Reason #2 why the Wizard likes Bovada:

No-hassle practice games

Most online casinos spend more effort trying to separate you from your money than they do trying to give you a good experience. They have all kinds of popup windows, they usually make you download their software, and if they do offer play-in-browser games then you have to register an account before you can play. And if you register they start sending you emails trying to get you to deposit real money.

But Bovada is different. They have no popup windows at all, and their practice games play right in your browser, with no download, and no registration required. You don’t even have to give up your email address. It couldn’t be simpler: just one click and you’re playing the game.

I wish all online casinos showed this much respect for their players. Other casinos practically ask for your first born child to play for free. Meanwhile Bovada is patient and does not twist anybody’s arm to play for real money. You can play as long as you like for free with no obligation. The real-money games are available if that’s your preference, but if not, you can play the free practice games for as long as you like without hassle.

Visit Bovada

Turbo Video Poker

Last Update: Jan 14, 2010

Introduction

Turbo Video Poker is a patent-pending game, owned 85% by me. At this time it can only be played here. Please contact me for expressions of interest to license the game.

Rules

The game uses a single 52-card deck.
With a bet between 1 and 5 coins, the player is dealt one 5-card hand and plays a normal video poker game.
With a bet of 10 coins, the player receives five hands on the deal. All five hands (25 cards) are dealt from the same deck.
From his five hands, the player selects a starting hand, and the other four hands (20 cards) will be inserted back into the deck.
The player now decides which cards he wants to hold from his chosen hand.
The player is dealt replacement cards for his discards out of the 47 cards remaining in the deck. This makes
his final hand.

Return

The following table shows the return for 5-hand 8-5 Jacks or Better Turbo Video Poker. The win is per coin bet, not counting the additional 5-coin fee. The return column is the product of the win, probability, and 0.5. The reason for multiplying by 0.5 is the player must bet two units but is paid based on the one only.

Turbo Video Poker — 8-5 Jacks or Better
Event	Pays	Probability	Return
Royal flush	800	0.000068	0.027035
Straight flush	50	0.000287	0.007176
Four of a kind	25	0.006986	0.087329
Full house	8	0.035094	0.140377
Flush	5	0.022170	0.055426
Straight	4	0.020390	0.040781
Three of a kind	3	0.153812	0.230718
Two pair	2	0.264755	0.264755
Jacks or better	1	0.276658	0.138329
Nothing	0	0.219778	0
Total		1	0.991927

The following table compares the hand frequency in conventional 8-5 video poker to Turbo video poker. Note that Turbo VP has 2.7 times as many royals.

Hand	Conventional	Turbo
Turbo Video Poker Comparison
Royal flush	1 in 40177	1 in 14796
Straight flush	1 in 9289	1 in 3484
Four of a kind	1 in 423	1 in 143
Full house	1 in 87	1 in 28
Flush	1 in 92	1 in 45
Straight	1 in 89	1 in 49
Three of a kind	1 in 13	1 in 7
Two pair	1 in 7.7	1 in 3.8
Jacks or better	1 in 4.6	1 in 3.6
Nothing	1 in 1.8	1 in 4.6

Strategy

The strategy is the same as in conventional video poker. I have a strategy for 9/6 jacks or better. The strategy for 8/5 jacks should be nearly the same. This strategy may also be used to select the starting hand; choose the hand highest on the list.

Demo

Please try out my Turbo Video Poker demo.