Advice for starting video poker playing

I've only played BJ in casinos so far. I'm thinking about branching out to VP. I have 3 questions:

1. Studying: What's the best, in your opinion, VP book for a very very beginner? (follow-up: what do you think of VP for Intelligent Beginner by Bob Dancer?)

2. Practicing: Any recommendation on a software program?

3. Playing: About the strategy cards sold by Bob Dancer, can I use them in casinos the way people use BS cards for BJ? or are they more for memorizing?

Thanks!

If you want to learn strategies and become a master at VP, you can practice at videopoker.com. If you like their interfaces, then you can pay the annual membership for gold and get all of the tutorials. Or you can purchase video poker software and go down that route.

My recommendation before you hit the casinos is to first learn the strategies at home by using tutorial software. And then, find the casinos with the best play out there, which you can find on vpfree2.com for casinos in North America. For example, I'll be staying at Caesar's this weekend, in Vegas. The best VP games that are available at $1 denomination ($5/play ) is 98.45% Jacks or Better. I can walk across the street to Casino Royale and experience 99.11% Double Bonus at $.10, or 99.17% BP at the Bellagio for $.25.

Once you find casinos with 100% returns (and there are many out there), you start to get into the territory of using comps and your play to get a small but real advantage over the casino (with perfect play). And there are plenty of VP players who look for advantage play, such as a very large progressive that ups the return to well over 100% (which do occur once in a while).

Of course you can use any strategy card you wish at the video poker games, as long as it is not a electronic device, and frankly, you could probably use an electronic device to look up questionable plays from time to time as surveillance will just think you're texting or checking your email.

I'd like to piggy back this question. Other than JoB, what game is good to know, as in learn strategy for? It sounds like double bonus is usually pretty high on the return charts. I don't care about how easy it is, just returns.

I allways play with a strategy card. I actually make up my own because I like to include more info such as pay tables and some info on penalty cards. I go to the wizard of odds and copy down the list of several different games. When in vegas, alot of games have great progressives, so due to a big progressive, you may decide to play a game you are not familiar with but have a strategy card. The only strategy i have memorized is JOB because the proper strategy is pretty straightforward. My favorite game lately is Double Bonus which has alot more complicated strategy so I constantly refer to my strategy sheet. I highly reccomend practice. The wizard of odds has practice video poker that will let you know when you are making the wrong decision. I use to ignore practice untill I tested myself. I played 100 hands once on freevideopoker dot com using a strategy sheet. I turned off the trainer and warnings. After 100 hands, i checked for my errors and was actualy amazed how many errors I made. By practicing with warnings, it trains you to look for certain combinations of cards to play correctly. With practice, I can generally play at least 100 hands without a serious error.
My strategy sheets are allways out in the open. When playing at a bar, the sheet is out in the open right next to my drink. Casinos could care less about strategy cards or sheets. Playing at the 4 queens JOB 9-6-4 on a machine not at the bar , I was in a comfortable position right up against the machine constantly checking my sheet. Security was a bit suspicious due me being so close to the machine with some unusual head and hand movements(constantly checking my sheet). Once security saw exactly what I was doing, i could overhear them say "He's just checking a strategy card" and left me alone. Be careful, there is an Iphone app to check video poker strategy. This is illegal to use in a casino. It is illegal to use any electronic device to help you play.
Bob Dancer is an expert in video poker. Any of his cards or books is highly reccommended by me. I TRY to play perfect video poker, He actually does it.
In Vegas, I carry 5 strategy sheets with me, JOB , Deuces Wild, Bonus, Double Bonus and Double Double Bonus.
Allways check pay tables. Some casinos keep the good payout machines together such as 4 queens, Some spread them all over the casino mixed in and right next to games with weak pay tables such as the Palms.
I was at the Island View Gulfport casino couple months ago. The bar had 9-6-4 JOB. Great payout. Right next to the bar had several banks of video poker machines with weak pay tables. At the bar I was playing next to this women. She wasn't doing well at the bar so she moved over the the banks of machines that paid less. I was amazed. Its all mathematics and odds. It amazes me when someone runs into a small streak of bad luck, so they move to a machine that has worse odds hoping the move will help.

You need to look at your bankroll and variance too to figure out what game is best. A game with a huge pay table at the top will yield negative results much of the time because all of your game is made up with trying to hit the royal or one of the big hands in a triple-double bonus game. Most people will leave these games empty-handed leaving a few to pick up the 2000 or 4000 credits from hitting 4 2-3-4s with a A or 4 aces with a 2-3-4 because they don't get paid enough on the 2 paid and 3 of a Kind.

I like DDB because the 4 of a kinds come frequently enough to give you moderate wins. Royals are extremely infrequent at about 1:40000. I've played a considerable amount of them and have only hit two (once at Bellagio, once at Windsor). I've hit the royal many times on the multi-play machines, but then you're dividing your win by 3 or 5, still signficant.

