How Does Video Poker Work

• How Does Video Poker Work
• How Does A Video Poker Tournament Work
• How Does Video Poker Machine Work

While the machine is not being played, the RNG runs hundreds of times per second. Don caesars tampa. The RNG has billions of possible outcomes for any set of cards. Once the Start, Deal or Bet button is pressed (or the first coin is deposited), the outcome is determined regardless of game play or the number of coins bet.
After the first five cards have been dealt and displayed, replacement cards are drawn from the top of the deck. Therefore, no matter which card is thrown away, the replacement card will remain the same. For example, a player is initially dealt the following hand; JH, QH, KH, 7D and 7S. If the player discards the pair of sevens, and draws the 7C and the 7H, they would have had four sevens had they originally discarded the JH, QH and KH.
International Game Technology is not the only video poker machine manufacturer. Therefore, their competitor's RNG's may operate differently. As you probablt already know, video poker players are usually avid poker players as well. Now that you know a little more about how video poker machines work, wouldn't you like to know how rakeback works in poker?

How Do Video Poker Machines Work? At the heart of the video poker machine is the Random Number Generator or RNG. A RNG is a software algorithm used to ensure a truly random outcome of game. Video poker tournaments are one of the more complicated topics in video poker, because each tournament has it's own individual rules which make every single tournament unique. This article will attempt to break down video poker tournaments by explaining how they work, common variations, and the proper strategy to give yourself the best chance. Video poker is a special variant of video slot in which players can use some skill in holding the most advantageous cards. All other slot machines, whatever their branding, are games of pure chance. First, let's cover the basics. Video poker has virtually the same rules as a game of five card draw poker. The only difference is that you have no opponent to beat and you can't lose more Steve Bourie is the.

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Today's machines do not sit with cards already selected because that makes the machines vulnerable to being cheated. A group in the Midwest was able to figure out the RNG function in a video poker machine and, with that information, they were able to figure out the five cards that would be used to replace discards. Obviously, they were caught.

If you've read many of my posts here, you know that I'm an unabashed fan of video poker games.

And what I like most about video poker is that you can learn what the expectation is for a video poker game based on its paytable. Once you've done that, shopping around between video poker games becomes like shopping for a car.

You just go with the best deal.

But, it's not as simple as just choosing the right game.

You must also learn the appropriate strategy for that game.

The best way to do that is to use video poker strategy tables, which I explain in detail in this post.

What Is a Video Poker Strategy Table?

You're not allowed to use a computer to help you decide which cards to keep and which cards to discard in video poker. And, your human mind is fallible – you can't always calculate the appropriate play with the best expected return in every situation.

So, you must memorize rules for how to play the game.

A complete video poker strategy table would have instructions for how to play every possible starting hand you could be dealt.

That's 2.5 million hands, though, so such a strategy table would be too big to be of any practical use.

The computer programmers and video experts instead created strategy tables based on hand types and the general best expected return for those types of hands. This reduces the complexity of the strategy table dramatically.

You inevitably sacrifice some return for usability. The more complex a strategy table is, the more accurate it is.

But you're less likely to use a complicated video poker strategy table than you are to use a simple video poker strategy table.

Hand Types and Expected Value

The experts create strategy tables by calculation the average expected return for various hand types.

The average expected value of a 4-card flush is lower than the expected value for a pair of jacks or higher. So, if you get 4 cards to a flush that includes a high pair, you'll hold onto the high pair even though it means you're discarding cards that would make a flush.

This makes sense if you think about it. Here's a simplified version of the thought process:

A pair of jacks or better pays off at even money, and if you already have that hand, you're starting with an expected value of at least 1. (100% X 1 = 1 unit).

But you also get to add in the probabilities of hitting 3 of a kind or 4 of a kind, as well as the probability of hitting a full house.

If you have 4 cards to a flush, though, the probability of hitting your flush by discarding one of the cards in your pair is 9/47, which is about 19%.

When you draw to the flush, you're unable to hit a 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, or a full house. Those hands are all eliminated. Your only hope is to hit a high pair, which you discarded to try to hit the flush.

Do you see how the expected value of the high pair is better than the expected value of 4 to a flush, even though the flush has a significantly higher payout?

Why Different Strategy Tables Offer Different Advice Sometimes

Putting together a video poker strategy table that's both useful and accurate is less of a rigorous science than you might think. Remember? We talked about how there are 2.5 million possible hands in a video poker game, and you can't list anything close to all of them.

Someone who's creating a video poker strategy table has a goal of creating the fewest number of rules for how to play your hands that's still close to optimal.

In practice, most of the strategies are the same from one table to another. You'll just find minor differences in some of them.

Keep in mind, too, that not only do slight inaccuracies in your strategy affect your payback percentage, but mistakes caused by being tired or just having a poor memory also create variance. Even if the strategy table were perfect, it wouldn't matter.

You're human, and you'll make mistakes.

So, agonizing over 1/100 of a per cent isn't worthwhile.

How Does Video Poker Work

Can You Use a Video Poker Strategy Table, or Do You Have to Memorize It?

As long as you're not using something mechanical to help you decide how to play, you're fine using strategy aids. These can be something you've printed off the internet or laminated strategy tables you've bought from an expert.

You can even use handwritten notes. The casinos don't care.

It's like using the basic strategy tables in blackjack. You're allowed to do that at the blackjack table, too, but you're not allowed to use any kind of computer to help you decide what to do.

Don't try to look up strategy tables for blackjack or video poker on your cell phone, for example. After all, your phone is just a handheld computer these days.

The computer programmers and video experts instead created strategy tables based on hand types and the general best expected return for those types of hands. This reduces the complexity of the strategy table dramatically.

You inevitably sacrifice some return for usability. The more complex a strategy table is, the more accurate it is.

