Newsletter Signup
Stay informed with the
NEW Casino City Times newsletter! Recent Articles
Best of John Robison
|
Gaming Guru
Ask The Slot Expert28 April 2000
Dear Steve: Tournaments are the only times it makes sense to deviate from the mathematically correct strategy for a paytable. The tournament is truly the short-term and your results in the tournament have no effect on your lifetime video poker payback. A few suggestions: Find out whether there is a hand limit in addition to a time limit. Some tournaments have both. Faster players would be able to play more hands in the session than slower players and would therefore have an edge over them. The hand limit takes away that edge. Find out the paytable beforehand and study the strategy for it if you don't already know it. Play as quickly as you can. If there is a hand limit, you can play more slowly but make sure you get in all the hands. Usually, the first combination you see in your hand will be the best combination of cards to hold. Don't sweat the small stuff. If nothing jumps out at you right away and you have to go searching for cards to hold (like a 3-card double inside straight flush with 0 high cards), just draw five cards. Spending time analyzing that hand may mean you'll be able to play one less hand in your session. Better to save the time for getting in another hand than spend it looking for a combination of cards that have a low probability of drawing to a paying hand. Now, to your real question: Should one play a different strategy in a tournament? If you go for the royal all the time, you'll either win the tournament or come in near the bottom. And your wins will be few and far between. The strategy that will give you highest payback is the mathematically correct strategy. And your payback after a certain number of hands will fall in a range that we can calculate using statistics. We might be able to devise a tournament strategy that has a narrower range (has less volatility). So, even though its expected payback is less than the payback of the mathematically correct strategy, you have a better chance of being near it. For example, after 1000 hands of 9/6 Jacks played perfectly, I'm 90% sure your payback will be between 76% and 123%. The midpoint is at 99.5%, the payback of the mathematically perfect strategy. It might be possible to devise a strategy that has a range, say, of 86% to 106%. The midpoint is at only 96%, but you're more likely to be closer to it. I don't know of anyone who has tried to devise such a strategy. I always play as closely as I can to the mathematically correct strategy when I play in a tournament. Of course, if you know someone is well ahead of you near the end and you're going to lose otherwise, you can shift into aggressive mode and go for the royal even when it's not the best play. Good luck in your tournament! Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@home.com. For more information about slots and video poker, we recommend: Break the One-Armed Bandits! by Frank ScobleteVictory at Video Poker and Video Craps, Keno and Blackjack! by Frank Scoblete Slot Conquest Audio Cassette Tape (60 minutes) with Frank Scoblete Winning Strategies at Slots & Video Poker! Video tape hosted by Academy Award Winner James Coburn, Written by Frank Scoblete The Slot Machine Answer Book by John Grochowski This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net. Recent Articles
Best of John Robison
John Robison |
John Robison |