Quote: ahiromu

Other than JoB, what game is good to know, as in learn strategy for? It sounds like double bonus is usually pretty high on the return charts. I don't care about how easy it is, just returns.

This question is asked often on VPFREE and involves a two primary factors.

1. Where do you want to play? Both region and casino.

2. What denomination do you want to play (i.e. quarters, dollars, etc.)?


My favorite game is Full-Pay Deuces Wild returning 100.76%. I play for quarters, primarily at the Palms. My play doesn't generate substantial offers, but since I cannot collect local mailers or be present for drawings I feel this is the best game for me. I personally feel that FPDW is the most fun video poker game to play, considerably more than Jacks or Better and has lower variance than 10/7 Double Bonus returning 100.17%. The strategy for Deuces Wild is also considerably easier than strategies for Double or Double Double Bonus. In Jacks or Better there are no jackpot hands besides the royal flush, thus bankroll swings are less pronounced.

My favorite game is 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe, coming in at 99.6%, with a little more variance than JoB, but not as much as ddb...

Allways play full amount. I also play quarters and allways play 5. Anything less then full play on any denomination means giving the casino a huge edge. I actually prefer Double bonus over 2 wild. In 2 wild, if you dont hit anything substantial on your hand, you generally throw the whole hand away. Other poker games you usually hold at least a card or 2 or 3. Also 2 wild, if you hit 2 pair, the strategy is to throw a pair away, and it doesn't matter which pair. weird but thats math. I like double bonus due to the 4 of a kind payouts. I tend to hit alot of 4 of a kinds. AAAA on JOB playing 5 coins pays 125, on double bonus 800. I only play single hand machines. Just hit the Royal once.
My favorite place to play is the 4 queens. They have a long row of full pay double bonus right next to the Magnolias resturant. In fact the payout is higher then 100.17 due to the progressive.

Quote: terapined

Always play full amount.

This is not always true and very dated advice. It used to be generally valid when different denominations had the same paytable. Today, that is often not the case (except maybe off-strip Vegas). We need to pay attention on how the paytable varies by denomination.

For example, the two casinos closest to my house both offer 9/6 JoB for quarters, but only 7/5 JoB for nickels.

If you can only afford/want to gamble 25c per hand at JoB, which game do you choose?

It's 9/6 JoB, and it's not even close. The higher full house/flush payouts make this a 98.37% game when the Royal pays 250 for 1.

7/5 JoB with an 800 for 1 Royal payout only pays 96.15%.

As for the ahiromu's question, if you are in Vegas where 100%+ machines exist liberally, your best bet is to learn full-pay deuces wild (FPDW) strategy. There are many casinos that still offer it, and the return is significantly over 100% (100.76%), while 10/7 Double Bonus and 10/6 Double Double Bonus are both less than 100.2%. Another point in FPDW's favor is that it has lower variance than DB or DDB. I played it briefly while visiting the Palms on a football Sunday. I think I was one of three players on 20 machines available playing the game, and hit and run the thing after two Five of a Kinds. That bank offered all 3 of these games for quarters.

Check out vpfree2 for details of the best poker machines in your local casino. And to practice, JB's VP trainer on the WOO site is very useful to use.

https://wizardofodds.com/play/video-poker/

I never considered playing 5 nickles vs 1 quarter. According to your figures, you are absolutely right. What I find facinating in your figures is the small difference in JOB 9/6 between playing 1 quarter and five. 98.37% vs 99.54%. I allways thought max play quarters would give a player more of an advantage then just 01.17%
By the way kind of a newbie to video poker. Didn't start playing till a year ago. I kind of got into it by accident. I'm a cash game Tx Holdem player. That was my game and the only game I played. I never really considered playing anything else. I just never considered any game playing against the house. It was my ignorrant understanding at the time that except for counting cards, The house allways has the edge. At Bills Gambling Hall Vegas last year, I was waiting to get into a holdem game and to kill time, played video poker. I enjoyed it and decided to look it up on the internet. Wow was I in for an education. Its a thinking mans game which I love. Lots of strategy involved which I love. On certain games, the house doesn't have an edge if playing with perfect strategy. wow. What I love the most is the fast action. In holdem, I play pretty tight, so at times it gets a bit boring not being involved in alot of hands. Now I play video poker and occasionally sit down to a no limit holdem 1-2 cash game.
Staying 4 Queens Dec24-30. Cant wait.

Totally understand. I was much more into live poker as well, but I'm not a huge fan of holdem, so my Vegas trips tend to lowball/mix poker games and video poker. Super Times Pay has made me love the game again. Playing 99.82% JoB w/STP at Gold Coast was nice on Sunday. :)