Elliot Frome Offers More Info on Four-Card Poker

Hi, Frank,

My name is Elliot Frome, and I assume by now, you know who I am (Lenny Frome's son).

I saw the letter on this site about Four Card Poker. From what I know there are actually a few different varieties of the game out there by at least two different companies. The one written about sounds a lot like the one from Shuffle Master.

I spent some time a couple of months ago analyzing the game and recently wrote about it in Gaming Today. If you follow the strategy that Shuffle suggests, you can achieve about 98.41% on the Ante/Play and about 95.76% on the Aces Up. There are actually several possible pay tables for Aces Up. I don't know which one is in use in Detroit.

My analysis has shown that you can vary Shuffle's suggested strategy slightly and push the payback to about 98.5% on Ante/Play. The analysis is still in process, so I'm not sure exactly where the number will wind up, but not much different from this.

While this is a far cry from 100+% Video Poker, I'll admit VP isn't everyone's game. 98.5% is pretty respectable for a table game. The 95.76% on Aces Up does leave a little to desire, but Detroit may be using a better paytable than the one being used in Las Vegas. Not likely, but maybe.

As I always intended to write about more than VP on this site, I'll probably post a version of my Gaming Today article on Four Card Poker in the next few weeks. The game seems to be catching on, and whether it's a playable game or not, the readers are best serviced with the information to help them make an informed decision.

Respectfully,
Elliot Frome
Compu-Flyers

Thanks Elliot. I have not yet seen the game in my travels so your analysis will be much welcomed. A good basic strategy will help out those people who are playing the game already. Also, if you could tell us the speed of the game, how many decisions per hour, that will help us decide how much money a player can expect to lose.

All the best in and out of the casinos!
Frank Scoblete