Best Strategy for Limited Play

I am a Texas Hold'em Player. My casino offers free food and transportation if 2500 player points are accumulated within 6 months (June to December). This comp is worth about $1200 to me and it turns out the quickest & cheapest way to achieve it is by playing video poker. I will have to bet a total of $27,500 to accumulate the required points and figure on playing about 10,000 hands. I will stop playing as soon as I have the points. The only 9/6 machine in the casino is one on which you can play from one to 10 hands at a time. I can bet in multiples of 25 cents, 50 cents or 1 dollar. I do not plan on playing 5 units at a time, since I do not believe I will be playing enough hands to make the extra bonus for a royal flush a factor. Beyond that, I'm stuck as to what strategy I should use to minimize my cost for the 10,000 hands. What denomination should I play? How many hands at a time? Should I make any changes from your advanced strategy?

My guess is that the hands will cost about $125 ($250 less the $125 Cashback I will receive) Is that a realistic estimate?

HoldemJunkie52

Quote: HoldemJunkie52

I do not plan on playing 5 units at a time, since I do not believe I will be playing enough hands to make the extra bonus for a royal flush a factor.

dont do this. if youre not comfortable betting 5 units at a higher denomination, bet 5 units at a lower denomination instead of 1 unit or whatever at a higher denomination.

I agree with rudeboyoi. How big is your bankroll? If it is very large (thousands), you should play the 10-play Jacks with 5 units on each hand ($12.50 a spin). This will get you to your goal fastest. If you want slightly less variance, you should play fewer hands, anywhere from 1 to 9. But always play 5 units on each hand. Stick to the .25 denom. It is not unreasonable to expect a royal flush and if you get one betting just one unit you will kill yourself.

Quote: rudeboyoi

dont do this. if youre not comfortable betting 5 units at a higher denomination, bet 5 units at a lower denomination instead of 1 unit or whatever at a higher denomination.

Except the OP stated that he wants to minimize his cost for the hands. Even on 9/6 JoB the variance is almost half as much (2.21 vs 4.42) - so long as he only plays 1 unit. To me this is still a tossup though - 10,000 hands is a significant amount, and arguably the RF would become a greater factor in determining what to do. Me, I'd play the max credits with what my bankroll could afford.

-B

I'll wait to hear from the OP. If he wants mega-low variance, he should play one quarter on one hand. You won't deviate more than 100 bucks from the center line, maybe. But five quarters a hand only increases your variance slightly, while bettering your odds because of the royal flush bonus. $500-$1000 dollars should be enough bankroll to play through 10,000 hands.

So to summarize: play one, or five, but nothing in between.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I've settled on playing 3 hands at $1.25/hand. The strategy I'm following is the one from Frugal Video Poker, with some modifications. Given that I'm only going to play about 10,000 hands, I believe that the Frugal strategy puts too much emphasis on going after a royal flush or straight flush. For example, it says to keep a suited JT instead of unsuited KJ, AJ or KQ. If I had AJT, with the JT suited & the AJ off-suit. I would rather keep the AJ. I think that's better because unless I play zillions of hands, I'm not likely to benefit from the slightly greater EV of keeping JT suited. Also, it recommends keeping a 3-card royal flush over a 4-card flush. I would never do this. Frugal Video Poker also recommends keeping 3 cards to a straight flush - like 9QJ over just the QJ. I think for me, it is better to keep the QJ. I've also never been able to figure out why none of the strategies recommend keeping 3 high off-suit cards, like AQJ. Why wouldn't one want to maximize one's chance of hitting a high pair?

This is my provisional strategy:

1. royal flush, straight flush, 4 of a kind, full house
2. flush
2. 3 of a kind
3. straight
4. 4-card straight flush, 4-card royal flush
5. 2 pair
6. one high pair
7. 4 card flush
8. 10-J-Q-K
9. one pair 2 through 10
10. open-ended straight
11. 4 card straight JQKA, 10JQA, 10QKA, 10JKA, 9JQK
12. 3 high cards
13. 2 high cards
14. single high card
15. none

While this will not maximize my EV, I believe this stragegy offers me the best chance of minimizing my cost of playing 10,000 hands. I would appreciate comments.

HoldemJunkie-- you should play the excact Frugal Video Poker strategy if you want to minimize your losses. That strategy was developed so that if you follow it to the letter, you will lose the least amount of money. The JT is a better hand than the two suited high cards because you have more chances for straights and flushes, and there is the possibility of the royal flush. (I have hit the royal holding just face-10). Holding the two unsuited high cards will lower your variance, but also lower your return. It might be worth it for you to make that change, so I can't say you shouldn't do it. I do think you should always hold the three to a royal. That is such a juicy hand because you have the chance for straights, flushes, straight flushes and high pairs, notwithstanding the royal. Especially if you are playing three hands, you cannot afford to not make that hold. Same thing with the three to the straight flush -- it just gives you so many more "outs," which I'm sure as a poker player you know is beneficial.

So, to summarize, feel free to ignore the JT hold but I would not ignore the 3 to a royal hold or the 3 to a SF hold.