My son has been taking summer classes at Northern Illinois U., coming home weekends, and Marcy and I have been driving him back to DeKalb each Sunday night. The pattern established, Marcy said to me, "One of these weeks, we should just keep driving past DeKalb and pick somewhere for an overnight. A little change of scenery."
I suggested we drive another couple of hours to Rock Island and take a look at the Jumer's casino. The last time we did that, Jumer's was on its old boat, which tells you how long its been. The new, modern Jumer's casino barge with its comfortable, up-to-date hotel opened in December 2008. I don't usually let so long pass between trips to any of the casinos reasonably close to home.
I'm not going to go into all the details, just a couple of impressions from our overnight.
**The casino had plenty of penny video slots to keep Marcy happy. For me, the real attraction was single-hand, 25-cent 10-7-5 Double Bonus Poker. There is very little playable single-hand quarter video poker in the Chicago area, where I live, so these games are a treasure, even if they are three hours from home.
They're not quite the same game you'd find in Vegas. Full-pay 10-7-5 Double Bonus pays 100.17 percent with expert play, and that's illegal in Illinois. Gaming regulations prohibit any game with a theoretical return of more than 100 percent. Never mind that very few players master the difficult Double Bonus strategy and most get 3 to 4 percent less than the break-even point. The state doesn't want any games in the casinos that will reduce its tax take, and somehow doesn't trust the bottom-line-driven operators to put profitable games on the floor.
Jumer's had full-pay 10-7-5 Double Bonus on its old boat, approved at a time gaming board test programs weren't really up to snuff. By the time the new casino barge opened, the Illinois Gaming Board was no longer approving the game. But the game was an attraction, and Jumer's wanted it in its casino. So it installed a version used as a $5 game in other markets. It's the same as full-pay Double Bonus up and down the pay table, except on the hands that pay 250 coins for a five-coin bet. On Jumer's Double Bonus, if you draw a straight flush or four 5s on up through four Kings, your payback is 239 coins instead.
On $5 machines, that means the dollar amount of the payback is $1,195 instead of $1,250, leaving it $5 below the $1,200 threshold at which IRS paperwork is required before a jackpot can be paid. More important for Jumer's quarter machines, it brings the overall theoretical payback percentage down to 99.79 percent with expert play. It's still a great game, but within Illinois' peculiar limits.
**New at Jumer's is the Blue Square Cafe, which features dishes such as the portabello fries served at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, the Stadium bratwurst with special sauce served at Miller Park in Milwaukee and the Monsters of the Midway chili served at Soldier Field in Chicago.
The connection is that all are ballparks with concessions from Delaware North, Jumer's parent company. I didn't know the connection at first, and was a little taken aback as I looked around the displays that lined the walls. There were jerseys and other memorabilia for the Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers, Green Bay Packers ... and no Chicago Cubs. Made this old Cub fan feel quite out of place.
Showing posts with label Double Bonus Poker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Double Bonus Poker. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Why video poker pros always bet max coin
Video poker games that pay in excess of 100 percent with expert play
are practically non-existent in the Midwest, and even in Nevada they're
getting scarcer all the time. A fellow named Jack games such as full-pay
Deuces Wild and 10-7-5 Double Bonus Poker on his mind when he phone me
recently.
"There are video poker pros in Nevada, right?"
Yes, I told him, although there are fewer opportunities for video poker advantage play than there used to be. And most video poker "pros" have other jobs or businesses. You have to be well-bankrolled and able to withstand the inevitable losing streaks to really press home the small edge you can get at some video poker games.
"It's that bankroll part I wanted to ask about. When a pro finds himself without enough money to bet five coins at a time, does he switch to one-coin play?"
No, I told him.
"Never? I mean, surely, it doesn't make any more sense for a pro to overbet their bankroll than it does for an average player."
Never. A short-bankrolled pro --- if he or she is smart --- is a pro who doesn't play until the bankroll is sufficiently padded.
"But surely a little one-coin play can help the pro through the tough times. Can't that help build the bankroll little by little so the pro has enough to bet it all again?"
It's more likely that one-coin play would erode the bankroll little by little until the pro hand nothing left.
"But these guys are experts, and the edge is the edge, right? They know all the expert strategy you like to write about."
