Retro Video Poker 9/6 Job

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forums! I've been looking for a community of video poker enthusiasts, and WoV definitely seems like the place to be.

Over the last few years, I've become completely obsessed with video poker. After reading multiple books on the subject, I'm fascinated by the math, the variations, and the strategies. Like many of you, the biggest draw for me is the 99.54% theoretical RTP of 9/6 Jacks or Better with perfect play.

This obsession led me to write my own browser-based video poker simulator to practice my strategy. It ended up gaining some traction and was actually featured on Hacker News and Boing Boing a while back.

What’s been really fascinating is seeing the game from the "operator" perspective. In my back-end, I can see what the aggregate player stats actually look like. For example, over the past two days, 8,392 hands have been played, and the actual player RTP is hovering right around 89.85%. It just goes to show that casinos shouldn't be so afraid to offer full-pay 9/6 JoB, considering how much the average player deviates from basic strategy!

After two years of tinkering, I’ve just finished a new version of the simulator that adds leaderboards, personal RTP tracking, and detailed play stats. I'm hoping to find some knowledgeable players to give our tiny community a bit of competition.

Because I'm a new user, I can't post links yet, but the site is classicvideopoker dot com slash classicvideopokerv2.

*Note: This is just a free passion project. Registration is entirely frictionless—just choose a username and PIN. No email or personal info is required.*

Looking forward to joining the discussions here!

OP's link is provided here: LINK

Thank you! Much appreciated.

I really like this. Love those CRT scan lines!

Thanks so much! I've been reading the forums and watching Michael Shackleford's videos & quite frankly feeling a little embarrassed about my post. The amount of knowledge here is daunting! So it means a lot that you like it! Thanks ;-)

p.s. I would love any ideas for new stats from a pro point of view, for example I see that average time for decision might be interesting & a leaderboard based on this.

I like this! Reminds me of the CRT VP machines they still have (at least they did as of October of last year) at the Skyline.

As an interesting aside, on my last visit, I noticed that the Cal has replaced the CRT's in their $1 9/6 coin-droppers with flat LCD screens. Everything else about these machines still plays the same, tho.

Quote: CVP

p.s. I would love any ideas for new stats from a pro point of view, for example I see that average time for decision might be interesting & a leaderboard based on this.
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I'm not a pro by any means, but I think keeping track of a player's hands per hour would be interesting.

Love seeing someone build tools for the community. I’ll definitely check it out. Do you plan to add mobile support or keep it browser-only?

Cardvoyager,

Glad you like it! In answer to your question: the game runs well across all platforms at the moment in browser, so I'm not pressed to do native ports for mobile just yet. I want to finish up all the functionality first and ensure it has what everyone wants. When it's complete - I have plans to initially do a steam-build, it works really great on the steam deck IMHO and for me is pretty much the perfect experience. From there I'll port to iOS & android.

Today I've been working on a trainer which highlights the right choice in the perfect strategy I found in "The Doctrine of Chances" by Steward Ethier (99.54%RTP), so the game will run in a split screen mode - game on top, strategy list on bottom. This is the strategy I've been training myself on - it's complex, requiring up to 32 decisions to choose the optimal hold. I'll post a link here to the trainer when it's done.

Joeman,

Yes, I love the old school CRT screens! I was inspired by the very first Video Poker machine from IGT in 1979 I believe. I'm struck by the nostalgia of the CRT. ;-)

Thanks for the suggestion - hands per hour sounds like a good idea. I'll put it on the list.

As promised here is the training version:

classicvideopoker dot com slash classicvideopokerv2 slash index_trainer.php

I am unable to link to the training version due to having a new account.

This is the strategy found in The Doctrine of Chances, by Stephen Ethier and has been proven to return 99.54% RTP.

Looking forward to any feedback!