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Dancer's Answers We publish a brand-new video poker article from Bob Dancer every Thursday in this section. These columns are called "Dancer's Answers". Click on any of the links below for more Dancer's Answers: Bob Dancer Articles - Main Page Vicksburg Video Poker - May 8, 2008 Vicksburg, MS Video Poker - Part 2 - May 15, 2008 Vicksburg Casino Video Poker - Part 3 - May 22, 2008 Common Deuces Wild Mistakes – Juan or the Other – May 29, 2008 Figuring Out Quick Quads - June 5, 2008 Breaking Full Houses in Quick Quads - June 12, 2008 A Quick Quads Puzzler - June 19, 2008 Let’s Go Scouting - June 26, 2008 When You're Not Sure of the Game - July 3, 2008 Can it be Right to Play Hunches - July 10, 2008 Good Hearted Woman in Love With a Good Timin’ Man - July 17, 2008 One-Way Versus Two-Way Straight Penalties - July 24, 2008 Effectual versus Ineffectual Straight Penalties - July 31, 2008 Unusual Dealt Royals - August 7, 2008 Learning from a Horse Handicapper - August 14, 2008 When Bad Is Good - August 21, 2008 I Live For These Moments - August 28, 2008 Next Dancer's Answers column coming on September 4, 2008! |
This article originally appeared in Casino Player in November 1998. It talks about a 0.67% slot club when playing 9/6 Jacks or Better. That was common on the Strip when this was written, but those days are long gone. One Coin Versus FiveEver hit a royal flush while only playing one coin? You know how it goes. While you’re collecting your $62.50, everybody and his brother comes by and “helpfully” tells you what a fool you were because if you had been playing the full five coins you would have received $1000. Some might be so good that they do the math and let you know that you “threw away” $932.50 with your “stupidity.” I, for one, would think you that you had made a nice play --- except that actually I suspect that you don’t want to hear this right now so I would say nothing. I’ve mentioned in this column October 1997 that playing one coin is better than five for most video poker players. I received several letters asking me to explain myself. Here comes that explanation. To start with, let’s assume you are playing good old 9/6 Jacks or Better. We’ll even give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you play perfectly. Playing five coins gives you a return of 99.54%. Playing only one coin gives you a return of 98.37%. This difference, of course, is the higher reward you receive on a per-coin basis when you bet the full load. Since 99.54% is greater than 98.37%, that’s as far as most analysis goes. This isn’t the major factor. You do not get paid in percentages. You get paid in dollars and cents. Let’s assume that you have played $10,000 through the machine. That might be four hours on a dollar machine, or eighty hours on a nickel machine. Playing five coins, your expected loss is $46. (99.54% means you will receive $9,954 out of the machine for every $10,000 you put in. $10,000 minus $9,954 = $46). Here comes the critical part. If you had been playing one coin you would only have bet $2,000 so far. Even at the higher loss rate, your total loss would be $32.60. This is only 70% of the loss you would have had if you were betting the full five coins. If you play poorly, the argument gets stronger. Let’s assume you play 1% less than perfect. With the same $10,000 total bet, you would be losing $146 with five coins. With one coin and $2,000 bet, you’d have lost $52.60. Now your loss with one coin is only 36% of your loss with five coins. The exact numbers will vary with the game, but this principle holds. If the casino has the advantage, play only one coin. When is it right to play five coins? When you have the advantage and you know how to exploit it. Full pay deuces wild with five coins returns 100.76%. The same game with only coin returns 99.25%. Playing five coins is a winner. Playing less than that is a loser. Anyone who plays one coin on this machine isn’t making a smart play at all. Slot clubs can have a similar effect. The only time I play jacks or better is when the slot club returns at least .67% in cash. Now playing five coins is worth 100.21% and playing only one coin is worth 99.04%. Here again, playing with five coins is a winner and playing less than that is a loser. In the other direction, playing poorly can multiply the incentive to play one coin. Playing a beatable game when you don’t know how to play is actually not a lot different than playing a game where the casino has the advantage. If you don’t know how to play it well, play one coin. What if you don’t know if the casino has the advantage or not? By far the best solution is to assume that you’re the underdog. Even in the casinos with the loosest machines, most machines in the joint