Joker Poker 197% Payback - Is this true ?

Here is a picture with a Joker Poker Two Pairs game which according to WoW calculator should pay 197% return !

The game is manufactured by Novomatic and is called American Poker II. Wild royals are equal with natural royals.

I have played a lot this game, and I think it is nowhere over a 100% payback return. - What I am missing so bad ?

Quote: PlayHunter

What I am missing so bad?

It probably doesn't deal cards fairly.

Those graphics remind me of high school, about 1983. Where did you find this game?

The screenshot I took is from a Mame emulator, which I have it on my laptop. But this game (with exact graphs and paytable) is running in small pubs and gas stations around Europe. Usually this game is found under a multi-gaming platform on one machine.

Some of the games (videoslots like Sizzling Hot, BookofRa) are well known, some can be found online at Stargames.com and few other casinos which I don`t remember. (by the way Stargames is NOT a good casino) But they don`t have this video poker game.

I will upload another picture with a multi-gaming screen machine, you will see there "American Poker" - that is the game I posted.

Quote: PlayHunter

But this game (with exact graphs and paytable) is running in small pubs and gas stations around Europe.

Which means it is not "Class III". The cards are not dealt the way they would be from a real deck of cards. Instead, a RNG determines if you are a winner at round start and will deal the cards accordingly. RTP on this machine would be between 50% and 80%.

Is this legal or should be called "rigged" ? - And makes any difference if we play optimal strategy or not for not paying dealt hands ?

Quote: PlayHunter

Is this legal or should be called "rigged" ? - And makes any difference if we play optimal strategy or not for not paying dealt hands ?

Try throwing away winning dealt hands and see what happens.

If you throw away winning dealt hands (by un-holding the cards), they are gone and you may get nothing on the draw.

That is why I have asked about if we still have to apply the optimal strategy for it, but only for non paying dealt hands ?

If you wanna mess with the machine, hold 5 losing cards. In some jurisdictions (e.g. Germany) the system will even carry over a win to the next hand played (if you prevent it on the previous by playing stupidly) in order to fulfill the legal payout requirements.

What PlayHunter don’t take into account is the player has to match his bet if he wants to try to improve his initial hand (discarding some cards and replacing them with new once).
I analyzed the game by halving the pay table odds and got a house edge of about 1.5%. But this is too rough, because about 1.2% of the time the player will have a pat hand. Thus, no need for a second bet. This lessens the house edge by 0.6%. And with all garbage hands, there is no need to buy a second draw. This adds much more to player’s dreams. The game runs a mini bonus when a pair of jacks or better is hit. Too good to be true, but one must keep on trying. BTW, I noticed some errors in the auto-hold function. When 2 pair is dealt, the 5th card is not hold. So, one is offered to try for full house, but the expected value for the hand is 2.9375. This is less than 3 – the win for 2 pair. The bad news is this game is for so long on the market. The good news is there is no info about payout, strategy and so on. Gambling is not academically studded in Europe. Casino people are too ignorant. This is good for the player, but he has often to do the math by himself because no info is available for games not common in the USA. There was a group of casinos running a BJ game with player’s edge of about 0.22%. On top of that, there was a bonus for a hand combination that added about 1% to player’s expectation. BTW, this VP game was for about a couple of months in my local casino. The casino moved it out of machine’s menu, but the left 7 slot games remained. So, I wonder if this is a real VP. The manufacturer is an Austrian company. Do you know if VP in Austria is real?

VPRookie

P.S. Why is it written 2 Pair, but not 2 Pairs? Excuse my ignorance in VP and in English.

Quote: VPRookie

P.S. Why is it written 2 Pair, but not 2 Pairs? Excuse my ignorance in VP and in English.

The singular and plural forms of some nouns are the same. As far as I know there is no rule or guideline that says when this is the case. You just have to know.
Edit: Pair is not one of those words. The dictionary says that pairs and pair are both acceptable plural forms. Come to think of it, I use pairs sometimes. English must be a tough language to learn.

Quote: JimRockford

English must be a tough language to learn.

Thanks for teaching me.

Wouldn't 2 pairS be redundant ?

The word pair in and of itself implies two cards. Therefore "2 Pair" means 2 sets or two cards.

Quote: michael99000

Wouldn't 2 pairS be redundant ?

The word pair in and of itself implies two cards. Therefore "2 Pair" means 2 sets or two cards.

I think it's in the usage. It's common to hear the poker hand referred to as "2 Pair". But there are also phrases where "2 pairs" is correct, as in "I bought 2 pairs of shoes today."