 Info
about gambling and online casinos in general
Topics:
Video
Poker
Video poker is a
casino game based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized
console which is a similar size to a slot machine.
History
Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical
to combine a television-like monitor with a solid state central
processing unit. The earliest models appeared at the same time
as the first personal computers were produced, in the mid-1970s,
although they were rather primitive by today's standards.
Video poker became more firmly established
when SIRCOMA, which stood for Si Redd's Coin Machines, and which
evolved over time to become International Game Technology introduced
Draw Poker in 1979. Throughout the 1980s, video poker became increasingly
popular in casinos, as people found the devices less intimidating
than playing table games. Today, video poker enjoys a prominent
place on the gaming floors of many casinos. The game is especially
popular with Las Vegas locals, who tend to patronize locals casinos
off the Las Vegas Strip. These local casinos often offer lower
denomination machines or better odds.
The game
Game play begins by placing a bet of one or more credits, by inserting
money (or in newer machines, a barcoded paper ticket with credit)
into the machine, and then pressing a "Deal" button
to draw cards. The player is then given an opportunity to keep
or discard one or more of the cards in exchange for a new card
drawn from the same virtual deck, after which the machine evaluates
the hand and offers a payout if the hand matches one of the winning
hands in the posted pay schedule.
On a typical video poker machine, payouts
start with a minimum hand of a pair of jacks. Pay schedules allocate
the payout for hands based partially upon how rare they are, and
also based upon the total theoretical return the game operator
chooses to offer.
Some machines offer progressive jackpots
for the royal flush, (and sometimes for other rare hands as well),
thereby spurring players to both play more coins and to play more
frequently.
Regulation
Video poker machines operated in state-regulated jurisdictions
are programmed to deal random card sequences. A series of cards
is generated for each play; five dealt straight to the hand, the
other five dealt in order if requested by player. This is based
upon a Nevada regulation, adopted by most other states with a
gaming authority, which requires dice and cards used in an electronic
game to be as random as the real thing, within computational limits
set by the gaming authority. Video poker machines are tested to
ensure compliance with this requirement before they may be offered
to the public. Video poker games in Nevada are required to simulate
a 52 card deck (or a 53 card deck if using a joker).
It is unclear whether all video poker machines
at Indian gaming establishments are subject to the same Nevada-style
regulations, as Indian casinos are located on reservations that
are sovereign to the tribe which holds the gaming license.
Newer versions of the software no longer
deal out all 10 cards at once. They now deal out the first five
cards, and then when the draw button is pressed, they generate
a second set of cards based on the remaining 47 cards in the deck.
This was done after players found a way to reverse engineer a
random number generator's cycle from sample hands and were able
to predict the hidden cards in advance.
Kinds of
video poker
Newer video poker machines may employ variants of the basic five-card
draw. Typical variations include: Deuces Wild, where a two can
serve as a wild card and a jackpot is paid for four deuces or
a natural royal; pay schedule modification, where four aces with
a five or smaller kicker pays an enhanced amount (these games
usually have some adjective in the title such as "bonus",
"double", or "triple"); and multi-play poker,
where the player starts with a base hand of five cards, and each
additional played hand draws from a different set of cards with
the base hand removed. (Multi-play games are offered in "Triple
Play", "Five Play", "Ten Play", "Fifty
Play" and even "One Hundred Play" versions.)
In the non-wild games (games which do not
have a wild card) a player who plays five or six hundred hands
per hour, on average, may receive the rare four-of-a-kind approximately
once per hour, while a player may play for many days or weeks
before receiving an extremely rare royal flush.
Full pay
games
Full pay video poker machines are games which offer the typical
maximum payback percentage for that game type. The payback percentage
on a full pay game is typically close to and sometimes over 100%
when played with perfect strategy. Full pay Jacks or Better, for
example, offers a payback percentage of approximately 99.5% when
played with perfect strategy.
Casinos often place full pay machines alongside
other machines with pay schedules that offer less attractive payback
percentages, leaving it up to the player to identify which video
poker machines offer full pay schedules.
Most full pay machines are configured with
a pay schedule that is only full pay when the maximum amount of
credits is bet. (See the pay schedule tables later in this article
for details.)
Jacks or Better
"Jacks or Better" is the
most common variation of video poker available. Payoffs begin
at a pair of jacks or better. Full pay Jacks or Better is also
known as 9/6 Jacks or Better; the 9 refers to the payoff for a
full house and the 6 refers to the payoff for a flush. Full pay
Jacks or Better has a theoretical return of 99.54% when played
with perfect strategy.
| Hand |
1 credit |
2 credits |
3 credits |
4 credits |
5 credits |
| Royal Flush |
250 |
500 |
750 |
1000 |
4000* |
| Straight Flush |
50 |
100 |
150 |
200 |
250 |
| Four of a kind |
25 |
50 |
75 |
100 |
125 |
| Full House |
9 |
18 |
27 |
36 |
45 |
| Flush |
6 |
12 |
18 |
24 |
30 |
| Straight |
4 |
8 |
12 |
16 |
20 |
| Three of a Kind |
3 |
6 |
9 |
12 |
15 |
| Two Pair |
2 |
4 |
6 |
8 |
10 |
| Jacks or Better |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Theoretical Return |
98.05% |
98.05% |
98.05% |
98.05%% |
99.54%* |
*Notice the gap between the payoff for
a Natural Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits.
