Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Linda Boyd spent many years as a mathematics educator—a career that proved valuable in helping her design the statistical tactics included in this book, and present them in a way that is easy to understand even for the “mathematically challenged.” After years of playing blackjack and live poker, Ms. Boyd turned to the more profitable game of video poker.

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the VIDEO POKER EDGE

Square One Publishers

Contents

Acknowledgments.................................................vPreface.........................................................viiA Note on Gender................................................ixIntroduction....................................................11. The Game of Poker............................................52. Getting to Know Your Video Poker Machine.....................233. Video Poker Strategy.........................................414. Money Management.............................................835. Selecting a Casino...........................................956. Casino Etiquette and Safety..................................117Conclusion......................................................127Glossary........................................................129Pay Charts for Common Video Poker Games.........................135Resource List...................................................143Index...........................................................147

Chapter One

The exact origins of the game of poker are debated today, with most giving credit to Jonathan Green, who made the first references to "poker" in 1834. Green, who played on riverboats along the Mississippi River, called poker the "cheating game." It may have been a cheating game, but nonetheless poker was enormously popular from the start, and rapidly spread to the East Coast by way of the railroads.

Poker was a twenty-card game in the beginning; then a thirty-two-card game; and finally a game of fifty-two cards plus two Jokers. Anybody watching a movie about the Wild West is sure to see a poker game in the saloon scenes. Today it is played more than any other card game in the world, with all kinds of people competing for bragging rights.

For over a century, regardless of the number of cards used, poker was played with real cards by a group of people sitting around a table. Then in 1975, a crowd gathered around a new kind of slot machine in Las Vegas, beginning the public's fascination with video poker. At that time, the only video poker game available was Jacks or Better draw poker. Now there are over one hundred varieties of the game, and video poker is the most popular gaming option available on the casino floor.

If you're longing to get in on the fun and excitement of video poker, this chapter is the best place to start. First, I'll briefly look at the game of table poker, which is where video poker had its roots. Then, I'll introduce you to the basic game of video poker, along with some popular and commonly available variations. Finally, I'll compare the two games, so that any long-time table poker player will quickly see that video poker is by no means an electronic version of table poker, but a very different game.

TABLE POKER

There are dozens of variations of the game of table poker. For the purpose of this explanation, we'll focus on Five-Card Draw-the variation that has most in common with the game of video poker.

Table poker is played with a fifty-two-card deck. Anywhere from two to ten players can participate.

Before the cards are dealt to the individual players, the players ante, meaning that they place a token amount of money in the pot. Five cards are then dealt to each player. The first round of betting then occurs, with each player placing more money in the pot. If a player no longer wishes to remain in the game because he feels he has a losing hand, instead of betting, he can fold his hand, exiting the game and forfeiting all money he has thus far placed in the pot.

After the first betting round, each player has the option to discard one or more cards from his hand and receive new cards from the dealer. This is called the draw. If he prefers, however, a player may keep the hand he was originally dealt.

After the draw, there is another round of betting. Again, any player can fold and exit the game at this time.

After the second round of betting, the players show their hands, and the player with the best hand of those remaining in the game wins the pot. The winning hand is decided by hand rankings, which are described on page 7.

Sound easy? While the rules are pretty simple, when played by talented competition, the game of poker is quite challenging and involves skills in psychology and mathematics, as well as nerves of steel. For instance, a player with a poor hand may bluff, placing a bet as if he had a good hand with the hopes that other players will fold. Skilled players also note other players' tells-mannerisms that inadvertently supply information about their hands.

Before you go on to learn about video poker, it's important to look at the hand rankings used in table poker. Later in the chapter, you'll learn that while these rankings form the basis of the hand rankings used in video poker, in many cases, video poker rankings are different.

Hand Rankings in Table Poker

Anyone who even casually plays table poker has to understand poker hand rankings, also called the hierarchy of hands. In table poker, the player with the highest ranking hand wins-provided that he has not folded his hand.

If you are totally new to cards, you have to first understand that each fifty-two-card deck is composed of four suits: hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs. These suits are equal in value; hearts are no more valuable than diamonds, for instance. Cards of the same suit are referred to as being "suited." For example, an Ace, King, and Ten, all in diamonds, would be a suited Ace, King, and Ten.

Within each suit are thirteen ranks. The Ace is the highest-ranking card in a suit, followed by King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, and Two (or Deuce). What about the Joker? In most games of table poker, the Joker is not used. Sometimes, though, the Joker is a wild card, meaning that it can be any rank and suit that would form the highest possible hand in the hierarchy.

Hand rankings are based on probability, so that the rarer your hand, the more valuable it is. For instance, you are more likely to end up with a pair of Aces in your hand than you are to have all four Aces. For this reason, Four of a Kind is more valuable than a Pair.

Table 1.1 shows poker hand rankings from highest to lowest for table poker. Later in the chapter, you'll learn about hand rankings for video poker.

VIDEO POKER

While there are many variations of table poker games, there are even more versions of video poker. But before we look at some of those variations, it makes sense to present an overview of how you play the game. When reading the following discussion, please note that it presents a simplified version of how the video poker machine works. In Chapter 2, you will learn more about the mechanics of playing the game.

The game of video poker begins when you sit down at a video poker machine and, depending on the machine, deposit coins, bills, or a cash ticket. After you insert the money, you then press the Max Bet or Bet One Credit button, and the images of five cards appear on the screen.

Once you have seen your hand, you have the option of keeping it as is or trying to improve it by receiving replacements for one to five cards. To receive new cards, you select the...