Expert strategy is more than knowing which cards to hold and which cards to fold. It's also not overbetting your bankroll, and knowing that you can't get an edge on a video poker game unless you bet maximum coins. That's because of the huge jump in the royal flush payoff with five coins wagered. On most machines, a royal pays 250 coins for a one-coin wager, 500 for two, 750 for three or 1,000 for four. But on the fifth coin, the royal jumps to 4,000 coins --- essentially, you're getting 3,000 coins for the royal on that final coin wagered, but only getting 250 per coin on the first four coins.
"Royals are rare. Does that make that much difference, that a pro wouldn't even play for the smaller payoff?"
It makes all the difference in the world. Take 10-7-5 Double Bonus Poker, where full houses pay 10-for-1, flushes 7-for-1 and straights 5-for-1. With expert play, that's a 100.17 percent game. The pro squeezes out a small profit on the game, and cash back and comps are gravy. But when the royal is worth only 250 coins per coin wagered, the payback with expert play drops to 99.11 percent. It's not a beatable game.
Or take full-pay Deuces Wild. That yields a 100.76 return with expert play. But with four or fewer coins wagered, that return drops to 99.75 percent, under that magic 100 percent mark.
Betting fewer than five coins turns even the best video poker games into games that will pad the house's bankroll, not yours.
"So to get the edge, you have to bet five coins?"
Right. In video poker, the house makes ALL its money on coins Nos. 1 through 4. On the fifth coin, the player has an edge. That goes even for lower-paying games. On 8-5 Jacks or Better, the payoff on coins
Nos. 1-4 is only 96.06 percent. But on the fifth coin alone, we get back 102.26 percent, raising the overall return on the machine to 97.3 percent.
"I wish I could bet just the fifth coin."
So do I. If we got that payoff on every coin, we'd all be pros --- until the games disappeared.
"There are video poker pros in Nevada, right?"
Yes, I told him, although there are fewer opportunities for video poker advantage play than there used to be. And most video poker "pros" have other jobs or businesses. You have to be well-bankrolled and able to withstand the inevitable losing streaks to really press home the small edge you can get at some video poker games.
"It's that bankroll part I wanted to ask about. When a pro finds himself without enough money to bet five coins at a time, does he switch to one-coin play?"
No, I told him.
"Never? I mean, surely, it doesn't make any more sense for a pro to overbet their bankroll than it does for an average player."
Never. A short-bankrolled pro --- if he or she is smart --- is a pro who doesn't play until the bankroll is sufficiently padded.
"But surely a little one-coin play can help the pro through the tough times. Can't that help build the bankroll little by little so the pro has enough to bet it all again?"
It's more likely that one-coin play would erode the bankroll little by little until the pro hand nothing left.
"But these guys are experts, and the edge is the edge, right? They know all the expert strategy you like to write about."
Expert strategy is more than knowing which cards to hold and which cards to fold. It's also not overbetting your bankroll, and knowing that you can't get an edge on a video poker game unless you bet maximum coins. That's because of the huge jump in the royal flush payoff with five coins wagered. On most machines, a royal pays 250 coins for a one-coin wager, 500 for two, 750 for three or 1,000 for four. But on the fifth coin, the royal jumps to 4,000 coins --- essentially, you're getting 3,000 coins for the royal on that final coin wagered, but only getting 250 per coin on the first four coins.
"Royals are rare. Does that make that much difference, that a pro wouldn't even play for the smaller payoff?"
It makes all the difference in the world. Take 10-7-5 Double Bonus Poker, where full houses pay 10-for-1, flushes 7-for-1 and straights 5-for-1. With expert play, that's a 100.17 percent game. The pro squeezes out a small profit on the game, and cash back and comps are gravy. But when the royal is worth only 250 coins per coin wagered, the payback with expert play drops to 99.11 percent. It's not a beatable game.
Or take full-pay Deuces Wild. That yields a 100.76 return with expert play. But with four or fewer coins wagered, that return drops to 99.75 percent, under that magic 100 percent mark.
Betting fewer than five coins turns even the best video poker games into games that will pad the house's bankroll, not yours.
"So to get the edge, you have to bet five coins?"
Right. In video poker, the house makes ALL its money on coins Nos. 1 through 4. On the fifth coin, the player has an edge. That goes even for lower-paying games. On 8-5 Jacks or Better, the payoff on coins
Nos. 1-4 is only 96.06 percent. But on the fifth coin alone, we get back 102.26 percent, raising the overall return on the machine to 97.3 percent.
"I wish I could bet just the fifth coin."
So do I. If we got that payoff on every coin, we'd all be pros --- until the games disappeared.
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