On this page
Sneak Peek Video Poker
Introduction
Sneak Peek is a video poker variant by Sigma Gaming. It has a copyright date of 1998. The twist to Sneak Peek is the player can see the first card to be dealt on the draw. To pay for this, the game depresses the pay table.
As of the time of this writing (September 17, 2019), the game can be found at the Cal-Nev-Ari Casino & Bar.
Rules
- The game is played with a single 52-card deck.
- The game deals five random cards to the player and exposes one card as the first first to be drawn on the draw.
- The player may discard any cards he wishes.
- The game will replace the discards, starting with the exposed card in rule 2 and then with random cards still in the deck after that.
- The player is paid according to his hand after the draw and the pay table below.
The following pay table is per coin bet, based on a maximum bet of five coins.
Pay Pay Table
| Event | Pays |
|---|---|
| Royal flush | 800 |
| Straight flush | 30 |
| Four aces | 80 |
| Four 2's-4's | 50 |
| Four 5's-K's | 20 |
| Full house | 7 |
| Flush | 5 |
| Straight | 3 |
| Three of a kind | 2 |
| Two pair | 1 |
| Jacks or better | 1 |
Example
In the image above, the player is dealt a pair of threes and the peek card is the ace of hearts. The peek card doesn't change the strategy in this situation, with the player discarding the three singletons.
On the draw, the player gets the ace of hearts in the left position as well as two more aces, for a full house.
Analysis
The following table shows an analysis of the pay table seen at the Cal-Nev-Ari Casino & Bar. The lower right cell shows a return of 99.24%.
Sneak Peek Return Table
| Event | Pays | Probability | Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 800 | 0.000038 | 0.030737 |
| Straight flush | 30 | 0.000190 | 0.005705 |
| Four aces | 80 | 0.000217 | 0.017331 |
| Four 2-4 | 50 | 0.000599 | 0.029934 |
| Four 5-K | 20 | 0.001806 | 0.036128 |
| Full house | 7 | 0.021850 | 0.152952 |
| Flush | 5 | 0.022903 | 0.114513 |
| Straight | 3 | 0.028013 | 0.084040 |
| Three of a kind | 2 | 0.075991 | 0.151981 |
| Two pair | 1 | 0.176703 | 0.176703 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 0.192363 | 0.192363 |
| Nothing | 0 | 0.479327 | 0.000000 |
| Total | 1.000000 | 0.992387 |
Internal Links
- Peek and Play — This game has the same concept, except instead of depressing the pay table, the player must pay an extra two coins on top of a five coin bet for the Sneak Peak feature.
- Look Ahead — This is the same thing as Peek and Play, where the player makes a seven-coin bet to invoke the Sneak Peak feature, with wins based on five coins.
Acknowledgements
- Smoothgrh, a member of my Wizard of Vegas forum, for the pictures in the example.
- Dr. Gary Koehler for the analysis.
External Links
Sneak Peak Poker — Discussion in my forum at Wizard of Vegas.