Video Poker VP strategy thoughts

Hi all, I know the common thread of thought is to always play 5 credits to get the max jackpot for the royal flush in VP. But, is that always the best play when you have better payout tables if you raise your bet value? For example, my local casino has JOB $0.25 and $0.50 with a paytable of 7/5, and the paytable at $1.00 is 8/5. I cannot afford (for very long anyway, lol) to play max bet at $1.
I came across a strategy to kinda play both sides of it. To keep it simple I will explain using a $20 initial cash input. Bet 1 credit at the $1 level. If you are at or above your initial $20 and hit a payout of 4 credits or more, raise your bet to max credits. If you win, continue at max credits until you lose, then drop back down to 1 credit. Repeat this as long as you are above your initial buy-in. This still gives you the chance to hit the royal at max credits, but it does also allow you to play longer on a smaller bankroll and with a better paytable.
I typically don't play JOB when doing this, usually deuces wild or bonus poker. I also follow a strict rule of cashing out my tito if I double my initial buy-in. That tito goes in my pocket until I leave, at least then I may leave with some cash....lol! I will then start the process with a new $20 buy-in.
I guess it will all depend on your temperament as well, it wouldn't be nice to see a royal at the the lower bet, but it wouldn't bother me for long...........This also makes it a bit more interesting, instead of just banging away at the button, it makes you pause and think just a bit more.
Thoughts?

 

Yes, most people will blindly say to bet max credits. But that's not always the best play in terms of return if you're changing denominations.

Generally it works like this.

If the paytable moves up one "notch" (a full house or flush payout increases by one unit), it's still better to bet max at the lower paytable, but not by much. In your example, 7/5 JoB max coins (96.15%) vs. 8/5 at 1 coin (96.06%).

But if the difference is two notches or more, definitely bet 1 coin at the better paytable. I've told my g/f to do this sometimes because she's mostly a nickel player, but at some casinos, the jump from nickels to quarters is two "notches" or better.

 

This all works great until you hit a short coin-in Royal for 250 credits. The emotional toll of that is far greater than any monetary price. And that's my 2 cents.

That said, if the paytables were vastly different between denoms, you might have a mathematical case in the long run, but the long run is very, very long and somewhere along the way lies that Royal Flush...

 

BTW, how I would approach this is I would play the lower denom and if I doubled up or hit a quad, I'd switch to dollars play max coins. If I dropped down again, I'd lower the denom, but I'd play max coins always regardless of denom.

Strict Rules of Parlay!

 

So, to play 8/5 rather than 7/5, you are drastically reducing your return on the 8/5 machine, so much so that your new best 8/5 friend is now paying well below your original 7/5 machine...... Makes sense to me......

Nick

 

I am by no means an expert but I have been playing video poker for 22 years. Sometimes I may not play 100% correct strategy but I will ALWAYS play full coin. It just doesn't make sense to me to collect $250 for a single coin royal dollar machine when I can get $1,000 playing 5 coin quarters. Even worse, I've seen people hit royals playing a single coin quarter and get paid only $62.50 instead of $1,000 for 5 coins.

I usually play quarters and stay away from higher denomination play. I think it is impossible to win consistently. If it were possible to win all the time, nobody would mess with playing quarters or dollars. Everyone would be on the $10 and $100 machines, wouldn't they?

Have fun playing and good luck!

 

I'm not a VP player but what am I missing here? Sure, winning $1,000 is better than winning $250 but the other one is 250x and the other one is 200x bet? Surely the best way to play would be to move to a higher denom right? 250x is a lot better than 200x.

 

The $1,000 win is off a $1.25 bet, so 800x your bet. Compared to 250x your best on single line dollars.

 

Yeah, I can't speak of the emotional toll of the min coin royal. I have sporadically bet one coin and have had a few royal scares, but never have connected when betting one.

Also one game where you should always bet max is Triple Double Bonus, they also shave the payout of Aces w/kicker from 800 for 1 to 400 for 1 as well if you don't bet max.

 

I always play max coin so I stick to nickel or quarter VP, but in 25 years I haven't had a single RF, so for me I guess it wouldn't have mattered.

 

Seriously, 25 years? What are we talking here? Walk up to the bar, put in a twenty, get your "free" drink and cash out and move on? Or some serious time at the machines?

 

Nope, I rarely play at the bars and have cut waaaayy back in drinking over the years. I've had 2 King high SF as my best, Ive never had a 4 OAK with kicker playing a game where that counts either. I have had 4 deuces a couple times and wild royals on DW and I even got a 5 OAK playing Joker poker, but still no RF. I've also never had a hand pay, but trust me, it hasn't been from lack of trying. I'm just one of those people that if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all. My biggest win ever was $600 and my wifes is $900 but she tries harder than I do.

 

When I play out an odd credit I may have and I get a small royal draw I will just toss it for that fear..

 

I always worry a tiny bit when I hear streaks like this. They really shouldn't happen unless you play the game very sporadically. I would start to worry the game was "rigged" if a slow player (200 hands/hr) plays 2000 hours of single line lifetime, a medium speed player (400 hands/hr) plays 1000 hours lifetime, or a fast player (800 hands/hr) plays 500 hours lifetime and never hit a royal. The average royal rates are 10 times faster than what are quoted in the previous sentence. The amount I currently play, I'm hoping for a royal about annually.

 

As I know I have said before, a co-worker who is more into the geeky side of VP got me into this set of strategies. Play either one coin or max coins. One coin if you're trying to max your playing time and max coins if you're going for best return, with the 2-3-4 coin bets being sucker bets. Those bets miss the bonus RF payout but the bankroll goes faster. I've been following that lately. If I start out or am on a roll, I'll always do 5 coins. If it's not paying at all, I'll switch to one.

 

Being max is better, but betting one isn't that bad if you can't find a lower denomination. But yeah, 2-4 coins is a bad idea, especially 4. And many bartenders get some people to bet 4 coins because many strip casinos policies is $1 min bet for comp drinks.

 

I always play max coin when playing either of my most common denominations (.50 & $1) but will occasionally play two coins on a $5 machine to get that jump from 8/5 to 9/6. Sorry to admit this but I usually do this deviation when I have some reason to run up more TR credits than usual. (promotions, etc) I know the dangers of emotional hurt from hitting a Royal without playing full coin because I hit one at Harrah's New Orleans doing this a couple of years ago. I only got a $2,500 jackpot instead of the 20K a full coin Royal would have paid. OTOH- it is highly unlikely that I would have still been playing when the Royal came due to the ease of burning thru a bankroll at $25 a spin. I didn't have any emotional distress over that because I had figured out that risk before beginning and accepted that as part of the risk of playing short coin.

 

Play $2 VP. Problem solved.

Nick

 

Is there ever a real jump in the pay table from 1 to 2 coins? I don't think I've ever seen that.

 

Two dollars doesn't give the 9/6 pay out it is still 8/5 in NOLA. I play full coin but have also thought why not play 1 at a time on $5 when you go up 1 unit on both flush and full house. I agree if only a 1 unit jump but 2 units make a bit of sense....however never have pulled the trigger on it..............Rick