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New Versions of Video Poker May Be Trickier Than They Look29 June 1998
Innovation is introduced into video poker for several reasons. None entails casinos becoming great philanthropic trusts, concocting slots to eliminate need for welfare as we know it. The last point is at the crux of the matter. I'll explain. I'm often asked whether new games are potentially profitable and what special strategies are needed to exploit them. There's no general answer. Each game must be analyzed individually. Pretend you've studied a good video poker book - not one of the glib gambling guides Swift's hundred gibbons at their typewriters scrapped on their way toward replicating the works of William Shakespeare. You've memorized how to maximize expectation in a deuces-wild game with a certain set of payoffs for winning hands. And you know where to find machines with precisely those payoffs. Your book has rules for every initial hand on your specific game. For instance, it may tell you to hold the five-of-a-kind when you're dealt 2-2-2-4-4. This isn't guesswork. The return was noted for the hand as-is. "Expected value" was then computed for tossing the fours and drawing two cards, based on the payoffs and probabilities associated with all possible final results. The former was greater, so the optimum strategy was to stand pat. Or, picture a game paying less for a three-deuce four-of-a-kind but more for a royal with deuces. Payoff particulars would determine whether it would be more advantageous to hold or to break the five-of-a-kind trying for a royal or the four deuces. And the situation would differ for 2-2-2-J-J and 2-2-2-4-4. Why? Because discarding the jacks in the one would leave less chance to make the royal than throwing away the fours in the other. Poker machines offering special bonuses and jackpots have their place. They're fine for solid citizens who believe gambling's all luck and are hell bent on risking their entire stakes trying for big scores. But what if you the greatest overall chance at making at least some money? Or you crave maximum playing time? You're more apt to succeed by mastering a standard, readily-found game than attacking machines with subtle nuances you may not know exist. Sumner A Ingmark, to whose poetry the primates will aspire when they're done with Shakespeare, put it this way:
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