Eyes OK; just a
camouflaged rule
3 June 2003
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
The answer to this question is probably right in
front of my eyes, but I cannot see it. I was
watching a Poker tournament on the Travel
channel when player A, after seeing his first
two cards, bets $10,000. Player B, still in the
game but with far fewer chips, pushes all his
chips to the center and states "all-in." My
question is, why can player B, with far fewer
chips and unable to sustain the future raises of
player A, still be able to challenge Player A?
Ralph I.
Key to this mystery is the "All-in." Poker in
most casinos is played as "table stakes,"
meaning that only the chips in play at the
beginning of each the hand can be used
throughout that hand. The table stakes rule has
a handmaiden rule, called the "All-In": a player
cannot be forced to forfeit a hand simply
because he/she lacks sufficient chips to call
the bet.
A player who does not have enough chips to call
a bet is declared All-In. That player, if a
winner, qualifies for only that portion of the
pot as it stood at the time of his final wager,
not the whole pot. All further action among the
other players, following a bettor's "All-in"
declaration, takes place in a "side pot," which
is inaccessible to the All-In player.
Dear Mark,
On Deuces Wild in video poker, what are the
chances of getting four deuces? I actually hit
one the other night and was wondering how
difficult a feat it was. This leads me to my
second question. I have never gotten a royal
flush on a Deuces Wild machine. Is it harder in
Deuces Wild than other versions of video poker?
Henry C.
Though hitting four deuces is not the grande
victoire of Deuces Wild video poker, it is still
a neat tour de force. On average, you will see
four deuces once in every 4,900 hands. As to the
second part of your question, yes, Henry, it is
much harder to get a royal flush at Deuces Wild
than it is on your standard Jacks-or-better
machine, and here's why.
A royal flush, on average, will appear once
every in 40,000 hands of Jacks-or-better. The
royal is more scarce playing Deuces Wild,
because we hold every deuce we get, causing the
royal flush to occur at a lower average
frequency in that game than in other versions of
video poker. Holding all those deuces
statistically changes the royal flush's
appearance to every 46,000 hands instead of
every 40,000.
By the way, though you didn't ask, accept a
freebie: deuces royal happens once in every 650
hands.
Dear Mark,
I'm not familiar with the word "street" used in
the connection you used for last week's column
on Hold'em poker. Hordes of readers probably
are, but there may be some dummies like me, who
would benefit from a touch of
jargon-clarification. J. N.
There are four rounds of betting in Hold'em. The
fourth street is the fourth card on the board,
and the third round of betting. It is also
called "the turn." The fifth and final community
card, dealt in flop games, is called fifth
street in Hold'em and Omaha. It is also termed
"the river" and begins the final round of
betting. See how easy that is? Now I suppose
you'll want me to define "the turn" and "the
river" and "community card" and "flop games,"
right?
Gambling quote of the week: "The serious gambler
is a man who is at war with chance and all her
bitchy whimsy." William Pearson, The Muses of
Ruin
|
