Other than deciding which machine to play (see Lesson 4), the only decision or influence you have with a reel (mechanical or video) slot machines is how many coins to put in. Press the button or pull the handle and your fate has been decided. With video poker, however, you influence the outcome by which cards you hold and which you discard. In fact, there are many different strategies for how you play ranging from overall (only going for the big wins – royal flush or nothing – vs winning many small hands) to micromanaging individual hands (keep a 10 of hearts if you have this combination of cards, otherwise discard, etc). These strategies are beyond this short lesson. You can find an assortment of books and on-line resources to help you learn about them. What I can share is a simple way to know which machines to sit down and play at and which to leave to the suckers.
First, you should know how the cards are selected. Each card in the deck is given a number. When you press the Deal button, a random number generator spits out a number between 1 and 52 and the card associated with it is selected. Another number is generated and assuming it isn’t the same number as one that previously came up, that number’s card is selected. Ten cards are selected this way – five displayed, five to be used as replacements when you discard cards. That’s right, all cards used in a game are selected when you first deal. This is done to prevent someone programming in code that selects specific cards based on what’s displayed allowing the player to cheat. An alternate method of doing all this is to have a table like a reel slot uses which lists all possible combinations of ten cards out of a 52 card deck. The random number generator then spits out an index into that table. Whatever that row contains are the cards you see and the draw cards.
So, suppose there are two identical straight video poker (nothing wild, no Double anything, etc) sitting next to each other. The only difference between them is the paytable. Which should you sit at?
Next to each winning hand on the paytable will be the payout for that hand. Ignore anything other than one coin entered. Generally, entering more coins pay out a multiple of one coin. Look at the Full House and Flush lines. Anything above these two are considered bonus hands which are rarely hit. Suppose one machine pays 7 for a Full House and 4 for a Flush. The other machine pays 8 and 5. Spelled out like that it should be obvious that the second machine pays more per coin played than the first. For a Full House, the first only pays 7 while the second pays 8.
The higher these two are, the better the odds are across the board. This corresponds to the par of a reel machine. The first machine has a lower par (payback) than the second machine.
What about the fancier wild, Double-Double and other games? If you have two identical machines you might be able to compare the paytable in the same way, but between different games, you can’t. The odds are calculated differently.
Video poker is not just a game of chance, it’s also a game of skill, so do your homework and learn some basic strategy now that you know which machines to look for. You will lose less this way and you might even win more. Some folks even make a nice living playing video poker.
Darn it, Dave. You’re gonna get me interested in actually playing one of these dumb things… 😉
For “Jacks or Better” machines, always try to find one that pays 9 for full house and 6 for flush. This is called a 9/6, or “full pay” machine, and it has a 99% payback rate if you play perfectly. The more common 8/5 machine has a 97% payback rate.
Dave…. I can’t believe that you of all people are dumb enough to play any sort of gambling against a computer. How can you really trust it to be random?
I heard a rumor that the video slot machine are programmed to results in “close but not quite” results in order to trick you into believing that your luck is almost there. For example, it will come up with 2 cherries, and the the 3 cherry is one slot away. Damn! So close!
Further… I heard that they are also programmed to pay out once in a while in order to give the other gamblers around hope.
How can you be sure that the virtual deck of cards that computer dealer is drawing from isn’t fixed. After all, unlike a real poker table, the computer knows exactly what cards are in the deck, and it gets to shuffle them anyway it wants, any time it wants, and you have no idea it is being done.
#3: Some of those are wives tales made up by people who lost, making excuses. The random number generators are very thoroughly tested by GLI and other testing agencies and regulators. As for the close but not quite, in a sense, that’s true. Read lesson 2 on paytables. Blanks are positions on the reels just like ones with symbols. There are just more of them, plus duplicates of losing sets may be in the table more than once. Psychology is a part of how they are designed so that you get that “so close” feeling and want to play more. But it’s still random as to what comes up.
I assume what you mean by games are programmed to pay out once in a while is jackpots (top prizes). Of course that’s correct. No one would play them if no one ever won. But how often they pay off is a combination of the pay table design and the way probability works. Probability allows for a machine to win 100 times in a row. It’s unlikely, but it could happen. Just like losing 100 times in a row. Or win, lose, win, lose, etc.
While it is possible for a casino employee to replace a real EPROM with a rigged one (assuming he can do it without being seen by all the surveillance cameras on him when he opens a machine), if one is found, the penalties in Vegas, for example, would be staggering including jail time and possibly closing of the casino. Plus, if you reread this lesson, you’ll see that what you describe is not how poker machines work. They are designed specifically so that is not possible. All cards are selected as soon as you press Deal.
And the casinos make far too much money without resorting to rigging the machines.
“And the casinos make far too much money without resorting to rigging the machines.”