The payoff schedule for most video poker machines has a gap like
this, such that players who do not play with the maximum number
of credits at a time are playing with a negative theoretical return.
Deuces Wild
"Deuces Wild" is a variation of video poker in
which all two's are wild. (Wild cards substitute for any other
card in the deck in order to make a better poker hand. In Deuces
Wild, the payout for a four of a kind makes up approximately 1/3
of the payback percentage of the game, and a four of a kind occurs
on average once every 15 hands or so. Deuces Wild can be found
with pay schedules that offer a theoretical return as high as
100.762%, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available
with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:
| Hand |
1 credit |
2 credits |
3 credits |
4 credits |
5 credits |
| Natural Royal Flush |
300 |
600 |
900 |
1200 |
4000* |
| Four Deuces |
200 |
400 |
600 |
800 |
1000 |
| Wild Royal Flush |
25 |
50 |
75 |
100 |
125 |
| Five of a Kind |
15 |
30 |
45 |
60 |
75 |
| Straight Flush |
9 |
18 |
27 |
36 |
45 |
| Four of a Kind |
5 |
10 |
15 |
20 |
25 |
| Full House |
3 |
6 |
9 |
12 |
15 |
| Flush |
2 |
4 |
6 |
8 |
10 |
| Straight |
2 |
4 |
6 |
8 |
10 |
| Three of a Kind |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Theoretical Return |
99.679% |
99.679% |
99.679% |
99.679% |
100.762%* |
*Notice the gap between the payoff for
a Natural Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits.
The payoff schedule for most video poker machines has a gap like
this, such that players who do not play with the maximum number
of credits at a time are playing with a negative theoretical return.
Double Bonus
"Double Bonus" video poker is a variation of
Jacks or Better with a bonus payout for four aces. This variation
offers up to a theoretical return of 100.1725%, when played with
perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules
that have lesser theoretical returns:
| Hand |
1 credit |
2 credits |
3 credits |
4 credits |
5 credits |
| Royal Flush |
250 |
500 |
750 |
1000 |
4000* |
| Straight Flush |
50 |
100 |
150 |
200 |
250 |
| Four Aces |
160 |
320 |
480 |
640 |
800 |
| Full House |
10 |
20 |
30 |
40 |
50 |
| Flush |
7 |
14 |
21 |
28 |
35 |
| Straight |
5 |
10 |
15 |
20 |
25 |
| Three of a Kind |
3 |
6 |
9 |
12 |
15 |
| Two Pair |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Jacks or Better |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Theoretical Return |
99.1079% |
99.1079% |
99.1079% |
99.1079% |
100.1725%* |
*Notice the gap between the payoff for
a Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits. Players
who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are
playing with a negative theoretical return.
Double Double
Bonus
"Double Double Bonus" video poker is a variation
of Jacks or Better which offers bonus payoffs for different four
of a kinds, as seen in the payout table below. Full pay Double
Double Bonus can be found with pay schedules that offer up to
a theoretical return of 100.067%, when played with perfect strategy.
It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser
theoretical returns:
| Hand |
1 credit |
2 credits |
3 credits |
4 credits |
5 credits |
| Royal Flush |
250 |
500 |
750 |
1000 |
4000* |
| Straight Flush |
50 |
100 |
150 |
200 |
250 |
| Four Aces w/2, 3, or 4 |
400 |
800 |
1200 |
1600 |
2000 |
| Four 2, 3, or 4 w/A-4 |
160 |
320 |
480 |
640 |
800 |
| Four Aces |
160 |
320 |
480 |
640 |
800 |
| Four 2, 3, or 4 |
80 |
160 |
240 |
320 |
400 |
| Four 5-K |
50 |
100 |
150 |
200 |
250 |
| Full House |
10 |
20 |
30 |
40 |
50 |
| Flush |
6 |
12 |
18 |
24 |
30 |
| Straight |
4 |
8 |
12 |
16 |
20 |
| Three of a Kind |
3 |
6 |
9 |
12 |
15 |
| Two Pair |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Jacks or Better |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Theoretical Return |
98.9154% |
98.9154% |
98.9154% |
98.9154% |
100.067%* |
*Notice the gap between the payoff for
a Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits. Players
who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are
playing with a negative theoretical return.
Other positive
expectation games
Other kinds of video poker only have positive theoretical
returns when the progressive jackpot is high enough. Many establishments
advertise with a billboard when the progressive jackpot is high
enough.
Locating
positive expectation games
Although positive expectation and full pay video poker
machines are found in many "locals" casinos (located
off the Strip) in the Las Vegas market (and in a few Reno casinos),
most Strip casinos and casinos in other markets offer less attractive
video poker pay schedules.
Players'
clubs
Many casinos offer free memberships in "player's clubs"
or "slot clubs", which return a small percentage of
the amount of money that is bet in the form of "comps"
(complementary food, drinks, hotel rooms, or merchandise), or
sometimes as cash back (sometimes with a restriction that the
cash be redeemed at a later date). These clubs require that players
use a card that is inserted into the video poker machine to allow
the casino to track the player's "action" (how much
the player bets and for how long), which is often used to establish
a level of play that may make a player eligible for additional
comps.
Comps or cash back from these clubs can
make a significant difference in the theoretical return when playing
video poker over a long period of time. In some cases, usage of
a club card can even add enough value to the pay schedule of a
video poker game with a negative theoretical return to make that
same game have a positive theoretical return.
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