CasinoCityTimes.com

Home
Gaming Strategy
Featured Stories
News
Newsletter
Legal News Financial News Casino Opening and Remodeling News Gaming Industry Executives Author Home Author Archives Search Articles Subscribe
Newsletter Signup
Stay informed with the
NEW Casino City Times newsletter!
Recent Articles
 

Less Glitz, More Payola

28 April 2005

Nearly 30% of the hands we're dealt contain a low pair and are designated LPR in our table of rankings. The expected value (average return if each possible draw occurs once) of LPR is a healthy .82, so we can expect to recover 82% of our wagers on these hands.

It is very important that we do not mistakenly throw LPR away, chasing some other type of hand which may look better but which has a lower Expected Value (EV). As examples, the following hands are deceptive because they're worth less if we discard one or both of the paired cards even though they seem to look more valuable if we do so:


STR4H2: the 4 card straight with 2 high cards, such as 9C 9D 10H JS QD which has an EV of 0.80.


STR4H1: the 4 card straight with 1 high card, such as 8C 9D 10H 10C JS which has an EV of 0.74.


SFLIH2: the 3 card straight flush (inside) with 2 high cards, 2D 2H 9S JS QS with an EV of 0.73.


SFL3H1: the 3 card straight flush (outside) with 1 high card, 3D 3H 9C 10C JC with an EV of 0.72.


STR4H0: the 4 card low straight (outside) with no high cards, 7H 7D 8C 9C 10S with an EV of 0.68.


SFLDIH2: the 3 card straight flush (double inside) with 2 high cards 4H 4D 9S JS KS with zn EV of 0.64


Discarding LPR in any of the examples above lowers the EV below that we can attain by keeping the LPR. Reducing the EV in the type of hand we get 30% of the time can cut our payback by nearly 2% overall. The only type of straight that outranks the LPR is :

STR4H3: the 4 card straight (outside) with 3 high cards, 10D 10H JC QS KD with an EV of 0.87. With this hand, we discard a ten and draw one to the possible straight.

This hand should not be mixed up with its poor relation, STRIH3 the 4 card straight (inside) with 3 high cards, 10D 10H JC KS AH which we treat as LPR and draw only 3 to the pair of tens. STRIH3 has an EV of only 0.53.

In summary, the low pair, LPR is the most frequent hand to be dealt out, and its value should not be underestimated, or wasted chasing hands that may have more glitz but less payola.

 

 

 

Lenny Frome
Lenny Frome spent 40 years in the aerospace engineering business before moving to Las Vegas. During the ensuing 10 years, he became one of the most prolific gaming authors, having written 8 books, countless tip sheets and nearly 1000 articles for a variety of gaming magazines.

Lenny's ground breaking work in the area of Video Poker earned him the title of the 'King of Video Poker'. He also wrote on a variety of other gaming topics including Spanish 21, Let It Ride, Keno and others.

Besides being an author and columnist, Lenny was the premier Gaming Consultant at the time of his passing in 1998. He helped develop paytables for Let It Ride and Three Card Poker, and consulted on literally hundreds of other gaming projects.

His son, Elliot, now follows in his footsteps, as a gaming author, analyst and consultant. Their website, and a complete catalog of all their products can be found at www.vpheaven.com. Feel free to drop Elliot an e-mail at compuflyers@prodigy.net.

Lenny Frome Websites:

www.vpheaven.com
Lenny Frome
Lenny Frome spent 40 years in the aerospace engineering business before moving to Las Vegas. During the ensuing 10 years, he became one of the most prolific gaming authors, having written 8 books, countless tip sheets and nearly 1000 articles for a variety of gaming magazines.

Lenny's ground breaking work in the area of Video Poker earned him the title of the 'King of Video Poker'. He also wrote on a variety of other gaming topics including Spanish 21, Let It Ride, Keno and others.

Besides being an author and columnist, Lenny was the premier Gaming Consultant at the time of his passing in 1998. He helped develop paytables for Let It Ride and Three Card Poker, and consulted on literally hundreds of other gaming projects.

His son, Elliot, now follows in his footsteps, as a gaming author, analyst and consultant. Their website, and a complete catalog of all their products can be found at www.vpheaven.com. Feel free to drop Elliot an e-mail at compuflyers@prodigy.net.

Lenny Frome Websites:

www.vpheaven.com