Actually, there are a couple of reasons I dislike the collect or double option on a video poker game, so I’ll discuss them both. The second may be something you don’t expect.  The first should be fairly obvious — the collect or double option isn’t part of a decent video poker strategy. Video poker strategy has been developed and perfected based on the probability of different poker hands being dealt to the player.  The double option steps outside that range of probability and challenges the player to simply guess to pick a card value or suit with the chance of doubling their winnings. Or losing their winnings. 

Now let’s take a look at this from the casino’s view. Video poker is already a great game for players. In fact, a good video poker players pretty much has the gambling odds in their favor.  So, casinos need a way to move those odds back to the casino. Land based casinos do this by limiting the video poker machines that have the best pay tables.  But online casinos can’t really do that because players can easily jump to another online casino if they can’t find a great pay table.  So, the online casinos need to find a way to make players voluntarily let the casino win their money back.   And the double or nothing option does that.

But my second option might be a little more surprising. The double or collect option is causing me pain and limiting my playing time. Casinos listen up! Right now I’m playing on a casino that gave me bonus money. But every time I win, I must move the mouse over to the collect button to decline the double option. Which means I’m dealing with wrist strain from repetitive mouse action. Which means I won’t be playing at this particular online casino after I finish working off this bonus.

Have you ever wondered about your chances of hitting a Royal Flush in video poker. Oh, yes, we know it’s 1 in 40,000. But here’s the thing. We humans have a tough time really processing big numbers. That’s why people think that if they buy 100 lottery tickets they’ve significantly increased their odds when the chances are 1 in 13 million. 100 in 13 million is a lot better, right?  Well, fractionally, perhaps.

So, let’s take a look at my current video poker experiment. For Christmas a certain casino gave me $20 to play with for free. Now, this is a casino that I don’t normally play on because their video poker payout charts are lower than I’m going spend my money on. They aren’t the best online casino. But I’m perfectly willing to spend their money playing.  

I took the money, even though I’ll need to play for the rest of my life to meet the play through requirement. I’m playing Jacks or Better Video Poker for the lowest wager I can. The good news is that I’ve actually been playing since Christmas and still have $15 of playing money. See, folks, video poker strategy works. But while I’m hitting 4 of a kind at least once a day, I’ve not hit a Royal Flush. So, let’s break this down into some simple math.

Chances of hitting a royal flush, 1 in 40,000.  So let’s say I’m playing casually at this online casino and playing about 200 hands a day. And I play here only on weekdays, so 5 days a week. Which adds up to 1000 hands a week. (Yeah, those numbers are just estimated to make the final number 1,000 which is easy to work with.) So, at 1000 hands a week, it would take me 40 weeks to play 40,000 hands.  That’s a long time to play.

Now, most video poker players don’t play 200 hands a day, 5 days a week. But I wanted to put it in that perspective so you could think of in “job” terms.  Essentially, it’s means you’d be working most of the year hoping for that big bonus.  Now, this doesn’t mean I’m going to stop playing video poker. Why? Because I’ve been playing for 3 weeks on $20 and I’m still sitting at $15. I might hit that royal flush before I go bust.