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Gaming Guru
"Could have been" should cost26 May 2006
In poker, what are your thoughts about a player requesting that the dealer to show the next card, even if the hand is officially dead? The group of a dozen or so I normally play with has three players who want to see the next card or cards that could have made their hand. I, on the other hand, believe once the hand is over, it’s over, and if a player really wants to see the next card then that player should have bet. We’ll go by your ruling. Melvin G. I’m with you, Mel. “What if” players should shove their chips in the middle if they want to see whether they would have hit their straight, flush, four-of-a-kind, etc. In gamblese, it’s called rabbit hunting, where you ask a dealer to show you the next card(s), even though a player has already won the pot without a showdown, and the hand is over. Most card clubs, casinos and poker tournaments prohibit rabbit hunting, although I have played in a few games where rabbit hunting is permitted, once all live hands have been surrendered to the dealer. I have found that when you permit a look-see at the “next” card(s) of an unmatched wager, the privilege is always abused. Solution for your kitchen table game: allow it, but, if a player really wants to know whether he/she could have won by staying in the hand longer, a contribution is called for – one, possibly two additional betting units to the next pot. That should keep those curious sorts from having a dealer deal the flop, turn or river cards to see what would have, should have, could have been. Dear Mark, With video poker, Barb, you can actually see the price and financial return you can expect when playing the game. That’s why I've used more than my share of ink writing about shopping for value and playing on video poker machines with the best pay tables. Pay tables, or pay schedules, which are always posted somewhere on the machine, tell you what each winning hand will pay for the number of coins played. Casinos can "loosen" or "tighten" the return of a game by manipulating the number of coins won on certain pay categories. For Jacks or Better, it’s the full house/flush numbers that are the primary indicator of a machine's payback percentage. A 9/6 machine makes the payback, or return of 9 units or a full house and 6 units for a flush, with one coin inserted. A 9/6 Jacks or Better pay table should look like this: Royal Flush 250 One caveat though, Barb: the payback percentages listed below are based on thousands of hands of video poker, and include hitting an elusive royal flush. They are not based on your personal gambling timeline such as downing two Bloody Marys or burning through a roll of quarters. A 6/5 machine (six for a full house, five for a flush) returns 95.00%; a 7/5 machine 96.15%; an 8/5, 97.30%; an 8/6, 98.39%; a 9/5, 98.45%; and that phantom 9/6 machine 99.54%. Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Limit poker is a science, but no-limit is an art. In limit you are shooting at a target. In no-limit, the target comes alive and shoots back at you.” --Crandall Addington, Texas oil millionaire Related Links
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Mark Pilarski |
Mark Pilarski |