Video Poker - Favourite Variation, Casino, Techniques please?

catapultaudio

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Location
Leeds, UK
Hi all. I've recently switched to playing video poker as my main game (from blackjack) but I'm starting to think I jumped ship a little prematurely - I had a real hot streak, winning £200 playing double double bonus after starting with just £3.60 won in a 90min freeroll at Go Wild and have been pretty hooked ever since .. :)

At the moment my favourites are double double bonus and all american, mainly for the high payouts on 4 of a kind / straight flush. I do like the multi hand games but at the moment I can't seem to find the right balance between bet size and number of hands - if I play 50 play for example, get trips to start, then when I draw the payout is really terrible even if I get a few 4 of a kinds .. of course I do realize it may well take me 50 hands of 1-play to see those same 4 of a kinds but they would pay 50 times more which is a whole lot more exciting!

My big problem right now is it doesn't seem to matter which variation I play, the overall trend is that my balance just goes down, down, down ... forever hoping for a decent hit to bring me back up. The double or nothing feature is always too tempting too and I'm forever losing moderate wins despite only trying a single double ..

Would like to hear from some VP regulars, if you play a lot of VP, how does your balance normally play out over an evening? And where is your favourite place to play?

Thanks !
 
I don't know exactly why, but i feel the best place to play VP is 3Dice, they have a wide selection and min bet of 0.10 ct a hand.

I usually only play it there, very rarely i would play it in 32Red and i havht e tried a few othe softwares too, but was more interested i the slots there -:)

Iirc, a lot of frequent VP players that post here have been complimentous about 3Dice VP, and i also remember
Chopley posted a thread about the difference in RTP across a few popular softwares/Casinos.
Might wanna check that out

My favourites are Lucky Nugget: average higher payout on straights, flushes, full houses but less on 40AK, therefore max pay on Royals when playing max coins (5 per coinsize) and Deuces Wild: very nice to hit the 4 deuces even on a small bet, and have hit it several times

Balances usually should last longer then when playing slots, if you follow perfect strategy or close to it.
What i do, is when i increase balance i will raise bet accordingly, and if i hit the max pay or a good streak, i'll quit and go back to slots or the cashier :)

Edit:
Dug up the article for you:
https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/video-poker-payouts-across-different-softwares.56610/
 
Thanks a lot for the tips! I actually just signed up at 3dice yesterday and had a go and they do have a really great selection of games, I busted out very quickly though .. :( Might try another small deposit soon though.

I also do as you suggest re moving up stakes, particularly if I am playing with a smaller deposit - playing £1.25-£5.00 per hand VP can be REALLY good fun, hitting the 4OAK+kicker at DDB even at just £1.25 a hand = £500, I think thats whats got me sucked in so quickly - I've spent way too long playing these dodgy 243 way slots with silly 16x bet max wins on the paytable that suddenly hitting 80/160/400x bet several times an hour is way too addictive !!
 
A couple more things to throw out there, which I'd really like to hear some feedback on -

1. I've seen a thread on here which states that when playing the doubling game on microgaming, the outcome is already decided as soon as you hit double - so, it doesn't actually matter which card I pick and any thoughts of having a system, picking card 1/3/1/3 etcetc, will make no difference, whichever card I pick, it will be that same predetermined card. Can anybody confirm if this is still how it works as the thread dates back to 2007?

If this *IS* how it works, the thread discussed how it didn't matter because as a player I still had a 50/50 chance. But to me, it shouldn't be a 50/50 thing at all - if the dealers card is a K, then I have a very low chance to beat him, whereas if the dealer has a 3, I should have a very good chance to beat him. If the computer is just deciding between win, lose or draw then showing that with some cards, then I think this is really bad and deceiving!

2. How about Level-Up Poker - anybody play this style much? I've been trying it with Aces & Faces and so far been quite successful, the prospect of hitting an 8x royal is truely salivating but I guess the chances must be very, very low, considering how few times I reach the 4th level at all .. and can anybody explain the autocomplete feature to me? I really don't follow that part at all..
 
I play alot of VP, but mostly in land casinos. However I do play my share online. My favourite place is Treasure Mile or sister site Grand Eagle. They have VP starting at 1 cent and then at .05, and0.10,and 0.25 and 0.50, and 1.00 and 2.00 and 5.00. So you can play at low levels if you would like. Also their paytables are good as well.

As for your money not lasting well 50 play is way to expensive in my books. Unless you are dealt quads it is hard to make money (my opinion) You aslo said you play DDB poker and that has a large variance which means you will have wild swings in your bankroll and will need more money to reach percentage averages of the game you are playing. IF I was to play 50 play I would only play Jacks or Better with a 9-6 paytable. The 2 for 1 on two pairs will keep you floating much longer. Double Double Bonus is based on some huge 4 of a kinds (aces with kicker) and they don't come around all that often so you go broke trying.

My advice is play single line or maybe 3 line games and watch the paytables. I play alot of DDB on single line as well ae Double Bonus.

As for the double up it is NOT predetermined and the card you choose makes a difference. They do the double up from a standard 52 card deck. 5 cards are dealt RANDOM and the dealer always gets the first card. So if you chose the second card and drew say and eight that would not have been the same card if you drew say the fifth card. It is just luck and a 50/50 prop. No harm if you enjoy it. But it is truly random, no matter what others say.

