Video Poker
From
Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Video poker is a
casino game
based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized console that
is similar in 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, although this was more common in the 1990s
as casinos across the country have recently been cutting their paytables and/or
only offering 25 cent machines or higher.
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 the
draw, 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 tables 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 serves 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. Payback
percentage expresses the long-term expected value of the player's wager as a
percentage. A payback percentage of 99 percent, for instance, indicates that for
each $100 wagered, in the long run, the player would expect to lose $1. Payback
percentages on full-pay games are often close to or even in excess of 100
percent, assuming error-free perfect play.
Full-pay Jacks or Better, for example,
offers a payback percentage of 99.54 percent when played with perfect strategy.
It must be remembered that winning the jackpot (royal flush) is also part of the
"long run" in every variant. One should not play a "full pay" video poker game
expecting not to lose, because even over many thousands of hands played, you are
playing a game that pays back less than 100%.
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 number 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 percent 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 Royal Flush played with four credits versus one with five 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 smaller theoretical return.
Tens or Better
"Tens or Better" is a variation of 6/5
Jacks or Better. The minimum paying hand is a pair of tens, rather than a pair
of Jacks. Strategy is similar between the two games, in spite of the very
different full house and flush payouts.
Deuces Wild
"Deuces Wild" is a variation of video
poker in which all twos 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 ⅓ of the payback percentage of the game,
and a four of a kind occurs on average approximately every fifteen hands. Deuces
Wild can be found with pay schedules that offer a theoretical return as high as
100.762 percent, 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 four credits versus one with five 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.
Bonus Poker
"Bonus Poker" is a
video poker game based on Jacks or Better, but
Bonus Poker offers a higher payout percentage for four of a kind. The player is
dealt five cards and can then choose which cards to keep or discard. New cards
are dealt accordingly. The final hand must consist of a pair of Jacks or higher
in order to win.
The game has multiple versions featuring
different bonus payouts based on the ranking of the four of a kind.
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 percent, 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 |
| 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 |
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%* |
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
percent, 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%* |
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. Otherwise sub-optimal games like 8/5 jacks or better can become
positive expectation when the jackpot is large 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" (complimentary 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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Video Poker