Page 24 - February 2011 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
IWhat Should I Do?
was teaching 9/5 Super Double Bonus at Eastside Cannery in Las Vegas more than a year ago. At that time, this casino had a variety of good video poker games to play. Alas, no more. Super Double Bonus is a variation of Double Bonus Poker with two idiosyncrasies. First, four Jacks, Queens, and
Kings return 600 rather than 250, and second, a straight ush returns 400 rather than 250.
When the straight ush pays this much, you should prefer holding an open-ended 4-card straight
ush over a 5-card straight. at is, with single quotes indicating cards are suited with each other:
a. From ‘4567’ 8, hold ‘4567’ b. From ‘4568’ 7, hold 45678
As is typical in my classes, I go through the strategy with examples, and then at the end of the class I give a test to see how much the students absorbed during the class. During the test, I gave the hand K♥ Q♥ J♥ T♣ 9♥. e “correct” play, according to the strategy provided, was to hold all ve cards. Four-card straight ushes with an inside are not as valuable as a 5-card straight, even when the straight ush draw has one or more high cards.
I asked the class how many would hold three cards, four cards, and ve cards. Most students got the correct answer of ve cards, about a third erroneously picked four cards, and one lady, “Sandy,” said she’d go for the
3-card royal ush,‘KQJ’.
Although I probably shouldn’t be, I’m still surprised
when players make really bad plays, especially when we discussed the hands a half hour previously. So partly to provide more foundation as to how bad this play was, and partly to demonstrate how to use the software, I asked my assistant to put the hand on Video Poker for Winners and display it on the overhead projector.
It turns out that KQJT9 has an ev (5-coin Expected Value) of 20. is shouldn’t be a surprise as you get 20 coins when you end up with a straight. is is a
guaranteed 20 coins. If we were playing for dollars, ve coins at a time, this means $20. Putting it in terms of dollars and cents is easier for some people.
Holding ‘KQJ9’ has an ev of $14.57. is is not guaranteed. You can earn $400 (straight ush), $25 ( ush), $20 (straight), $5 (high pair), or $0 (none of the above). If you play the hand a zillion times, the average will be $14.57. By the way, voluntarily giving up $5.43 (i.e. $20 – $14.57 = $5.43) is a huge mistake. Many of the plays we teach have di erences of less than a dime.
Holding the 3-card royal ‘KQJ’ is worth $6.74. Although you will earn a $4,000 royal one time in 1,081 you draw to this combination, you end up with nothing at all most of the time. Holding ‘KQJ’ is voluntarily
giving up about two thirds of the value of the hand. If $5.43 was huge, this is somewhere between double huge and triple huge. Sandy, however, was unconvinced. She still would hold ‘KQJ’ on this hand, and my arguments to the contrary fell on deaf ears.
After class, “Jim,” Sandy’s husband, came up and asked me what to do about Sandy. “We’ve been married 28 years. Murder and divorce are not options I’m actively considering. She always goes for the royal. Although she connects every now and then, she loses a lot of money playing video poker. It’s really more than we can a ord.
What should I do?”
is could be expensive. A number of people consider
my strategies “gospel” and are willing to follow them whether they agree with them or not. Clearly, Sandy wasn’t overly impressed by who I was, or what my suggestions were.
Were I in Jim’s shoes, I’d try to get Sandy to consider a hobby other than video poker. Most hobbies would be
cheaper than video poker the way Sandy plays it. If that didn’t work, I’d try to get her to play on progressives only. With progressives, it’s appropriate to go for the royal
ush more than you do with a royal of 4,000 coins. On the other hand, you need to be selective about which progressives you play, because most of them o er a pretty bad gamble most of the time.
Another option would be to keep bringing Sandy to the classes. Over time, she’ll become more familiar with my methods and perhaps they’ll make more sense to her.
Other than that, I didn’t have any suggestions, useful or otherwise. While video poker is a beatable game when played well, it can be a very expensive game when not played well. I’ve never been good at forcing someone to do something they didn’t want to do. I try to instruct and inspire, but it’s always someone’s choice about whether to follow my instruction or not.
Bob Dancer is America’s best-known video poker writer and teacher. He has a variety of “how to play better video poker” products, including the software “Video Poker for Winners,” his new book, Video Poker for the Intelligent Beginner, Winner’s Guides, strategy cards, his autobiography Million Dollar Video Poker, and his two novels, including Sex, Lies, and Video Poker. Dancer’s products, may be ordered at www. bobdancer.com or at 1-800-244-2224 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
PAGE 24
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
February 2011