Video Poker

Poker is the game full of ups and downs. In this game you got to make maximum utilization of the opportunity that comes your way if you want to fulfill your dreams. Now a day’s video poker is catching the eyes of many people but at the same time there are some questions in the mind of many people like this.

Q. Will I win every time I play video poker?

A. Of course not. No one, not even the casino, wins on every playing session. Most people win occasionally at any game they play. If they didn't, they would quit playing; the casinos know this and structure the games to allow occasional big winners. With our methods, you will be able to gain an edge that will make you a favorite to win in the long run.

Q. How big a bankroll do I need?

A. That depends on the game and the denomination, but it has been covered quite extensively in this book. Go back and read the bankroll and risk sections.

Q. What if I'm really serious about winning at video poker?

A. Then you should subscribe to Video Poker Times, and you should use cue cards when you are playing any game if you haven't memorized the strategy.

Q. It says that your cue cards give the strategy as a hand rank table. What is that?

A. Many card combinations that are dealt as your first five cards can be played several ways. For example, Q"- J"- 10. 9"- 4"- (in any order) can be played as a four-card straight (holding Q"- J"10. 9"-), a four-card flush (Q"- J"- 9"- 4"-), a three-card inside straight flush (Q"- J"- 9"-) or a two-card royal flush (Q"- J"-). If the particular machine pays a big bonus for a sequential royal flush, you would also want to see if the queen is in the center position and the jack adjacent to make a sequential royal possible.

The hands on the strategy card are ordered according to Expected Value in descending order. You simply look in the hand rank table to see which combination appears first, and you hold the cards for that draw. Within a half hour of play you will memorize most of the decisions without thinking about it. (Expected Value is explained in the chapter "What Does Expected Value Really Mean?" and on the supplement sheet that comes with the cue cards.)

Q. Are cue cards hard to use?

A. Abbreviations are necessarily used to make the cards pocketsized, but the cards come with a detailed sheet that tells how to read the tables. You will quickly be able to identify any hand in the table. All serious players use hand rank tables, but if that seems too difficult then stick with the Precision Play method.

Q. Why don't you develop Precision Play rules for the cue cards instead of hand rank tables?

A. Some games are too complex to reduce the strategy to a set of rules without either a significant loss of accuracy or very complicated rules. A prime example is Double Bonus Poker.
Q. How can I be sure that a game's payback is as you state? Can't the machines be set for any payback the casino wants?

A. You're very astute. A video game is actually a special purpose digital computer, and a computer can be made to do whatever the programmer desires. Your protection is the Nevada gaming regulations which require that any machine representing a card game must be completely random, and every unseen card must have the same probability of appearing at any time. Since the Nevada Gaming Control Board tests each game before it can be used in Nevada, and it continues to spot check the machines even after they're installed, we are confident that the games obey the laws of probability close enough for our analyses to be accurate and useful. Also, the experience of many pros over years of play in the Online Casinos supports this conclusion.

Q. Okay, but what about machines in other states?

A. It is our understanding that Nevada Gaming Control requires that any manufacturer selling gaming devices in Nevada must certify that all of their machines shipped anywhere meet the Nevada standards. Of course this doesn't prevent someone from changing the program chip after a machine leaves Nevada, but we have had only one report of a machine that didn't appear to be random, and that was a foreign made machine in an Indian casino on the east coast. To be safe, you may want to avoid games in unregulated areas (including cruise ships), especially if you don't recognize the machine manufacturer.

Q. Does the payoff schedule really matter? We have heard that a machine with lower payoffs will hit more often and thus generate about the same payback as a machine with the "full-pay" schedule.

A. This is simply not true, and it would be a gross violation of Nevada Gaming Regulations if it were. Since the games are required to be random, their payback is determined by the payoff schedule and your skill, not by the internal programming.

Q. Will I automatically get a game's rated payback?

A. This is the flip side of the preceding question. Some people seem to think that the machines are programmed to yield a predetermined payback regardless of how they play. Actually, the games are random, and the long-term payback is determined only by the payoff schedule and how you select discards. Since just a few seemingly minor playing errors can significantly reduce the payback, just sitting down at a full-pay machin