Video Poker: Is It Worth It?
Video Poker seems to be one of those
games that people are a little dubious about until they give it a whirl,
and the concept of it being worth it, of being able to gain an advantage
is the biggest cause of this dubiousness.
I was recently assured of a way of
gaining the advantage in a progressive jackpot video poker game: Of course
strategies vary from game to game, particularly between wild and no-wild
games. However, on a machine that pays out 8-1 on a full house and 5-1
on a flush, there is, or so I'm assured, a means of gaining the advantage.
First, locate a progressive jackpot
machine whose jackpot is greater that the maximum bet x 1750; the reason
that this is important is because it is only once the jackpot gets this
high that the game is even with the house, therefore if the game isn't
even there is no way of gaining an advantage. Now, in theory, or at least
this is what I've been told; with each 350 x max bet addition to the jackpot,
the players advantage increases by 1%. Therefore if you come across a progressive
jackpot with a jackpot 2100 x the maximum bet, you have a 1% advantage;
if you find one with a jackpot 2,450 x the maximum bet you have a 2% advantage.
Unfortunately, getting to this stage
of play requires a lot of time and a lot of money; more of both than most
people have. Therefore short of building up the advantage as suggested
above, it might be best to simply be familiar with the frequency of video
poker hands, and from that determine the likelihood of gaining an advantage.
The following statistics were given to me a by a guy in the industry, who
claims they are the average frequency of video poker hands:
A royal flush, which is of course
what we all want appears once ever 32, 680 hands; a straight flush every
10, 163 hands; four of a kind every 425 hands; a full house every 87 hands;
a flush every 90 hands; a straight every 89 hands; three of a kind every
14 hands; two pair every 8 hands; and a pair every 5 hands. Now, in terms
of timing, based on these statistics the average video poker machine will
therefore produce a royal flush ever 60 hours of constant rapid play; a
straight will appear every 6 hours or so, as will a flush; whilst a 4 of
a kind will pop up on a more or less hourly basis.
Therefore the majority of the time
the video poker player is playing at a disadvantage, however this will
be somewhat compensated for by the more regular smaller hands. Is it possible
to manipulate the outcomes, to create an advantage? In all honesty probably
not, but isn't it fun trying?
Will Win is a professional gambler,
ex casino dealer and author. Play online
casino games at the top online
casino!
Article Source:
Amazines.Com
