Ask the Slot Expert: Multi-hand NSU Deuces Wild video poker

I like playing NSU Deuces Wild. I would really like playing NSU in Triple Play, Five Play, Ten Play, Any-Number Play. But, alas, I know of only one multi-hand machine with NSU in Las Vegas.

It's a Triple Play quarter machine at South Point. It's also a machine with a gimmick, Good Times Pay.

When you bet an extra 1 to 5 coins on a hand, you enable a grid of multipliers, three of which will be chosen at random and applied to your winnings, one on each hand. The more you bet, the higher the average value of the multipliers in the grid.

I've seen posts from people asking if there is anywhere they can play multi-hand NSU. The answer is, of course, one machine at South Point. Just bet 15 coins and it's the same as a Triple Play machine.

The replies never say that the player might consider making the extra bet and enabling the gimmick. I thought that was strange, because I've never seen a gimmick that wasn't wor--

Oops. I almost wrote "worth playing". What does worth playing mean? There's no formula for the worthiness of a video poker game.

I'm reminded of the time I was an expert witness on slot machine operations for a court case. The attorney I was working with said to me that they couldn't find any contradictory statements in my columns.

If I had written that Good Times Pay was worth playing in this column, I might write another column in which I said that it wasn't worth playing because the contexts are different. So let me take a step back and say exactly what I mean to say.

I have never seen a gimmick that lowered the Expected Value of a paytable.

The game designers and casinos want you to make the extra bet. It's a tough sell if you can expect to lose more when you make the extra bet.

Expected Value is calculable and is not ambiguous.

Worth playing? That's up to the player. Betting more coins to enable a gimmick may raise your expected return, but it also raises your volatility -- almost always, if not always. Expect bigger bankroll swings. Be ready to feed the machine. Be sure to celebrate when the gimmick pays off and you win big.

I actually had to rewrite another statement in this column. I had originally written, "I have never seen a gimmick that didn't raise the Expected Value of a paytable."

It would have been embarrassing to have said that when it doesn't apply to the gimmick in this column. According to the Wizard of Odds, the average value of the multipliers in the grid is always the "fair cost" of enabling the grid. For example, if you bet 1 extra coin per hand (a 20% increase), your average multiplier is 1.2. In other words, on the average, you get a 20% increase in winnings for a 20% increase in bet. In still other words, the EV stays the same. Players can be ambivalent between playing 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 coins per hand in terms of EV.

When I played the machine at South Point, I made the full extra bet. I rarely see other players making an extra bet.

If you would like to see more non-smoking areas on slot floors in Las Vegas, please sign my petition on change.org.

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com.

Copyright © John Robison. Slot Expert and Ask the Slot Expert are trademarks of John Robison.