OK that practice video poker site is finally back up and running

#1
And I did pretty well on it (with "play money") tonight:

(Dead link: http://www.bodoglife.com/casino/app/...lse&den) om=25

Took a lot out of my right wrist though. I could see this kind of game causing Carpal Tunnel easy enough down the road. One of the tricks to it seems to be playing absolutely as fast as possible without doing too many bonehead maneuvers. The speed takes a toll on the wrist.

Caught myself not checking the pay board notice thus causing me to throw out at least a couple four of a kinds after the draw. "Converted" them back into into three of a kind through haste. Other than that small problem things went well in practice.

Despite my two serious errors it seems beatable. I went up $1200 in a couple hours. How that translates into casino time is beyond me. Wonder how many real casino games mimic that software program. If they are then my first impression is that they are a real hit. Course I could have just gotten lucky.

The speed at which i had to play the game seemed to border upon hard work. My guess is that casino games would play slower. I really just don't know about these things. The casinos I go to are always crowded. There's never an open seat at the video poker games.

Without a crib sheet in front of me I pretty much just tried to use logic. I soon found out that the secret was to spend as much time doubling the bets after a win. After three of a kind or higher they give you one card and you have to pick the higher one. Higher? You win. Or nothing if it ain't. I probably don't need to tell you about it.

It's only new to me i suppose.

The "double or nothing" phase kind of reminds me of when i was in cold call sales years ago. We dealt with a lot of rejection. Our best salesmen were the ones who never gave up and shrugged off the turn downs like water on a duck's back.

As I played it seemed there wasn't much reward in playing it safe. So I decided to always try and run my doubles up to at least five wins in a row. Save and except for the four deuces that paid a thousand "quarters". Couldn't see risking that one. Now granted these five wins in a row were rare but the quicker i played the more times i got five wins. Think maybe the last one was six wins.

Never got a natural royal flush but did get one with a wild card and it paid well. Think i left that one alone ie, didn't double it.

Other things: Two pair doesn't pay dick in wild card video poker. In a way it's almost a liability as holding it in hopes of gaining a full house is a less likely chance to get a win which can be doubled. However the few times i converted them to a full house they reduced the amount of times i needed to double in order to get at the big money.

Working straights and flushes is a good idea too. When i received two wild card deuces I'd sometimes hold a few sequential suited cards in hopes of gaining that straight flush. Again: This reduced the amount of times i had to double by getting a high card poker hand.

Even though this was all just practice it kind of took a toll on me. Just like in a real game. I really had to force myself to double the 160 and 320 points after successfully converting the 10 to 20 to 40 to 80 etc.

In some ways it's better if the house gets the high card the first time as opposed to at the end of the run. Easier to collect my spirits and get back in the game. But after a while I was able to dust off even the worst big money losses and start over again.

Why take this seriously? Well if these things really work it's important to treat it like a real game.

Anyway it would be good if a few other players tried this game just to see how you do. I don't have any literature or crib sheets on strategy but I have a feeling I'm running close to what you're supposed to do. When there were no pairs i always kept a few suited royal cards. That's how i got the wild flush.

Comments welcome.
 
#3
SilentBob420BMFJ said:
videopoker.com is great
Hey Bob,

I keep having good luck at the above practice video site. However it borders upon what i would call hard work, perseverance and nerves. That and a lot of patience and positive thinking. Of course it's just a computer model not the real thing.

What gets me is that I'm not really following any devised strategy other than what I would call ordinary "good poker sense". That and taking the opportunity to double every bet until it at least it pays 320 x the original wager.

I figure doubling is a fifty fifty risk. Once I successfully double six or seven times in a row I cash in. Sure it takes a long time to get that many unbusted doubles but I've never seen any real major losses. Each time I tend to go up above or over $350.00 per hour.

My two "losses" were only attributed to leaving the game session early because I got sick of the work.

If this computer model is similar to those in the clubs i may give it a shot. Again: It really feels like work and nerves to pull it off.

But then so does my day job...
 
#4
AnIrishmannot2brite said:
Hey Bob,

I keep having good luck at the above practice video site. However it borders upon what i would call hard work, perseverance and nerves. That and a lot of patience and positive thinking. Of course it's just a computer model not the real thing.

What gets me is that I'm not really following any devised strategy other than what I would call ordinary "good poker sense". That and taking the opportunity to double every bet until it at least it pays 320 x the original wager.

I figure doubling is a fifty fifty risk. Once I successfully double six or seven times in a row I cash in. Sure it takes a long time to get that many unbusted doubles but I've never seen any real major losses. Each time I tend to go up above or over $350.00 per hour.

My two "losses" were only attributed to leaving the game session early because I got sick of the work.

If this computer model is similar to those in the clubs i may give it a shot. Again: It really feels like work and nerves to pull it off.

