Feed the right machine the right strategy
and it’s fun times all the way
October 16,
2009
Dear Mark: When
playing video poker would you suggest staying
with Jacks or Better or are there better
machines to play? Tim F.
There are more than a hundred different video
poker variations to choose from, Tim, games like
Jacks, Joker Poker, Deuces Wild, Double Bonus,
Double Double Bonus, etc., and all of them have
different pay tables necessitating distinct
playing strategies.
Given such a
supermarket selection of machines, I recommend
learning and limiting your play to two. And
which two are they? Well, Tim, what it really
boils down to is playing on a machine that has
the highest return to the player. It’s all about
the pay tables, Tim, and using a correct
strategy for your chosen machine.
Your biggest advantage in playing video poker is
that you can determine the “Expected Return”
(ER) of a machine just by looking at the pay
table on the front of thing.
Some
video poker games even offer an over-100% return
in concert with the correct playing strategy.
Although most of the games with a “Positive
Expectation” (100% payback) are offered where
gaming is competitive, e.g. Nevada, there are
plenty of full-pay video poker machines that
offer decent returns in many other gaming
jurisdictions. When you couple a full-pay video
poker machine with incentives like cash back,
free play, and other comps and goodies, video
poker can become a winning proposition.
To learn how to identify decent pay tables
and the proper strategy for them, an appropriate
Google search might be: "poker pay tables,
strategy.” If you’re not interested in learning
proper strategy, Tim, or seeking out liberal pay
tables, then plan on video poker becoming a
disappointingly expensive form of gambling.
Dear Mark: In regards to your
column last week on whether a dealer can offer
suggestions, I ran across one of those dealers
who worked in a casino where he couldn’t give
advice, but I did ask him as I was leaving what
he thought of my game. As I left the table he
said my game was okay, but that I should be
taking some extra hits when it came to soft
hands. So, Mark, any suggestions would be
greatly appreciated. Terrance T.
Players make more mistakes with soft hands
(a hand which includes an Ace that can be used
as a one or an 11) than with any other hand in
blackjack. You wouldn’t misplay them quite so
often if you commit to memory these two simple
rules:
First, you can never bust a
soft hand with a one-card hit. If you have a
soft 15, such as Ace-2-2, and draw a face card,
you can only make it a hard 15, with the Ace now
being used as a one.
Second, soft
hands of 17 and lower cannot win outright unless
the dealer busts. So. Terrance, if you can't
bust your own hand with a one-card hit, and
you’re sitting on a hand that can't win unless
the dealer busts, the question becomes, why
would you stand? With a soft 17 or lower, the
decision is whether to hit or double down our
your first two cards, and not whether to hit or
stand.
But that's not to say you should
hit all soft hands. You want to stand on a soft
19, 20 or 21, and on occasion, a soft 18. The
soft 18, Terrance, is the tricky one. Most
players figure it to be a decent hand, but
unfortunately, a soft 18 is not a winner in the
long run if the dealer's up card is a 9 or
higher. So, Terrance, hit a soft 18 if the
dealer's up card is a 9, 10-value or Ace. Stand
on soft 18 if the dealer is showing a 2, 7 or 8,
and double down if their face-up card is a 3, 4,
5 or 6.
Gambling Wisdom of the
Week: “I won’t say he’s dumb, but when
he won a gold bracelet at the World Series of
Poker, he was so proud of it, he had it
bronzed.” –VP Pappy
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