have schedules in the house’s favor. It’s a relatively rare machine where any player has the advantage and a relatively rare player who can extract that advantage when it does exist. This isn’t hard to understand. Casinos are geared to be moneymaking businesses. If too many people could beat them, they wouldn’t exist. Better than playing one quarter, of course, is to play five nickels --- providing you can find the same pay schedule. This makes a lot of sense. If you can play for the same amount of coin-in, receiving $200 for the royal is certainly better than receiving $62.50. But the critical part of this is “providing you can find the same pay schedule.” Usually this is not possible. Most casinos provide much better games for quarter players than they do for nickel players. Better yet is to play one nickel. Slightly more profitable, of course, would be to watch somebody else play. Another way to say this is that if the only game available is one where the casino has the advantage, the most cost-effective strategy is to not play at all. If you must play, play for as little as you can and still enjoy yourself. I know that somebody who normally plays on a dollar machine for $5 per play and generally loses is just not going to be happy playing one nickel at a time. Yes they know that they will lose less on average, but playing one nickel at a time just doesn’t get the blood flowing like playing for $5 at a pop does. That’s fine. But know that the “thrill of gambling” has a price. When I’ve made the above argument in one of my classes, somebody usually points out the problem mentioned earlier. When you do hit the one-coin royal, you feel so bad. My answer to that is “Why feel bad?” On the night you lost $30 by playing one coin instead of $150 by playing five, did you feel good? Did you go out and celebrate because you were $120 ahead of where you would have been had you been betting max coins? Probably not. But these nights add up. Overall, you’ll have many more nights when you lose less by this strategy than you will have nights when you sacrifice a big score. Another problem that I’ve had when I make this argument is that people don’t want to give proper weight to the probability that they will lose. People like to wear rose-colored glasses in order to pretend that they WILL win much more than they actually DO win. That’s fine if you wish to live in a make-believe world. But casinos are in the real world. When you win, you win real dollars. When you lose, you lose real dollars. My belief is that the best way to succeed in this world is look at this world realistically. If you are likely to lose bet less. Assuming you will win doesn’t change the odds one iota. Remember that playing one coin is not the key to winning. It is merely a key to losing less. But the dollars you have left over when you lose less spend in exactly the same way as those you get by winning more. And losing less along the way means that you are more likely to have a respectable bankroll when you are ready to play max coins. That’s it for this month. In the meantime, go out and hit a royal flush. Bob Dancer is America's best-known video poker writer and teacher. He has a variety of "how to play better video poker" products, including the software "Video Poker for Winners," Winner's Guides, strategy cards, his autobiography Million Dollar Video Poker, and his two novels, including Sex, Lies, and Video Poker. Dancer's products may be ordered at www.bobdancer.com or by telephone at 1-800-244-2224 M-F 9-5 Pacific Time.
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Classic Dancer We republish a classic Bob Dancer article every Sunday - often these articles are updated with new insights from Bob Dancer, the master of video poker writing. Video Poker Questions and Answers - May 4, 2008 More Answers to Questions About Video Poker Machines - May 11, 2008 Losing is a Major Part of Winning at Video Poker - May 18, 2008 Video Poker VS Blackjack - May 25, 2008 The Art of Tipping Slot Personnel - Part 1 - June 1, 2008 The Art of Tipping Slot Personnel - Part 2 - June 8, 2008 Putting Your Ducks In a Row - June 15, 2008 Luck and Skill in Video Poker - June 22, 2008 Strategy Adjustments in Video Poker - June 29, 2008 One Coin vs Five Coin - July 6, 2008 Video Poker Progressives - July 13, 2008 High Pairs versus Three Cards to a Rolal in Kings or Better Joker Wild - July 20, 2008 The Double Up Feature -- Does It Ever Make Sense? - Part 1 - July 27, 2008 Doubling Up -- Does it Ever Make Sense? - Part 2 - August 3, 2008 Did I Quit at the Right Time? - August 10, 2008 Money Management: What Does and Doesn't Work - August 17, 2008 "I'm Playing The Wrong Game" and Other Video Poker Fallacies - August 24, 2008 More Classic Dancer coming Sunday August 31, 2008. |
