The Wrong Way To Play Video Poker!

[ChopleyIOM]

This is not my screenshot but I logged in over at 3Dice just as someone was posting this into the chat window.

Please, if you're going to play Video Poker, don't do it like this.

What a waste of a Royal Flush!

In case you can't see it, explanation follows.


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SPOILER ALERT - Always, always, ALWAYS play max coins on Video Pokers, whilst the payouts for all the wins except the Royal Flush scale in a linear fashion with stake, the payout for the Royal is boosted massively. (You can see that in the screenshot, where the Royal pays 4000 coins instead of the 1500 coins it'd pay if it scaled like all the other winning hands.)

You can see here that the player has been awarded a measly 300x for his Royal, if he'd been playing five coins that would have been 800x.

By playing Video Pokers on anything other than max coins, you are literally setting fire to RTP and by extension your money, as the odds of hitting the Royal remain exactly the same, but the payout gets hit with a vicious nerf bat.

 

[conker]

Sorry to hear it didn't work out this time Chopley.

Interesting reading about the mistake you said you made, just in case I fancy playing a bit of Video Poker soon.

 

[ChopleyIOM]

Sorry to hear it didn't work out this time Chopley.

Interesting reading about the mistake you said you made, just in case I fancy playing a bit of Video Poker soon.

Not me! I make sure it's done properly

Also I play Jacks Or Better as it has the highest RTP (99.54%) and flattest volatility, so it's basically just a very long game of camping out the Royal.

Winner Screenshots - November 2024 - Page 2 - Casinomeister Forum

 

[Valhalla]

I once played deuces and joker poker at Ladbrokes on 3 coins (£1.50) instead of max (£2.50)
I hit the jackpot hand of 4 deuces and a joker, which paid 0x because I didn’t realise it only paid out on max coins.
I think the payout would’ve been 6000x, can’t remember. It was years ago. The scars remain.

 

[Video_Poker_Pro]

As a long time video poker player my soul just left my body

 

[ChopleyIOM]

I once played deuces and joker poker at Ladbrokes on 3 coins (£1.50) instead of max (£2.50)
I hit the jackpot hand of 4 deuces and a joker, which paid 0x because I didn’t realise it only paid out on max coins.
I think the payout would’ve been 6000x, can’t remember. It was years ago. The scars remain.

Ouch!

It'd be nice if the game client did a little 'Are you sure' type message when you start playing hands that won't deliver optimal RTP or flat out make certain prizes unavailable.

Missing out on the full pay for a Royal Flush as per my OP pales in comparison compared to the miss you had there!

 

[Valhalla]

Ouch!

What I always wondered tho - does the game register as having "paid" the jackpot hand, which is a super rare event, but the casino loses nothing? And then it is highly unlikely to come out again for quite some time?

It was honestly around 18 years ago but it still makes me feel sick thinking about it.

 

[ChopleyIOM]

What I always wondered tho - does the game register as having "paid" the jackpot hand, which is a super rare event, but the casino loses nothing? And then it is highly unlikely to come out again for quite some time?

It was honestly around 18 years ago but it still makes me feel sick thinking about it.

Well if it's a fair and random game, dealing from a 'proper' deck of (virtual!) cards then it shouldn't make any difference at all.

The game won't 'know' that it paid a jackpot hand, and/or care that it did or didn't pay the jackpot.

As per my OP, all that guy was essentially doing was taking about 1.5% off his RTP, so he was playing a 98% version of Jacks Or Better, instead of 99.54% (assuming optimal strategy, which if he was using 3Dice's autoplayer, it does play). About 2% of the RTP on Jacks Or Better is in the Royals, and he was still getting a payout for the Royal, just much reduced.

If you didn't use the autoplayer and deliberately did the stupidest holds in the world, you could probably get yourself down to about 70% RTP or something, but the 3Dice servers shouldn't 'care' at all, they'll just keep on dealing the cards. The way 3Dice will always win in the end is that even with a player who's playing perfectly, he'll still lose all his money, eventually, against even a 0.46% house edge.

Your example is extreme because you missed out on a special jackpot sort of hand, but fundamentally it shouldn't have made any difference to anything, the casino just makes more money on the game than they would have done otherwise.