Page 22 - December 2006 • Southern California Gaming Guide

The Frugal GamblerTM: Jean Scott
Frugal Video Poker: Playing in a Video Poker Tournament
e following is an excerpt from Chapter 14 of Frugal Video Poker by Jean Scott and Viktor Nacht
Tournaments can be great opportunities to add value to your casino play. ese can be o ered in a variety of games, including video poker, and in many formats. Some are short- term events but often many casinos hold 2- or 3- day tournaments that may include a free
room and extras like meals, parties, and gifts. ese can be invitational events that the casinos give as a comp to their best customers, or you pay an entry fee, which might range from about $200 to $1,000, with a corresponding range of total prize packages.
To gure out whether a speci c tournament is a good choice for you, you must gure out the “equity,” that is, what it is worth to you. If you know how much money is in the total prize pool and how many people are in the tournament, it is easy to gure
the basic cash equity. Let’s say the tournament is limited to 200 participants and the casino is giving out $40,000 in prizes. Divide $40,000 by 200 and you will see that the cash equity is $200 per person. If you have to pay an entry fee of $100, then your net equity is $100. If the entry fee is $300, you are “in the hole” $100 before you start, so there is negative equity.
However, you might want
to add the value of tangible
bene ts that are provided to
the participants, i.e., the free room, food, and/or gifts.
And some people would even count intangible bene ts: the party atmosphere, the thrill of competing for big- money prizes, the camaraderie. So “value” becomes a personal thing.
ere are two basic types of video poker tournaments — one in which speed is a factor and one in which it is not. If you are given a speci c time limit with no cap on the number of hands/credits you can play, obviously the faster you play the more hands you can get in — with more chances to rack up credits. If you are a slow player, you will de nitely be
at a disadvantage because there are always some speed- demons!
e second kind of video poker tournament format is more common: everyone is given the same number of credits to start and a time limit in which to play those credits. Usually, most players can nish within the time
“No matter which kind of format you are playing in, video poker tournaments require special skills. But this does not mean that you use the same strategy skills you use during your regular video poker play. These strategies must be modified in
en at some point, unless you get lucky and hit a big hand early, it is necessary to play much more aggressively for the big-pay hands (quads, aces, royals). You’ll dramatically increase this aggressiveness as you near the end if you are falling behind and have no chance of advancing/winning unless you hit a big score. However, if you hit a big score early, you might want to ride out the rest of the time, reverting to a more basic strategy.
e experienced player who knows when and how to change his strategy always has a long-term edge on the inexperienced player. However, in video poker tournaments, as in all short-term gambling endeavors, luck is a bigger factor than skill.
e Frugal Video Poker software has a tournament mode that will gives you practice in making rapid decisions. By combining a few wise strategy changes with quick play, you can give yourself an edge in video poker tournaments. It takes experience to get the hang of them but practicing with computer software will speed up your move into the skilled ranks and cashing in more tournaments.
If you want to learn more about getting comps and how to get more of them, you might want to read two books by Jean Scott: The Frugal Gambler and More Frugal Gambling. Go to her Web site (www.QueenofComps.com) for other products, including the brand new book, Frugal Video Poker by Jean Scott and Viktor Nacht.
major ways to be successful.”
limit without undue rushing. No matter which kind of
format you are playing in, video poker tournaments require special skills. But this does not mean that you use the same strategy skills you use during your regular video poker play. ese strategies must be modi ed in major ways to be successful. However,
there are no special strategy charts to help you in this area because there are so many variables, depending on the pay table used, the format for advancing to the next rounds, how you do in the rst part of your session, how many people are in the tournament, etc.
It’s usually best to start out with the regular basic strategy if it is a game you already know — although you wouldn’t worry about taking time to gure out complex penalty-card situations, particularly if it’s a speed tournament. If it is a game you don’t know, you just have to look at the schedule and guess at your holds, with an emphasis on trying to hit the bigger payo s.
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Page 22
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
December 2006
Jean Scott, The Frugal GamblerTM