Video
poker games have high "hit rates" compared to most other slot machines.
Bells, whistles, and electronic renditions of tunes that would drive
the average person bonkers if they didn't signal success are activated
on over 46 percent of all rounds on jacks-or-better and deuces wild
versions. It's almost as good, nearly 44 percent of all tries, on
units with single wild jokers. These figures are for players who
know what they're doing, of course. And, gilding the lily, are the
fairly strong chances of finishing with premium hands -- straights,
flushes, or above.
Some of this
good news, sadly, is illusion. Roughly half the rounds in which
the machines declare players to be winners are really "pushes."
That is, bettors get their wagers back but don't actually generate
anything as crass as earnings. Further, the profits for most honest-to-goodness
video poker hits are modest when viewed alongside the rewards accompanying
the admittedly lower-probability boffo combinations on typical reel-type
slots.
These factors
don't necessarily make video poker superior or inferior to other
slots having equivalent house advantages. They do, however, lead
to games with different characteristics. In particular, they temper
the bankroll swings players are apt to encounter. One result is
that video poker buffs who size their bets to their budgets can
get long sessions on moderate stakes. True, lots of action for the
money isn't as nice as a big score. It's often an acceptable next-best
thing, though, since it keeps bettors positioned to grab the prize,
offers a hefty dose of the thrills integral to the casino experience,
and helps rack up the points every insider knows are key to being
treated with respect.
Another illusion
fostered by high hit rate draws solid citizens to video poker. The
likelihood of surviving long sessions, even when fate is not especially
kind, plus the speed at which most folks roar through the game,
mean that players see huge numbers of hands during their casino
visits. And, it doesn't take too many isolated blockbusters in a
long series of results to leave video votaries sure their machines
were on the verge of hot cycles, even though they didn't happen
to win that day.
I'll illustrate
how playing multitudes of rounds during single sittings can encourage
such belief. Consider instances of hands "made" on the initial deal
-- those that win without discarding and drawing any cards -- at
a jacks-or-better game. The odds against receiving such a hand on
any round are given in the following list. On this basis alone,
you can see that chances aren't outrageous for low-return hands
like high pairs, two pairs, or even trips. When all made hands are
taken together, the odds against a guaranteed win before the draw
are only 3.85-to-1.
Odds against
receiving various hands at jacks-or-better video poker on the
initial deal (without drawing)
high
pair |
7-to-1
|
two pairs |
20-to-1
|
three
of a kind |
46-to-1
|
straight
|
254-to-1
|
flush |
504-to-1
|
full
house |
693-to-1
|
four
of a kind |
4,164-to-1
|
non-royal
straight flush |
72,192-to-1
|
royal |
649,739-to-1
|
|