Video Poker Could This be the Best Nickel VP Machine Ever?

The nickel Dueces Wild machine upstairs at the D is generally called the best nickel machine in the U.S. with a 101+% payback. It's been good to us when we're just killing time and slowing the bloodletting. This week I stumbled upon a machine (5 actually) that may surpass it. It's a DDB "Match Card" machine, with the following features:
- 9/6
- Pays 5000 ($250) on a 5 coin bet for a royal
- Max bet is 20 coins ($1), which has a progressive royal that starts at $1000
- With each hand there's a "match card" displayed above the last card. If they match, it pays anywhere from 5 coins to a royal flush. Most pays are 5 or 10, but my wife got 205 on one match and 30 on the next.
- Strangest feature - if you are dealt a flush with three high cards and go for the royal instead, you still get paid for the flush even if you don't make the royal. Never seen that anywhere. It's not listed, but locals explained it to me.

Without the match card, the progressive, and the "go for the royal" flush feature the machine's 99.5%. Got to be well over 100% with these features. We played them for awhile three times last week and finished about even overall.

The problem with these machines is their location - Mill Bay Casino in Manson, Washington. It's a Colville Tribal Casino. Not a very large place and these are the only video poker machines in it. Assuming they work like they should (no laws govern tribal machines in Washington), these are great. Just wish we had them at the tribal casinos near Seattle or in Vegas! Anyone ever seen anything similar, even at larger denominations?

 

I think they have a bank of those in 25c and $1, at Pioneer in Laughlin.

 

I believe the base game here is 9/6 DDB paying 98.98%. The higher royal payoff can give you and extra 0.5%of return . I do need some details on the match card. Would it pay at least 20 if you were playing 20 coins? You said it pays mostly 5 and 10. Is that for 5 coins?

Regarding the go for the royal feature, what happens if you end up with a high pair? Do you get paid for the flush AND the high pair?

 

Yes, it's the higher royal that ups the return. We were only playing 5 coins because we didn't bring much cash and their was no Bank of America ATM in town (I refuse to pay ATM fees). The match card on a 20 coin bet pays proportionately more than a 5 coin bet. Not sure on the last question. I only had the scenario once, and didn't know about the draw feature, so I held the flush. A local sitting next to me was apparently watching and said I should have gone for the royal. She explained the feature. I was very doubtful, but her two friends playing next to her confirmed it.

 

DANGER!!! DANGER!!!

Because they are in Washington state, strategy is worthless and the game does NOT follow the standard probabilities of a poker deck. The match card feature is mostly there to cover player mistakes as wins are predetermined as mandated by state/tribal compact. Hold garbage and you'll seeing a lot more match cards. I would expect this game to pay 92% or so.

Now there is a match card version similar to this game in Nevada. That acts like a bonus feature like Tim mentioned and behaves like all other Nevada VP (standard deck w/equal probability, strategy/paytable matters).

 

Yup, what Tring said. There is sadly no real VP in Washington.

 

Too bad. Wish there were some state regulations like Nevada's. It's hard to get excited about gambling when there's no way to know if the game is rigged, which of course means it probably is!

 

Well, at least in Washington you know VP is always just slot machine. It's still random, but your skill has nothing to do with it and the payback has nothing to do with the paytable displayed. Basically the law is the opposite of Nevada's where the machine MUST play like poker with a standard deck if it has card representations.

For me it's one more reason to go back to Vegas!