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Reason #5 why the Wizard likes Bodog:
Intelligent Bonuses
Many online casinos offer huge signup bonuses, but there's a catch. Buried in the fine print is that play on the most popular games doesn't count towards earning the bonus. It's common for blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, and Jacks or Better to be excluded. Sometimes everything except slots. And that's if you can even find the terms and conditions. Many casinos put their 100% bonus in big flaming letters but make you hunt all over the site to find the rules. But Bodog allows play on all games to count towards the wagering requirement. It's that simple. Just no opposite betting. All casinos ought to be as easy as Bodog about this. The bonus offer itself is simple too: on your first deposit, they'll give you an extra 10%. If you deposit $100, you'll wind up with $110 in chips or tokens. Finally, in the unlikely event that Bodog feels you've been abusing their bonuses they won't seize your winnings, like some other casinos. In the worst case scenario they will politely tell you that they will not be offering you any future bonuses but you are welcome to keep playing and keep everything you have made already. (Visit Bodog) Jacks or Better game. One click and you're in:
No popups, no download, no registration, no B.S., just the game. |
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Home • What's New • Advice & Strategy • Ask the Wizard • Gambling online • Play for Fun |
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I play a lot of video poker, but I don't understand why the pay off is much higher for 4 aces than 4 tens? Also why do 2's thru 4's pay higher than 5's through kings? After all there are only 52 cards in a deck and 4 of each card, therefore the odds should be the same for each. - Gerald from Coal Valley, IL
In games like Bonus Poker and Double Bonus I assume they pay more for certain four of a kinds to give the player a better chance at a big win, at the cost of smaller small wins of course. It makes sense to have four aces as the premium four of a kind, because aces are the highest card in regular poker. The reason I think that four twos pays more than four kings is because players don't hold low cards as often, and thus four twos comes up less often than four kings. So although the probability of each card is the same, player behavior causes less of the low four of a kinds, thus it makes it easier for the game maker to pay more for the low four of a kinds.
Feb. 21, 2006
Some of the online progressive video poker games, like Playtech's MegaJacks, reset to a base after a win (I seem to recall they reset to $325). But others drop down but not to a set value. For example, the Viper game Jackpot Deuces seems to drop back a different amount each time, often to a still sizeable new level. I don't see the "algorithm" behind this. Any insights into what they (and others) might be thinking/doing? - Gary K. Often with progressives part of each dollar bet goes to seeding the next meter. This way when somebody pops the jackpot the next meter does not start at a small amount but the secondary meter has already grown to a respectable amount. The percentage devoted to the second meter is not necessarily constant but sometimes increases as the primary meter grows. Not that you asked, but in some games like those at Be the Dealer there is a different jackpot for each coinage, and each jackpot is proportional to the coinage. The way I think they do that is what I call a "super meter" that all coinages contribute to. Then each specific coinage gets a share of the super meter in proportion to that coinage divided by the sum of all coinages. For example if they had a progressive video poker game in coinages of 5 cents, 25 cents, $1, and $5 and the super meter had $100,000 then the $1 game meter would have (1/6.75)*100,000 = $14,814.81. Nov. 19, 2003 Dear Mr. Wizard, How do minimum payback laws affect video poker machines? Can a casino have a VP machine installed if an ideal strategy is not known? Can really stupid players (ones who would discard a paying pair or even a pat royal) sue a casino if their strategy results in payoffs under x%, as mandated by state law? Finally, out of curiosity, what is the lowest return possible on a VP machine, assuming discarding royal flush, keeping all 5 cards of a garbage hand, etc? Thank you for your valuable time in reading and hopefully responding. - D.S.M. I believe the Nevada law is that assuming optimal player strategy the return must be at least 75%. When a new video poker game appears in the casino the strategy does not need to be quantified but the optimal return must be shown to be at least 75%. To answer your second question I modified my video poker program to always make the worst possible play. For example, keeping all five cards on a non-paying hand , and tossing part or all of pat hands. Based on 9/6 Jacks or Better this strategy results in a return of 2.72%, or house edge of 97.28%. Following is the complete return table. Such a player would not be able to sue the casino because it was his fault for playing so badly. Aug. 2003 Here is what I was wondering I found a few new video poker machines with what I consider to be a non-usual paytable. Can you tell me what you think about these tables, and if they should be played or not. No royal bonus for 5 coins bet (simply 2,500 for royal on 5 coins)
