"Could have been" should
cost
26 May 2006
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
In poker, what are your thoughts about a player
requesting that the dealer to show the next
card, even if the hand is officially dead? The
group of a dozen or so I normally play with has
three players who want to see the next card or
cards that could have made their hand. I, on the
other hand, believe once the hand is over, it’s
over, and if a player really wants to see the
next card then that player should have bet.
We’ll go by your ruling. Melvin G.
I’m with you, Mel. “What if” players should
shove their chips in the middle if they want to
see whether they would have hit their straight,
flush, four-of-a-kind, etc.
In gamblese, it’s called rabbit hunting, where
you ask a dealer to show you the next card(s),
even though a player has already won the pot
without a showdown, and the hand is over.
Most card clubs, casinos and poker tournaments
prohibit rabbit hunting, although I have played
in a few games where rabbit hunting is
permitted, once all live hands have been
surrendered to the dealer.
I have found that when you permit a look-see at
the “next” card(s) of an unmatched wager, the
privilege is always abused. Solution for your
kitchen table game: allow it, but, if a player
really wants to know whether he/she could have
won by staying in the hand longer, a
contribution is called for – one, possibly two
additional betting units to the next pot. That
should keep those curious sorts from having a
dealer deal the flop, turn or river cards to see
what would have, should have, could have been.
Dear Mark,
Normally I play Jacks-or-better video poker. I
am always on the hunt for 9/6 machines, which by
the way are getting very tough to find, or those
with an 8/5 paytable. The casino where I play
also has 7/5 and 6/5 machines. How much is the
player giving up if they play on machines that
pay less for a full house and a flush than 9/6?
Barb D.
With video poker, Barb, you can actually see the
price and financial return you can expect when
playing the game. That’s why I've used more than
my share of ink writing about shopping for value
and playing on video poker machines with the
best paytables.
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.
A 9/6 machine makes the payback, or return of 9
units or a full house and 6 units for a flush,
with one coin inserted. A 9/6 Jacks-or-better
paytable should look like this:
Royal Flush 250
Straight Flush 50
Four of a Kind 25
Full House 9
Flush 6
Straight 4
Three of a Kind 3
Two Pair 2
Jacks or Better 1
One caveat though, Barb: the payback percentages
listed below are based on thousands of hands of
video poker, and include hitting an elusive
royal flush. They are not based on your personal
gambling timeline such as downing two Bloody
Mary’s or burning through a roll of quarters.
A 6/5 machine (six for a full house, five for a
flush) returns 95.00%; a 7/5 machine 96.15%; an
8/5, 97.30%; an 8/6, 98.39%; a 9/5, 98.45%; and
that phantom 9/6 machine 99.54%.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Limit poker is a
science, but no-limit is an art. In limit you
are shooting at a target. In no-limit, the
target comes alive and shoots back at you.”
--Crandall Addington, Texas oil millionaire
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