Online poker bonus
Video Poker, Pay Tables and Advantage Playing
Slot Machines
Slot machines are as unpopular with advantage players as they are popular among the masses. There is no real way a gambler can obtain an advantage in slots. The payoff is unknown and no skill influences the game. So you will often hear professional gamblers telling you to avoid slots unless there's a special promo going on or something.
Video Poker
Video poker is different. This game offers an intelligent alternative to slots for advantage players. Unlike their look-alikes the slots, video poker has a fixed number of possible combinations. Therefore the house edge can be seen via the pay table. Slots have pay tables too but they are useless so far as determining the house edge goes since you don't know how symbols are arranged in the random number generator.
Pay Tables
Pay tables in video poker are usually referred to by the full house and flush payoffs. Thus, a 9/6 Jacks or Better pay table means a full house pays you 9 for 1 and a flush pays you 6 for 1. In other words, if you bet $1 and got a full house, you are paid $9 *including* the $1 which is returned to you.
When choosing a video poker machine to play, look for no less than the classic 9/6 Jacks or Better. Other machines may have 8/5, 7/5, 6/5 and worse payoffs. This is especially likely in low-competition casino areas, airport lounges, stores and other places where video poker isn't an important source of profits for the establishment. A JoB game with 9/6 payoff is equivalent to about a 99.5% payback percentage with optimal strategy.
Warnings
But don't play just any video poker with a 9/6 payoff or better. Some games may offer attractive payoffs or a nice bonus, but at the same time reduce payoffs for some hands. Double Bonus, for instance, pays off 9/6 on full houses and flushes, but only pay 1 for 1 on two pairs instead of 2 for 1.
Casinos know that video poker players will look at the full house and flush payoffs to know what kind of a pay table it is. So they may put changes elsewhere on the pay table that is likely to be overlooked. Beware of this when choosing.
Jacks or Better 9/6 Pay Table
For your advantage playing reference, here is the standard 9/6 JoB pay table. Top row indicates number of credits for a bet.
1 2 3 4 5
Royal Flush 250 500 750 1000 4000
Straight Flush 50 100 150 200 250
Four of a Kind 25 50 75 100 125
Full House 9 18 27 36 45
Flush 6 12 18 24 30
Straight 4 8 12 16 20
Three of a Kind 3 6 9 12 15
Two Pairs 2 4 6 8 10
Jacks or Better 1 2 3 4 5
A further advantage of video poker over slots is that you can have a better chance of winning the game if you use correct strategy. Assuming you use the correct strategy for the type of video poker you play, you can greatly reduce the house edge or even turn a profit.
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