But you're less likely to use a complicated video poker strategy table than you are to use a simple video poker strategy table.

Hand Types and Expected Value

The experts create strategy tables by calculation the average expected return for various hand types.

The average expected value of a 4-card flush is lower than the expected value for a pair of jacks or higher. So, if you get 4 cards to a flush that includes a high pair, you'll hold onto the high pair even though it means you're discarding cards that would make a flush.

This makes sense if you think about it. Here's a simplified version of the thought process:

A pair of jacks or better pays off at even money, and if you already have that hand, you're starting with an expected value of at least 1. (100% X 1 = 1 unit).

But you also get to add in the probabilities of hitting 3 of a kind or 4 of a kind, as well as the probability of hitting a full house.

If you have 4 cards to a flush, though, the probability of hitting your flush by discarding one of the cards in your pair is 9/47, which is about 19%.

When you draw to the flush, you're unable to hit a 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, or a full house. Those hands are all eliminated. Your only hope is to hit a high pair, which you discarded to try to hit the flush.

Do you see how the expected value of the high pair is better than the expected value of 4 to a flush, even though the flush has a significantly higher payout?

Why Different Strategy Tables Offer Different Advice Sometimes

Putting together a video poker strategy table that's both useful and accurate is less of a rigorous science than you might think. Remember? We talked about how there are 2.5 million possible hands in a video poker game, and you can't list anything close to all of them.

Someone who's creating a video poker strategy table has a goal of creating the fewest number of rules for how to play your hands that's still close to optimal.

In practice, most of the strategies are the same from one table to another. You'll just find minor differences in some of them.

Keep in mind, too, that not only do slight inaccuracies in your strategy affect your payback percentage, but mistakes caused by being tired or just having a poor memory also create variance. Even if the strategy table were perfect, it wouldn't matter.

You're human, and you'll make mistakes.

So, agonizing over 1/100 of a per cent isn't worthwhile.

How Does Video Poker Work

Can You Use a Video Poker Strategy Table, or Do You Have to Memorize It?

As long as you're not using something mechanical to help you decide how to play, you're fine using strategy aids. These can be something you've printed off the internet or laminated strategy tables you've bought from an expert.

You can even use handwritten notes. The casinos don't care.

It's like using the basic strategy tables in blackjack. You're allowed to do that at the blackjack table, too, but you're not allowed to use any kind of computer to help you decide what to do.

Don't try to look up strategy tables for blackjack or video poker on your cell phone, for example. After all, your phone is just a handheld computer these days.

For the most part, even if you play perfectly according to the strategy table that you're using, you're still going to face a house edge. It's just that the house edge you're facing is lower than that of the rubes who aren't using strategy tables.

The casino is willing to accept you losing 0.5% of your hourly action instead of 2.5% of your hourly action.

They'd only start having a problem if you were able to get an edge over the casino using the strategy tables. Casinos frown on advantage players.

But, with video poker, you will find some casinos with low stakes video poker games where you can get an edge. The edge is so small at those stakes, though, that there's little incentive to be an advantage player.

Caesar rewards login. No one wants to play real money video poker for a living if their hourly winnings is expected to average $7/hour or less.

How Does A Video Poker Tournament Work

What if You Won't Want to Memorize or Use a Strategy Table?

I can offer some tips that will help you do well at Jacks or Better or Deuces Wild even if you don't use a complete strategy table. You might have your own reasons for not wanting to use a strategy table, but that might be discomfort with that way of expressing information.

I get it. I couldn't learn basic strategy in blackjack until I decided to go with a plain English version of basic strategy.

A Simplified Jacks or Better Video Poker Strategy

1. The first thing you should understand about Jacks or Better video poker is that you never keep a kicker. A kicker is an extra high card that you hold onto along with the pair that you're holding. This is sometimes the appropriate strategy if you're playing 5-card draw with your buddies, but in video poker, there's no advantage to be had from that high card. 2 pairs is 2 pairs, regardless of the cards' ranks.
2. The next thing to understand is the folly of drawing to an inside straight. An inside straight is one where you can only fill the straight with a card of one rank – an example would be 4578. You'd need a 6 to fill that straight, and there are only 4 of those in the deck. Contrast that with an outside straight – one where you have 8 cards in the deck that will fill your straight. An example of that would be 4567. Any 3 or any 8 will fill your straight, which doubles your probability of hitting your hand. The only exception to not drawing to an inside straight is if you have 3 or 4 high cards (jacks or higher). In that case, the extra equity you get from possible high pairs compensates for the low probability of filling your straight.
3. You'll never hold 3 cards to a straight or to a flush. You might keep 3 cards to a straight flush, though, because you have so many 'outs.'

(An out is a card that will make your hand.)

An Example of a Video Poker Strategy Table

Here's an abbreviated Jacks or Better video poker strategy table along with instructions for how to use it:

• Royal flush, straight flush, 4 of a kind
• 4 cards to a royal flush
• Full house, flush, 3 of a kind, straight
• 4 cards to a straight flush
• 2 pairs, a pair of jacks or better
• 3 cards to a royal flush
• 4 cards to a flush
• Any low pair
• Any open straight draw
• One high card
• Nothing

That's an extremely abbreviated strategy. You just start at the top and look for the hand that you have. Once you get to the hand that you have, you stop and discard any cards that aren't part of that hand.

You'll notice that most of the time, you're hoping that the machine is going to deal you a winner.

You'll only rarely break up a winning hand to draw to something better.

Conclusion

That's my best explanation of video poker strategy tables work. You can find plenty of books offering such tables as well as plenty of websites across the internet.

It's well worth your time to learn proper video poker strategy, though, and I hope you will.

How Does Video Poker Machine Work