hand Video Poker can increase your earning
potential on good hands, it also magnifies your
losing potential on bad hands, evaporating your
bankroll very quickly. If you are playing 5-coin
single-handed video poker at a quarter a throw
and are dealt "junk," all you have at stake is
$1.25. With multi-hand play you would have much
more invested in those same awful cards. Even if
you are betting pennies, the maximum-coins you
will risk at 100 hands is $5 per play, which is
quadruple the maximum on single-hand quarter
games. Make it nickels, and you are on the hook
for $25 per hand. It ain't cheap, is it? Only
you, Nadie, know if Multi-Hand Video Poker is
within your means.
Gambling quote of the week: "A man needs a
motive to play poker. For me it's money." poker
legend Doyle Brunson
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