But then so does my day job...
i have read that the 50/50 double down bet in video poker lowers the house edge in a way, because you are betting more money for "free" basically.. if i remember correctly, it was saying that if you bet $10 with a .5% house edge and then another $10 with a 0% house edge, you are effectively betting $20 with a .25% house edge, but i dont think it works like that.. im not sure if i believe that tho, cuz you still can lose your original win with the double down, so it really doesnt matter, imo, double down does only 1 thing, and that is increase volatility by a monstrous amount if you do it every time.. if sonny reads this, he may know
 

Sonny

Well-Known Member
#5
SilentBob420BMFJ said:
i have read that the 50/50 double down bet in video poker lowers the house edge in a way, because you are betting more money for "free" basically… double down does only 1 thing, and that is increase volatility by a monstrous amount if you do it every time.
I don’t know much about that bet, but your reasoning is exactly right. The house edge as a percentage goes down but only because you are betting more money for “free.” As you said, you still expect to lose .5% of your $10 bet, which is $0.05. But when you double your bet you are only losing .25% of $20, but that’s still $0.05. You’re going to lose $0.05 either way. Would you rather risk $10 to lose $0.05 or risk $20 to lose the same amount? Your EV is the same in either case but the variance on the $20 bet will be higher.

This is the same idea as “free odds” at a craps game. Making the odds bet will lower the house edge percentage on the total amount bet (the Total Bet Advantage or TBA) but you are still losing the same amount of your initial bet (the Initial Bet Advantage or IBA aka EV).

-Sonny-
 
#6
Sonny said:
I don’t know much about that bet, but your reasoning is exactly right. The house edge as a percentage goes down but only because you are betting more money for “free.” As you said, you still expect to lose .5% of your $10 bet, which is $0.05. But when you double your bet you are only losing .25% of $20, but that’s still $0.05. You’re going to lose $0.05 either way. Would you rather risk $10 to lose $0.05 or risk $20 to lose the same amount? Your EV is the same in either case but the variance on the $20 bet will be higher.

This is the same idea as “free odds” at a craps game. Making the odds bet will lower the house edge percentage on the total amount bet (the Total Bet Advantage or TBA) but you are still losing the same amount of your initial bet (the Initial Bet Advantage or IBA aka EV).

-Sonny-
so when i play vp, should i do the double down, or will my money lost per hour still be the same no matter? im guessing my money lost per hour will actually go down if i use the double down bet, but will my variance be so high that it will actually be much worse since i only have like $2000?
 

Sonny

Well-Known Member
#7
SilentBob420BMFJ said:
so when i play vp, should i do the double down, or will my money lost per hour still be the same no matter?
To be honest I'm not familiar with that bet so I really don't know. But if, as you say, it only lowers the house edge by forcing you to bet more (but still lose the same amount overall) then it is bogus.

-Sonny-
 

KenSmith

Administrator
Staff member
#8
There's no benefit to the double option, unless perhaps you are a recreational player playing a poor EV game. In that case, the time you spend goofing around with the double-up option means you'll play fewer hands per hour, and save you money.

All you are doing otherwise is increasing variance with no benefit.

One more exception: At some online casinos, there were places that would count this kind of bet as meeting your wagering requirements. In that situation, it was a good deal.
 
#9
Sonny said:
To be honest I'm not familiar with that bet so I really don't know. But if, as you say, it only lowers the house edge by forcing you to bet more (but still lose the same amount overall) then it is bogus.

-Sonny-
youve played vp right? well after you win a hand, you can hit the double button which does "double or nothing" and then a screen pops up with 5 face down cards, and you choose a card, and if your card is larger than the dealers card, you win, and you can double down on a double down and keep going, but if you lose, you lose it all

KenSmith said:
There's no benefit to the double option, unless perhaps you are a recreational player playing a poor EV game. In that case, the time you spend goofing around with the double-up option means you'll play fewer hands per hour, and save you money.

All you are doing otherwise is increasing variance with no benefit.

One more exception: At some online casinos, there were places that would count this kind of bet as meeting your wagering requirements. In that situation, it was a good deal.
well obviously if its +ev then its a waste of time, but i play -ev, like 99.99% of everybody who plays vp, as its super hard nowadays to find +ev, but the machines i play are full pay jacks+ progressive, which is a sweet deal, because that means the payback will always be at least 99.54%, usually around 99.6% or 99.7%, so in that case, is it still a bad bet? im assuming it would lower money lost per hour right? thus thats kind of like lowering the house edge, in fact id say its closer to "is lowering" than "is kind of lowering", since overall money lost goes down if you think about it.. but is it worth the variance? as far as variance goes, id rather play a 99.6% jacks+ game than a 99.8% deuces game (also because jacks is easier than deuces), so in that case, perhaps its not worth it?
 
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