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Introduction to Video Poker Strategy
In MultiPlay Video Poker, you are dealt and initial hand on one line, and decide which cards you hold and discard based upon that hand and the winning hand payoffs. When you draw cards, you actually draw cards from distinct decks to that same hand multiple times. The strategies for MultiPlay Video Poker are, therefore, identical to the strategies of regular video poker. Video poker is a popular game primarily because it pays liberally in comparison to slots. However, to attain these inherent high paybacks, players must learn three points:
1. Pick the Best Machines
2. Play the Cards Right
3. Know What to Expect
Pick the Best Machines
Picking the best machines simple means finding the machines with the best pay tables. For each of the 11 types of games, we have included all current pay tables found in the casinos and the overall payback for expert play on a machine with that payback. Match the pay tables of the machines in the casinos against the pay tables of the same type of machines in this program and you can quickly see which offer the highest percentage return.
Play the Cards Right
Playing the cards right means playing all hands in the way which offers the highest return over the long run. Because it is virtually impossible for players to calculate mentally what all the long-term returns might be for a given choice of draw (except for simple one-card draws), we have done all the hard work ahead of time. To make the right draw obvious, we have made up a Strategy Table for each game, listing in the totem-pole order of choice which way to play every hand. Some hands are very easy to strategize, while others, which can be played in two, three, or even four reasonable ways, must be played the highest-ranking way.
Every hand in the strategy table has a numerical value assigned to it, which represents its win potential. It is derived by assuming that every possible draw might come up, adding up all the payouts and dividing by the number of possible draws. Mathematically, it is the Expected Value (EV) of the pre-draw hand and is equal to the payback for the hand. For example, an EV of 0.8 means that long term, we can expect to get only 80% of our wagers back on that particular type of hand in a game with that pay table.
These EVs do not have to be memorized, only their ranking. The EVs serve primarily to illustrate which hands have the most potential in each game. They also serve to point out the size of the loss caused by misplay of a hand as a lower ranking hand. The relative rankings of the hands are what need to be memorized to attain best payback. Where EVs are ranked as numerically equal, they are still listed in true ranked order.
Proper use of the chart is essential to playing correctly, so we will illustrate in detail how it is utilized. Assume that we are playing the classic Full Pay Jacks or Better, and we are dealt this hand:
There are three reasonable ways to play this hand:
* Hold the four-card straight (first four cards) and draw one card.
* Hold the three-card straight flush (3, 4, and 5 of hearts) and draw two cards.
* Hold the pair of 5s and draw three cards.
The strategy table we provide for Jacks or Better machine shows that the pair ranks higher than either of the other two ways of playing the hand. Reading from the top to the bottom, the first hand description that matches is "Low Pair." A few steps further down, we find "4 CD Straight (0 hi cards)." And a few steps lower is "3 CD Strt Flush (0 hi cards)." Note that for expert play, all we need to remember is that for this pay table, a low pair is more valuable that a four-card straight or a three-card straight flush.
However, if we were dealt that same hand while playing Classic Deuces Wild, we would count the deuce as wild. In that case, we would have two reasonable choices:
* Hold three of a kind (wild deuce of clubs, plus the pair of 5s) and draw two cards.
* Hold the four-card straight flush (first four cards) and draw one card.
The Classic Deuces strategy table indicates that the four-card straight flush is ranked just above three of a kind, so for this pay table, the expert play is to keep the four-card straight flush.
These two machines are extreme examples of an often subtle difference. Every version of video poker has a unique strategy table which is made for that game's unique pay table. The very best warning we can give is to limit the diversity of your game playing to one or two versions, since players experience higher loss rates on unfamiliar games.
The most costly error that players make is to hold cards that should not be held. Any hand which is not listed in the strategy table is a hand in which you should discard all cards and draw 5. The second most costly error is that of holding kickers, extra cards which have no value and actually reduce the expected return for the pre-draw hand. For example, holding an ace kicker with a pair of 8s can be good strategy in face-to-face poker, but is a bad idea in video poker.
Know What to Expect
Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of play is knowing what to expect. When you view the Frequency Table for each game, you can see guidelines for how often (on the average) to expect any type of winner, so you won't expect more than what is reasonable. By studying these tables, you can see the results of proper strategy and verify that your results are within the normal range of probability.
The Frequency Table is also useful for estimating the payback when playing a game that has a slightly different pay table than the version in our program. For example, the 8-5 Jacks of Better game is sometimes seen in a 7-5 version, meaning that it pays 7 per coin for a full house instead of 8. The loss of one unit on each full house can be estimated by checking the Frequency Table. Since a full house hits about once every 86 hands, this means that the 7-5 game pays one less unit per 86 hands, which is a reduction of about 1.1%.
The strategy tables for wild-card games are subdivided to group hands according to the number of wild cards in them. This makes it easier to learn strategy for wild card games, which generally have many more playable hands to consider.
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