Good luck my friend and if you are going to play alot of VP learn the correct startegy for each game if you do not know it already
 
Do you have any technical evidence to support your theory about the doubling? I'm not doubting you personally but the thread here at CM related to an older version of the microgaming software and the person had taken a look at the data coming back from the server whereby the win/lose was sent along with the list of cards, and no further data sent or received after a card was chosen, meaning that whichever card you pick, it would always be the same - this doesn't mean it isn't random only that you always get the next card off the top of the deck ...

Here's the thread, only found it yesterday after searching because I was getting quite frustrated at the number of aces the dealer was starting with in the doubling game...

https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/microgaming-vp-doubling-rigged.13607/

I'd say it's pretty conclusive about the way it USED to work, but I'd like to know if it's still the same, because even if it doesn't affect the overall RTP, I personally like to think that when the dealer has a 3 or 4, on those occassions I have a great chance to win, and others he will have a K and I have a very low chance to win - I'd rather have some good and some bad luck in that way, than a 50/50 shot on every single try
 
First of all - in re-reading the thread that incrediblestuff linked to, thank you ChopleyIOM for recommending our VP.

Here's how we handle the VP Double Down game.

1. We deal a single random card from the deck. (We don't shuffle our decks - we pick a random card from the stack.) This is the Dealer's card, and is the only card that is returned at the start of the game. (This eliminates a potential security hack.)

2. The Player selects a card (say the third card), and that selection gets sent into the server.

3. The server code removes the Dealer's card from the deck, then deals four random cards. The game is evaluated based on the Player's chosen card, and the 4 cards (with results) are returned to the Player.

Having said that - I can now say that it really doesn't matter which way things get handled, or when they get handled. There are only 2 critical questions:

A. Was the Dealer's card selected randomly?

B. Was the Player's card selected randomly, and with no regard for the Dealer's card?

If the answer to both of these questions is "Yes", then it is a 50/50 (100% RTP) game. All the rest of it is just presentation.

To be accurate, the reason we do it the way that we do is because of that security hack, but also because it is the most efficient use of server resources.

Chris
 
Thanks Binary for your explanation. Just to be clear.....if the player chose say card 2 it would not be the same as say card 4. This is how I see the game. What I am saying is the cards the players gets to choose from all all different.
 
@binary128, hi mate thanks for the reply. Can you tell me which casino(s) run your software as I'm not yet familiar with galewind? Sorry if I'm waaaay behind the curve with that one!

I'd be interested to hear your take on the microgaming thread and the way they do things - I think your implementation is just fine.

It seemed that the main advantage of doing it the way described in that thread was speed, the not having to contact the server again to confirm the result of the card pick, but I don't think that is really so much of an issue in todays market of fast broadband and incredibly fast servers and networks
 
My favourite VP variant is Pick 'Em Poker, also called Pick A Pair sometimes. It's easy to learn perfect strategy, nice bonus on the 4OAK most places. It's the only one I play land-based.

It's available at RTG, and if you like slots as well, CWG offers a fair number of bonuses where you can play both, and the VP is weighted pretty well on the coupons.

Regular VP, 3Dice for me. I think the autohold is accurate, and there is a nice interface. I don't like the Multi-hand there, not fond of how the winning hands are fanned out all over the table.

I miss the analyse hand and autohold that MG used to offer. Almost never play VP there anymore.
 
Thanks Binary for your explanation. Just to be clear.....if the player chose say card 2 it would not be the same as say card 4. This is how I see the game. What I am saying is the cards the players gets to choose from all all different.

Yes, the four cards (card1, card2, card3, card4) that are dealt to finish the game are all different. We don't compare the cards (Dealer versus Player) until after these four cards are dealt.

If you chose the first card (the one next to the Dealer), then card1 would be compared to the Dealer's card. If you chose the second card, then card2 would be compared. And so on.

In the world of "human", this is how it should be, because this is how it would play out if you were working with a real deck of cards.

However, in the world of "random", it really doesn't make any difference. If the answer to those two questions I asked before is "Yes", then the game is fair.

Chris
 
I'd be interested to hear your take on the microgaming thread and the way they do things - I think your implementation is just fine.

It sounds like nothing more than a small "leak" on the presentation side of things.

As I said, in the "human" world the game should only be decided after you have made your choice. That is, your choice should have some impact on the game's final result.

But in the "random" world, it is all the same in the end. If you ran 5000 games where the choice was made at the start, and 5000 games where the choice was made as I described in our system, both would show approximately 100% RTP (given variance).


It seemed that the main advantage of doing it the way described in that thread was speed, the not having to contact the server again to confirm the result of the card pick, but I don't think that is really so much of an issue in todays market of fast broadband and incredibly fast servers and networks

I agree - speed, as well as the most efficient use of server resources. Protecting server resources is incredibly important. It represents the difference between supporting 500 people online at the same time, or 600 people online at the same time. It means the difference between fast game play and "laggy" game play (or even hung games).

However, in our Flash games, where anyone can "pop the hood", security is the deciding factor, so if we did it that way we'd be hosed.

Chris
 

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