Video Poker Variations Played by a Typical Player

Hello,

I'm studying video poker and am wondering whether the typical video poker player normally sticks to one variation (for example, Jacks or Better)? Or, does the average player normally engage with multiple variations (Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Bonus Poker, etc)?

Thank you for your thoughts.

-Ilya

Average as in, "The average skilled player," or, "The average ploppy," not sure what you mean by average.

The average ploppy seems to play anything that strikes his/her fancy, for whatever reason. I've seen the same person leave me three different games with multipliers to vulture on Ultimate X because they're hopping back and forth from game to game without playing them off! In each of these three games, I saw the person make at least one grievous mistake within the first ten hands!

I would say I am slightly above ploppy level, and if I am playing seriously (AP), then I pretty much stick to Jacks or Better. In Vegas, I'm basically a ploppy playing anything and everything, just slightly better than a few people. Although, I do play LDW at The D which is the best returning VP that exists anywhere...shame it's only for nickels!

Although, I've recently found a gem, a Joker Poker game I can play Optimally and at a very slight advantage one day per week because of the points multiplier. It's very slightly worse than the 9/5 JoB that I usually play (.0073% worse, to be precise) but I'll get a ton of enjoyment out of it because Joker Poker (Kings) is my favorite game anyway. I just have to practice the Optimal Strategy for it before I start doing that.

It can be a choice of games that returns 99.5% or 97.5%. If one goes to a casino and sees a VP game that pays 99.5% but doesn't know how to play it effectively, the 97.5% game that is well-understood might be a better choice. Otherwise...

Most folks I presume play either JoB or Deuces Wild, I think the more knowledgeble might play Joker Poker KK+, or Double-Bonus.
Personally, I'm a Dueces Wild or Joker Poker KK+ player. The casino pay tables in the last few years are too low of a return for me to bother at 25c.

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I generally only play 3 types.
2 wild, JOB and DBL Bomus.

When in Vegas, I allways have an index card with strategy for all 3 games.
2 wild is the easiest, I rarely refer to my strategy card, strategy is pretty easy to remenber.
I also play JOB, this strategy is also pretty straightforward and dont refer to my strategy card much.
I also play Dbl Bonus due to the 4 Queens down town vegas has a row of machines that pay over 100.17 due to the progressive.
This strategy is alot more difficult and even though I play with a strategy card and refer to it quite a bit, probabbly still making some small mistakes.

3 games, 2 strategies. DW, JOB/BP. I use the same strategy for JOB and BP. I'll play BP progressive over JOB if the progressive is over about 4800. Whenever I'm in the mood to switch to DW, I'll practice on Video Poker Wizard for 30 minutes or so (not being the brightest bulb in the chandelier). Folks think they can change strategy at will, try it on the Wizards app and you'll learn different. I look at myself as a typical value player, certainly not an AP. In my opinion, if you're going to use more than one strategy, focus on accuracy over speed. 500-700 hands an hour is plenty fast for a non-ap.

If you are around crummy VP machines, I imagine a majority of players will play anything, don't care about the differences in the games, and don't know some of the correct marginal plays.

If you are around good VP machines my guess is the people who took the time to find the good machines also took the time to learn the strategy, they will probably stick to the game they know.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

Around here, is mostly DDB or DW. Very few play straight up JoB.

Yeah, in a lot of places not named Vegas, I think this is the case. JoB is a sucker's game on most machines I see. I can name a couple casinos that offer 6/5 JoB and 6/5 Bonus on the same machine.

I would learn 9/6 Job, DW, 10/7 DB, Jokers. I suggest learning the values of different hands and then you can make logical adjustments when you play other games. For instance if you know a K 10 ss is barely a hold on 9/6 JOB then you know its probably not a hold on 9/5 JOB.


I would learn key Pay outs that change the strategy drastically 7 coins (Max bet 35) on a flush changes things up quite a bit.

Learning when and why you should make Inside str8 adjustments would be helpful.

I usually play Deuces Wild. Before I ever found WoV or WoO it just seemed the easiest way to minimize the expense of sitting at the bar and having a few free drinks.

Stuff $20 into the machine, get a drink, tip $1, hammer the drink while playing a few slow hands, get a 2nd drink, tip another $1, the bartender loves me now and with any luck my $20 is still in the machine. On a bad session, I'd cash out with $15 and have spent $7 on two drinks. Every once in a while you hit a couple Four of a Kind or something and walk away with $30 or more, in which case they just paid me $8 to drink two drinks.

After discovering the Wizard sites, it seems the Deuces Wild Simple Strategy more or less confirms my gut feeling.

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

Thank you all for your very insightful responses. It sounds like a lot depends on the expertise level of the player. My assumptions were consistent with your responses:

The average inexperienced player may choose any variety of machine without caring much about the optimal strategy. The player may also jump from one type of machine to another.

The average experienced player will generally be familiar with the optimal strategies across a few different types of video poker and will thus choose from a few varieties based on the paytables and the types that he/she is most familiar with.

Thanks again.

I would just learn JOB, NSU/ugly deuces, and DDB. I have never seen a full pay game that yields a significant hourly. I can only imagine knowing how to play joker poker if you live in AC. If you find something that's good enough, you can always learn the game, but it's too complicated to spend a lot of time on. At two places I've played at, 98.9 deuces was far and away the best play.