Dear Mark: My question
involves Video Poker. My wife and I for
years have enjoyed playing this game in
Vegas and Laughlin, several times a year.
One disappointing thing we have noticed in
the past couple years, has been a nearly
non-existence of Royal Flush winners. In the
"good old days,” it seemed it wasn't unusual
to hear one of your neighboring players
scream when they hit the Royal. Now you
rarely do.
I do know that the traditional "9-6"
machines have pretty much been replaced with
"8-5" or even "7-5" payoffs. Could this be
the reason? Tom M.
Royal flushes of yesteryear are an easy urge
to wax nostalgic for the “good old days.” A
lack of them goads this columnist into your
question.
Correct your analysis is, Tom, in that
replacing the traditional 9/6 machines with
tighter paytables will produce fewer royal
flushes, but it’s not because the odds of
hitting one are in any way altered. On
average, once in every 40,000 hands some
buckaroo like you is going to scream
hallelujah. But when the paytables are
tightened, you run out of funds faster, and
there is fewer of everything, but what you
miss the most is, of course, the Royal
Flush.
Paytables, or pay schedules, which are
always posted somewhere on the machine, tell
you what each winning hand will pay for the
number of coins played. Casinos can "loosen"
or "tighten" the return of a game by
manipulating the number of coins won on
certain pay categories. For Jacks-or-better,
it’s the full house/flush numbers that are
the primary indicator of a machine's payback
percentage. That once traditional, now
elusive, 9/6 machine you speak of is your
return for a full house (9) and a flush (6)
with one coin inserted. It’s also associated
with a house edge of 0.5%. Compare that to a
6/5 machine (six for a full house, five for
a flush) that returns a payback of 95.00%; a
7/5 machine 96.15%; an 8/5, 97.30%; an 8/6,
98.39%; a 9/5, 98.45%.
Now here’s a possible second reason for
fewer royals. Payouts on video poker
machines are determined not only by the pay
schedule, but, also just as importantly, by
how you select which cards to discard, since
selecting the wrong cards to throw away will
reduce the overall payout. Even if you’re
playing on a 9/6 machine, the odds won’t
swing in your favor unless you learn how to
play each and every hand correctly. You
might be surrounded lately by shoddy play.
Oh, and one more thing, Tom. For good
measure we better talk about your shortened
gambling “timeline” -- the time you spend at
the machine. It is possibly limited to
hundreds of hands of video poker, not
millions, so any percentage return (like no
bells or whistles going off for a royal)
can, and will happen. The Law of Averages
(more revealingly also known as the Law of
Big Numbers) might not have had much of a
workout during your time in the casino, and
since the machine will, on average, display
a royal flush every 40,000 hands, possibly
you and surrounding players are not playing
anywhere near that many hands.
Dear Mark: Do you know what is meant
by 99% slot machine payback? Does every
machine payback 99% of what you put in it?
Phil G.
Each machine is distinctly designed and
tested to assure the casino a definite
payback percentage. The “payback percentage”
is the portion of the money put into the
slot that is eventually paid out to the
player.
In the example you cite, a payback of 99%,
the casino will over time keep about 1% of
all money put into the slot. You, Phil,
should get back 99 cents of every dollar you
insert. Of course, don’t expect 99 cents to
clang in the tray for every dollar’s worth
of handle yanks. The percentage return is a
long-term concept. Your gaming timeline
(there’s that word again) is possibly
limited to 200 pulls of the handle, not
millions, so any percentage return (as low
as a goose egg to as high as a
mega-jackpot), can, and will happen. Now
that’s deja vu all over again.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week:
"To me, it seems like Hold'em is just a game
for bullies with deep pockets." -Kevin
Pollak
