Video Poker VP - Bonus Poker vs. JOB?

I play JOB VP when staying on the Strip. I use the Wizard of Odds "Simple" strategy. It's hard to find 9/6 pay tables on the strip for quarter and dollar machines. I know they exist and I do find some, but even with help from the vpFREE website, I spend too way much time looking for 9/6 instead of playing. I understand that 8/5 Bonus poker has a 99% payout and that the JOB strategy can be used. If that's true, it would be nice to not have to learn a new strategy. Two questions:

1. Is it true that the JOB strategy works with 8/5 Bonus Poker, without loosing any of the theoretical 99% payout?

2 Is 8/5 Bonus VP at the quarter or dollar level any easier to find on the strip than 9/6 JOB? (If not, I might as well keep playing JOB.)

 

No.

By playing the JoB strategy on a Double Bonus game you will give up some of the game's payback... however the amount you give up is pretty small overall, so thats why its considered "OK" if you don't know the Double Bonus strategy.

You said you used VPFree2 already, I'd still go with that and check the casinos you frequent in Vegas or that are near the place where you are staying to see if they have the Bonus Poker game you are looking for.

The thing with Bonus Poker is that you really need to know the whole paytable... with Jacks or Better you are pretty much safe just looking at the full house/flush payouts and if thats 9/6 you are good to go. But with Bonus Poker you could have two machines sitting side by side that are both 8/5 Bonus Poker but they could have different paybacks because 4OAK on one pays differently than the same 4OAK on the other...

 

If you are referring to a standard 8/5 Bonus Poker machine, not double, triple etc, then yes, the difference in payback playing 9/6 JoB strategy on this machine is negligible. You loose less than a tenth of a percent. The payback on 8/5 bp is 99.17, so that keeps you over the 99% mark. That's exactly what I do. I play 9/6 JoB, 8/5 bp and 8/5 ACE$ bp. I play 9/6 JoB strategy on all of them, unless I have a strategy card at hand and notice that the correct play is different (I usually, but not always carry a 9/6 Jacks and 8/5 bonus strategy chart with me when I play). I figure it's better to focus on learning one strategy when the differences are so small.

As for finding good paytables on the strip at the quarter level, that's not easy. Vpfree is your friend, and 8/5 bp is a little more common than 9/6 Jacks, but a trip to an off strip or downtown property is the way to go if you want good paytables at this level.

 

Thanks Auggie and atom.

Atom, yes I was referring to standard 8/5 Bonus poker, not Double. My understanding was that JOB strategy doesn't work for Double Bonus poker. However, Auggie's reply leads me to think that it wouldn't be that bad to use JOB strategy on 8/5 Double Bonus since I would be giving up only a little payback. I suspect that using JOB strategy on 8/5 Double Bonus would have a higher theoretical payback than playing the 7/5 JOB machines that are common on the strip.

Auggie, I will check the full pay table to make sure it is what is expected for all hands. Thanks for the tip.

 

Yeah, using 9/6 JoB strategy at 8/5 Bonus loses you very little due to strategy errors. A vast majority of the value you lose vs. 9/6 JoB is the loss of the unit for the full house and flush is slightly worse than the increased value of quads for Aces thru 4s.

Unfortunately, finding 8/5 Bonus on the Strip is nearly as difficult as 9/6 JoB if you look at the VPFree2 list. North: Stratosphere , Rivera (dollars only) Mid: Casino Royale (cheap as 10c/credit and quarters at the bar) Treasure Island (50c or higher and they have 9/6 JoB for 50c or higher) South: Tropicana (cheap as nickels on 50-play and has Super Times Pay for dollars as well) NY NY (also has 9/6 JoB for quarters).

And using JoB strategy would probably be better to use on 8/5 Double Double Bonus (DDB) (96.79%) than 7/5 Jacks or Better (96.15%). But typically on the Vegas strip at the quarter level, both 8/5 JoB (97.3%) and 8/5 DDB (96.79%) exist on the same Game King, so you would likely rather play 8/5 JoB if you are looking to maximize return.

Major DDB hold differences versus JoB, fyi: Hold Ace only vs. AH offsuit (H=high card), Two pair with Aces: hold Aces only, Full house with Aces: hold trip Aces only, 4 to a gutshot is better than garbage, and all inside straight draws with two high cards are better than just the two offsuit high cards (e.g. QJT8).

That might not be every difference, but that covers most of them.

 

No problem using JOB strategy for BP, the difference in return is negligible. The main issue is that 8/5 BP is as rare as 9/6 JOB at most places on the strip.

When you go off strip there are lots of full pay games but it's still quite commmon to find 8/5 BP where 9/6 JOB is not available so it makes sense to play both games.

On the strip the choice is often 8/5 JOB or 7/5 BP. I stick with BP for the higher overall return, and it's nice to hit the higher payout for the A-4.

 

I would mention that Aria has $1 3/5 line 8/5 BP. Which is a decent chunk of change, but where I normally play.

I will mention though, it is dry as a bone over there. You'd think being right outside the HL room would get a CW over from time to time, but it's very spotty.

 

Yeah, being only one full house unit apart, 7/5 Bonus is easily the better game vs. 8/5 JoB. I have often plopped myself down at the Quad my last few trips so I can play 7/5 Bonus with Super Times Pay. If you are playing for quarters or less, it's really difficult to play a better machine in the mid-strip area (Casino Royale an exception). Only place where I have got quads with a 10X multiplier too.

 

Thanks, everyone. I'm going to print this thread and study the information for use during my next trip (August). Playing Bonus and/or Double Bonus will be a nice change from the JOB that I have always played. (I've never left town a winner at JOB. I probably won't win on the Bonus games either, but at least it's something a little different.)

 

Dale, here's a great reference on how playing the wrong strategy effects your return. http://www.videopokerhelp.net/strategy.html

 

Thanks, atom. That site looks it has a lot of great info about VP strategy. I will check it out in detail.

 

Also there is a free strategy calculator for dozens of video poker variants at the Wizard of Odds that can be adjusted by paytable.

http://wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/strategy/calculator/