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How far do we go in our Ace chase? It varies from game to game By John Grochowski In any video poker game, the “expert” strategy changes with the pay table. Do flushes pay 5-for-1, 6-for-1 or 7-for-1? Do you get 2-for-1 on two pair, or 1-for-1, with enhancements elsewhere on the pay table? […]
A look at some common video poker options By John Grochowski No matter how dedicated the video poker player, it’s all but impossible to memorize the ins and outs of strategy for every game and every pay table. If you’re going to flip back and forth among Jacks or Better, Double Bonus Poker, Double […]
Long odds to be dealt a royal flush By John Grochowski If you’re a video poker player, you know that any royal flush is a cause for celebration. When I drew my first, way back in December of 1989, the 10 $100 bills handed to me by the slot attendant at the Tropicana in […]
Single high cards bring more winners, but pairs bring more money By John Grochowski There are a handful of plays in video poker that we’re called on to make over and over and over again. They’re so commonplace that we might make them several times in a short session. Making the right plays in […]
Why players earn more comps on slots than video poker By John Grochowski Carrie has been playing slot machines for longer than she cares to remember. She and her husband Bill had already been annual Las Vegas visitors for nearly a decade when I met them in the early 1980s, several years before my […]
Which Double Double Bonus machine is best? By John Grochowski Evaluating a video poker machine is usually pretty straight-forward. A 9-6 Jacks or Better machine where full houses pay 9-for-1 and flushes 6-for-1, will return more players than a 8-5 machine. A 10-7-5 Double Bonus Poker game, where full houses pay 10-for-1, flushes 7-for-1 […]
Exploring a family of Deuces Wild games By John Grochowski When video poker rocketed to popularity in the 1980s a couple of things became apparent that still influence games today. For starters, players will flock to video games that give them frequent paybacks and a good shot to win. And second, players love the […]
Holding the low-card kicker in Double Double Bonus Poker By John Grochowski It’s always tempting to go for the big jackpot, and often in video poker that’s just what we do. We’ll break up a flush, straight or high pair for a one-card draw to a royal flush, tossing away smaller payoffs for a […]
Video poker leaves a former slot player confused but enthused By John Grochowski Karl is a video poker convert, a slot player who decided to give video poker a go when he learned of its higher payback percentages. Slot percentages vary by jurisdiction and individual casino, but the penny slots that are the most […]
What exactly is an open straight By Jerry “Stickman” Stich Look at the strategy for just about any video poker game and you will find two different types of straight—an open (or more accurately open-ended) straight and an inside straight. The terms open and inside also apply to straight flushes which are simply straights […]