Video Poker Tournament Strategy

Station Casinos is running a VP tournament each Thursday. You play on tournament machines with a Double Double Bonus paytable.

Double Double Bonus

You are given 300 credits and 5 minutes to play. You can bet from one to five credits per deal. The usual recommendation for VP tournaments is to ignore perfect-play strategy and "go for the royal" since it usually takes at least that, or a high four-of-a-kind to place in the tournament. In this case, however, the last-place prize has typically been awarded to players with a score around 600 credits.

Because the tournament is free to play, and I'm not making a special trip just to play this tournament, I would be content if awarded the last-place prize. My question - is there an advantage, in this case, to playing fewer credits per hand and extending the number of hands played during the five minutes, if I'm only interested in placing in the tournament, rather than winning it? At my speed of play, I could probably complete around 100 hands in the five minutes. (Playing three credits per hand, rather than the max of five). I realize that playing less than max credits would negate the royal bonus, but does playing more hands give me a greater chance to piece-meal my way into last place? Or would it not matter because each win would be worth fewer credits than if I were to bet the maximum?

My brain is so embedded with trying to play perfect strategy at maximum credits that I can't wrap my head around this. Hoping someone will help. Thanks!

Yeah, you should play five credits so you have the opportunity to "dump" more. Just throw away every paying hand and do the opposite of what basic strategy tells you (break up pairs, etc.). Shouldn't be hard and even if you get a dealt royal you can just throw it away if they don't have auto-hold. Bad luck!

If you are going to consciously avoid the royal, it won't really matter how many credits you bet per hand.

I'm a little bit surprised when you say that 600 credits is usually the last place score. That doesn't seem likely, if everyone is armed with only 300 credits in the first place--most people would finish with LESS than 300 credits.

I would also assume that you don't get the last place prize if you don't bet all your credits, so I would not bet any smaller amount per hand than what was definitely going to use up all 300 credits in the alloted time.

I think you guys are mis-reading the question. Here is what I think the OP is getting at: If I play a DDB tournament game starting with 300 credits, what strategy changes are required to maximize my chances of finishing in the money? I am more concerned with winning SOMETHING than winning the whole tournament, so I don't want to spend my time chasing royals and adding to my variance. Do I increase my chances of being in the money (600 credits or higher) if I focus on slow growth instead of hitting a big hand?

It would help to see the full prize distribution and number of players. However, usually in tournaments you want to go for first place, because that is where most of the prize money is. I have heard of tournaments where there is a prize for last or the person exactly the middle, but they are rare.

Quote: rdw4potus

I think you guys are mis-reading the question. Here is what I think the OP is getting at: If I play a DDB tournament game starting with 300 credits, what strategy changes are required to maximize my chances of finishing in the money? I am more concerned with winning SOMETHING than winning the whole tournament, so I don't want to spend my time chasing royals and adding to my variance. Do I increase my chances of being in the money (600 credits or higher) if I focus on slow growth instead of hitting a big hand?

Yes, that is exactly what I was trying to ask. Maybe I worded the question badly.

Usually, the prize structure in these tournaments is such that, unless you hit a royal, you're going home empty-handed. When you play, you don't necessarily follow optimal strategy, you "go for the royal" with every hand, throwing away a lot of small wins in the process. Essentially you're given a 300 credit bankroll that you must play through. You're awarded a prize if you can manage to multiply that bankroll by 14 times or so. You have to play aggressively to do that.

This tournament is different however, in that there are so many prizes (50 places, but I don't remember the exact awards), you can play conservatively, accumulate small wins, and still be in the money. You still receive an award if you can "just" double your original bankroll to 600 credits or so. Some weeks it has been as low as 560 credits. As a side note, you can't play your winnings through also.

My question - Is it better to accumulate those small wins by playing 100 hands at 3 credits each, or 60 hands at 5 credits each? My feeling says 100 hands, but I'm not an expert at math, and maybe there is no difference, or no better strategy, hence my reason for asking on this site.

Maybe I should add this as well - there are more than 50 people playing. I'm guessing several hundred. Most do end up with less than 300 credits. The last-place prize I referred to is the prize awarded for the 50th place, which is usually around 600 credits. I apologize that my original post was not clear.

If the machines are not "fixed" to give out more royals than random, your best chance to place should be to play max credits with basic strategy until you get over the 600 coin threshold, then pull back to an amount that will allow you to go through the minimum credits required without dropping below 600.

However, I don't think the machines are set up with "regular" chips. I think they are "juiced" to produce more royals. In that case, I think your best strategy would be to play max credit each time for as many hands as possible. You are in a positive EV situation, and there is a bonus for max coins in if you hit a royal, so it is to your advantage to play as many hands as possible at max coins. If you have to take time to consider the best draw for each and every hand (go for the outside straight, or hang onto a pair of jacks?, keep two small pairs, or draw three?), you are surrendering looks at potential royal flush hands. It seems better to look at more hands and always go for the royal (unless a full house, quads, etc. winner is dropped on you).

OK, now that you've clarified:

What you WANT is variance, in that even a doubling of your 300 credits is an unusual result. Therefore, you do better to make your bets as large as possible, i.e., 5 credits/hand.

Look at it this way: if you could bet ANY amount, wouldn't your best shot at finishing in the money be to bet the entire 300 credits on one hand?

Is this still going on?

Quote: JIMMYFOCKER

Is this still going on?

Yep, it's going on

Nice to see those old posters again, especially MKL! Been 8 years since the good old days?