OMG, tell that to Trump.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6556470/
Uncle Dave,
I don’t think anyone questions the validity of the “random number generators” However the fact that the screen says it plays with a 52 card deck, does not mean that your odds of getting any given card are 1:52. This is in fact controlled by the software. Just as in slot machines the “payout” of the machines is controlled by the casino.
This is one major reason the “double down” (card vs card for twice the bet) was eliminated by the gaming commission. What seemed a “fair” deal was not and was therefore forbidden. This feature can still often be found overseas where rules are much slacker.
The worst part of this is that Mucous, now thinks this is a fair game where he/she has a chance against the odds. Simply not true. Great random number generators (actually needed by the machines!) do not equate to “random cards” from a 52 card deck.
Conan Witzel
Let me tell you the biggest secret I learned while dealing cards in Las Vegas, and it applies to all the games: Play to have fun, not to make money.
As Uncle Dave suggests, understanding the odds of the game or machine that you are playing, will maximize your chances of winning. But do not expect to win, because the odds are always in the house’s favor. Have fun playing the game, have some free drinks, and enjoy the scenery. And if you do win, consider it an unexpected bonus.
Better yet, if you really want to make money gambling, don’t play video poker at all. The odds are poor, even on the good machines. If you are a pretty good poker player, try playing the real game with real players. Just be careful not to swim with the sharks. 😉
25 years ago I saw a software demo of a package being sold to casinos. It helped them track which machines were paying off too often and needed to be fixed. wink, wink.
Machines closest to the doors. Lower payoffs, but the machines probably have better odds. To sucker you further into the casino.
Conan, you only get a 1 in 52 odds on the first card. The second card is 1 in 51, third is 1 in 50 and so on. You are correct in that the casino controls the payout of the machine. It done via the payout table.
Just so you know, each jurisdiction sets the rules for the casinos with its purview. For example, in Nevada, there is the Gaming Commission. In California, each tribe has its own commission. The rules vary greatly. But things like random number generators are one of the most heavily tested things to ensure they are as close to random as electronics can theoretically be.
Uncle Dave,
I admit that I could be wrong on this (I was told by a tech so it comes second hand), however my understanding is that while “random” the frequency of certain cards or more specifically certain hands can be controlled by the casino.
Again my understanding, the reason that Double Down was banned in Nevada was because it gave the gambler the false impression that this was a 50/50 game, when in fact it was not. The Casino could in fact control the odds, in what the gamer would assume logically was a 50/50 game. They get away with it in video poker by saying that they use a 52 card deck, which they do, but not saying that the results will not be “totally” random. (Not unlike saying that there are 20 reels on the slot machine. One with a seven. Your chance of hitting that Seven is not 1:20.)
As I stated above, I do not know this to be true, second hand knowledge only. However in my experience it has appeared to be true. I believe that for the Nevada commission to approve you must prove that it is random, but not that is is fair.
My interest is now piqued! I am doing a little research on the internet. The following site interests me as it would claim with straight odds (random cards) , Deuces wild could pay over 100%. http://wizardofodds.com/deuceswild I don’t find this a likely scenario.
On a side note, I remember programing my Commodore 64 to deal poker hands, trying to get a royal flush on the deal. I let it run for two days. Don’t remember how many deals it did but it never got it (Maybe a couple hundred thousand!?!). Imagine that now!! 1 in 2,000,000 in most likely minutes. Maybe a fun weekend project!
I will freely admit I am wrong on this, but I need a little more proof
Conan Witzel
I first learned about the term 9/6 machine by actually watching the video tape of how to gamble in Las Vegas shown in the rooms at the Stratosphere. It was one of the best instructional videos I’ve ever seen and emphasized finding 9/6 machines to play which I thought was noble. Knowing that the Stratosphere was developed by Bob Stupak the guy who bet $1 mil on a Superbowl game (won) and known as one of the greatest pure gamblers in Las Vegas it is no surprise that the instructional tape would be accurate and honest.
That said I scoured the casino floor to see how many 9/6 machines were actually there and could only find two, both of which were occupied. Each casino has a very few of these machines usually someone on the floor or a supervisor should be able to tell you where they are if you ask.
Most patrons don’t seem to pay any attention to the pay tables as I’ve seen boneheads sitting next to a 9/6 machine while happily playing an 8/5 machine nonplussed. Ah Vegas. I don’t gamble much but sometimes get into a video poker mood. But I will not play an machine other than a 9/6.
People interested in this game should find a simulator that also trains you how to play since it’s not exactly like poker and the odds favor a certain well-defined strategy.
I should note that I did manage a royal flush on a casino machine in Reno. Paid $1200 for 25-cent machine. They made me fill out an IRS form on the spot and a slew of other paperwork. It was ridiculous.