Again all of these have no bonuses for max coins in Royal Flush. Is that enough to hurt these pay tables, or are they playable? (they seem decent at least) Thank you in advance Micheal. - Chris (Recent convert to video poker) Here are the returns based on optimal strategy: To begin, I am not a mathematician but I am a casino player. I have followed some of your articles in Casino Player magazine and I subscribe to your online newsletter. By the way, I hope you had a wonderful time with your family and friends in Seattle. I just had an eye-opening experience at Casino Windsor. No where do they publish their percent payback on slots. However, that aside, I was going to play quarter (my comfort level) video poker. I was really taken aback when I put up the paytable. They were 5/4 machines. I am talking Jacks or better was only 5 coins on a full house and 4 coins on a flush. I looked at about 20 machines and only found one that paid any better and that was a 6/4 machine. As I stated, I am not a mathematician but I think that payback percentage must be in the very low 70s. Needless to say I didn't play video poker there because I know that the longer I would have played the greater the loss I could have expected with the house taking approximately $30.00 from every $100.00 put through the machine. That is not a gamble with some expectation of winning, it is a sure loss for players. On the Detroit side of the river, MGM Grand has their machines at 7/5. Not really great but a whole lot better than 5/4. Could you please tell me the exact percentage payback on the 5/4 and 7/5 machines. Since none of the area casinos post their average payback on slots I am (and this is dangerous) assuming that their reel slots payback the same percentages. Best regards, Mort Firsht from Walled Lake, Michigan Actually with perfect play the 5/4 pay table return 92.78%. Still one of the worst pay tables I have ever heard of. Have you tried the Greektown casino in Detroit? I don't know what games they have but I do know they have had security remove several winning video poker players from the building, including a old lady who hit a royal on a machine with a 97% pay table. They must have something good enough to warrant throwing winners out for. Here is an article with more information. Feb. 4, 2003 Went to play deuces wild video poker. There was quite a variation of payoff odds over many machines. None of the payoff odds matched the ones that you have analyzed as having an edge for the player. Is this because the casinos saw your winning strategy and, as a result, changed the odds to make it less favorable to the player? If so thanks a lot Wizard! - Larry from Somerset, New Jersey I doubt I'm directly responsible but it could be argued that gambling experts like me (Bob Dancer in particular) are what ruined video poker. However if it weren't for the experts teaching proper strategy then only the experts would know how to play properly. March 17, 2002 I really appreciate all the information on blackjack on you site. I wonder, in jacks or better video poker how is the 99.54% return calculated? For example how do you know what is the best play with an unsuited jack and king? - Meudon from Moisan, France There are combin(52,5)=2598960 possible combinations of the first five cards. You don't have to analyze all of them. Personally I break them down into 191659 different kinds and weight each one with the number of similar hands. For example the odds are the same with four aces and a king singleton regardless of the suit of the king. You don't have to analyze four hands for each possible suit of the king, just one of them and multiply by four. Once you have a hand there are 25=32 ways to play the hand. I analyze each way and take the play with the greatest expected value. To determine the expected value of a play you have to analyze all the ways the replacement cards can fall and score each hand. In the case of throwing all five cards away there are combin(47,5)= 1533939 possible replacement hands. The total number of hands that must be analyzed to determine the best play of a specific hand is combin(47,5)+5*combin(47,4)+10*combin(47,3)+10*combin(47,2)+5*47+1, which coincidentally also equals 2598960. So if we took no short cuts at all we would have to analyze 25989602= 6,754,593,081,600 hands. Just reducing the initial hands to 191659 we still have 498,114,074,640 hands to analyze. Clearly more short cuts are in order. It would take a desktop computer several hours at least to work through this many hands. Personally I don't actually score any hand but use carefully chosen formulas to determine the probability of improving a hand. For example with any pair and 3 singletons the probability of improving the hand to a two pair is always the same. Things get more complicated with straights and flushes but still manageable. My program can calculate the expected return for a game of jacks or better in about one minute. Considering it used to take me over a day I'm rather proud of it. I hope this answers your question. Aug. 6, 2001 Stratosphere advertises poker machines that pay over 100%. In an earlier column, you say in full pay Jacks or better the perfect strategy player will average one royal flush every 40,388 plays. Given this fact, does this mean a player needs to play this many hands perfectly before the advertised payout percentage is realized? I speak for the millions of video poker players who, like myself, watch a $20 become $0 in that "98%" machine. Also, what's with the popup windows on your website? - Derek G from Vegas baby!, USA Full pay jacks or better only returns 99.54% with perfect play, so let's look at another example. Full pay deuces wild has an expected return of 100.77% with perfect play. As the chart I linked to shows the probability of a natural royal flush is only 0.000022, or one hand in 45,282. However the natural royals contribute 1.77% to the return. So in between natural royals you can expect a return of 99.00%. If we cut out the four deuces, which occur once every 4909 hands on average, the return drops to 94.93%. So the vast majority of the time you will be losing. However you still can't expect a short term return of 94.93%. Video poker is a very volatile game and it is not unusual to burn through money like a wildfire. I just returned from playing 50 cent deuces wild at the Regent and lost $200 in about 90 minutes. That is just the way video poker is. Hopefully I'll recoup with a big win shortly. About the pop-ups I hate them too but that aspect is under the control of my business partners. [Update, April 2003: I bought out my business partners and now own 100% of the site, and the popups were the first thing to go.] June 13, 2001 How would I modify the strategy you give for jacks or better video poker to a jacks or better game with the following payout schedule: RF:800 There is a bank of these at Harrah's in East Chicago Indiana, on a progressive jackpot. Any info would be appreciated. - Bruce from Mahomet, Illinois You can get a very close to optimal strategy for just about any video poker game by using the Video Poker Strategy Master by TomSki. The cost is $29.95. June 6, 2001 InterCasino Double Bonus has the following pay table for 5 coins bet. What is the return of this game? Royal-4200 According to Winpoker 6.0 the return is 99.9367%. Dec. 2, 2000 I looked over your expected payouts for the various deuces wild pay schedules, but I did not find the particular schedule I was looking for. Could you tell me the expected payout for a deuces wild with the following schedule: Royal flush - 840 According to Winpoker 6.0 the return is 99.0251%. Dec. 2, 2000 You have the optimum strategy for jacks or better video poker for a particular pay table. I practiced for a few hours on your play for fun program - I'm ready to try the real thing - got a royal flush after about 500 hands (down about $350). I'm afraid to learn this strategy if Casino Niagara doesn't have the same paytable. Do you have an optimum strategy for "all" pay tables? (I assume there is a significant difference). Does your play-for-fun simulate the "real world"? Why do you assume the maximum coins bet? Does the paytable change? - George W. Bordner from Clarence, USA I doubt that Casino Niagara would have the "full pay" pay table that my Java game is based on. With no competition they can be stingy and people will still play. I'm afraid I don't have any strategies available for other pay tables. I suspect Casino Niagara offers 8/5 jacks or better, which pays 8 for a full house and 5 for a flush. Assuming perfect strategy this has a return of 97.30%. Using perfect strategy for full pay video poker, as found on my site, on this game the return would be 97.29%. The two strategies are almost the same and you are only giving up 0.01% by using my strategy on an 8/5 machine. Also, I assume maximum coins bet because that is what the player should do. If you play less than maximum coins you will only get 250 per coin on a royal flush, causing a reduction in the rate of return of 1.36%. Oct. 5, 2000 The video poker machines at Casino Niagara have no progressive jackpots. According to Stanford Wong if an 8/5 quarter video poker machine doesn't have at least a $2200 jackpot with five quarters played, then dont play. What is your opinion on this. - Gordon from Lewiston, New York I would be very reluctant to ever disagree with Stanford Wong. Assuming you played conventional 8/5 strategy the return in your example would be 99.68%. However if you played optimal strategy for this jackpot the return would be 100.08%. The extra 0.08% is likely because Wong rounded up the break-even jackpot size up by as much as $50. Sept. 10, 2000 Q: I just have a couple more questions for you and then I wont bug you again for a really long time. Promise. : 0 ). What the jackpot would have to be on a 8/5 20 nickel game for it to be a 100% game, keeping in mind that it takes 20 nickels to be eligible for the jackpot? What about the same machine on a 7/5 game? And finally, what would it have to be on an 8/5 quarter machine that requires 8 coins to be eligible for the jackpot. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your sage advice. It has made gambling a lot more enjoyable! - Vladimir from ? A: You're welcome! In an 8/5 game the jackpot would have to reach 37,704 coins to reach 100%, assuming you have to play 20 coins to win it. Assuming only 8 coins the meter would have to reach 15,082 coins. On a 7/5 machine and 20 coins required the meter would have to reach 46,956 coins. These figures assume you are playing the proper strategy for these paytables with a per coin payoff for a royal flush of 800. As the jackpot grows some strategy adjustments are called for to more aggressively try for the royal. These adjustments were not calculated in this answer. It doesn't make any difference what the coinage is. Aug. 20, 2000
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