Video Poker Questions
by John Grochowski
Questions, questions "� video poker players always seem to have questions. Let's dip into the video poker mailbag and try to answer a couple:
Q. I found a video poker game with an interesting chance to double your winnings. A card spins on the screen, and you have to pick high (9 through Ace) or low (2 through 7). An 8 is a push, and you just keep your original winnings. This seems to me like a true even-money bet and therefore the best bet this side of the free odds in craps.
Is this correct, and is there any strategy as to when to do it and when not? Also, if you win the first time do you double again? You can double up to four times.
A. The Double-Up bet you describe is, indeed, an even wager with no house edge, provided the machine draws the cards randomly. There are six denominations from 2 through 7, and six more from 9 through Ace. And since the remaining cards, the 8s, are a push, there's no edge on this bet either way, just as there's no edge on the free odds wager in craps. It's the electronic equivalent of a coin flip.
Remember, though, that although the house has no edge here, neither do you. If you enjoy the doubling option, play it; if not, don't. In the long run, you'll wind up the same either way.
Let your own tastes and bankroll guide you in deciding how many times to double up.
On an even bet, the odds against winning two consecutive trials are 3-1; the odds are 7-1 against winning three in a row and 15-1 against winning four in a row.
However, the odds on winning your next bet always are even. If you've already won three in a row, the odds of winning the fourth no longer are 15-1; they're even.
Q. I have always considered a 1-for-1 payoff to be no payoff at all. If I, as the bettor, wager five coins on a Jacks or Better machine and get back five coins for a pair of Jacks, I am merely getting the return of my money that I have put up to bet. In effect, the house has put up nothing on the wager.
I feel there should be nothing less than a 2-for-1 payoff. If the bettor puts up one, two, three, four or five coins, then the house should put up the same, and any minimum winning payout would have to include the return of the original bet plus the equal amount in payout.
How does one get this changed, if that's at all possible?
A. Video poker machines that merely return your bet for a pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces are so well entrenched that I don't think you could change it. I also don't think such a change would be desirable.
A 1-for-1 payoff on the minimum winning hands are video poker's equivalent of a push in blackjack -- and many is the time I've sat with a 17 against a dealer's Ace and been grateful to get a push when the dealer turned up a 6. From ties in baccarat to split hands in pai-gow poker, pushes are a part of the fabric of gaming. The outcome that leaves your bet alive for another chance is a perfectly legitimate outcome.
You're also asking the house to "put up"� at least as much as your wager on all paying hands, but I notice you're not offering to put up at least as much as the house.
On a royal flush we can get back 4,000 coins even though we put up only five.
That aside, I think video poker games that had no payoffs of less than 2-for-1 would be unplayable. The pay table would have to be kept in balance -- a casino that offers 7-5 Jacks or Better, paying 96.2 percent to experts, isn't suddenly going to start paying 120
percent or so by raising payoffs on high pairs to 2-for-1 without making some adjustments. Pairs of Jacks and Queens would have to become zero-pay hands. That would drastically reduce the number of paying hands and make results more volatile -- most of the time, you'd heading for the exit quickly.
In most games, the 1-for-1 payoffs are the most common paying hands on the machine, and they keep you going until something better comes along. They are important to the player -- too important to give up for a belief that a bet ought to be met with more than a push.
John Grochowski's website is: www.casinoanswerman.com
