155 - Professional - Video - Poker - Wong

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PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 1
PROFESSIONAL
VIDEO
POKER
STANFORD WONG
Pi Yee Press
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PROFESSIONAL
VIDEO POKER
by
Stanford Wong
Pi Yee Press
copyright © 1988, 1991, 1993, 2007 by Pi Yee Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechani-
cal, including photocopying, recording, or by any informa-
tion storage and retrieval system, without permission in writ-
ing from the publisher. Inquiries should be addressed to Pi Yee
Press, 4855 W. Nevso Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89103-3787.
Telephone (702) 579-7711.
ISBN 0-935926-15-1
Always printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
cover photo courtesy of Gamblers General Store, Las Vegas
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PREFACE
Some of my Nevada friends support themselves

primarily by playing video poker. They live in Las
Vegas, but occasionally travel to Reno and Stateline
and find profitable opportunities there.
I worked with them to devise the strategies they
are using. Presenting those strategies is the purpose of
this publication. The material in this publication has
had more than a year of testing in the casinos of Ne-
vada.
Some of this material has previously been pub-
lished. Volume 6 of Stanford Wong’s Blackjack Newslet-
ters, published in 1984, presents strategies for playing
video poker. Those strategies were devised with accu-
racy in mind. Speed also is important. You can make
more money per hour with an approximate strategy if
it allows you to play enough more hands per hour.
The video-poker strategies used by the pros have
what I think is the optimal balance between accuracy
and speed. These strategies were devised with the
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intent of maximizing winnings per hour. These strate-

gies differ from perfect play by 0.06%. That is, the
strategies in this book capture 99.94% of the payback
that a computer would achieve making the best play
every time.
If you have seen my 1984 strategies, you may
have marveled at how complicated they look. Compli-
cated-looking strategies are not what you want to refer
to when you are playing video poker in a casino.
The strategies used by the pros do not look com-
plicated. The reason is we worked together to devise
the simplest possible format for presenting the strate-
gies. Each strategy is presented in a compact chart that
uses easy abbreviations for the different possible draws.
You do not have to memorize the strategy because you
can find the correct play for any hand in just seconds.
After you have played video poker for a while, you
will have memorized the correct strategy for most of
the hands you play, and you will have to look at the
chart only for advice on how to play an unusual hand.
Proper playing strategy alone is not enough. Not
every video poker machine is beatable. In fact, most
video poker machines have an edge over you. To make
money at video poker, you must be able to identify
those machines over which you have an edge. This
book tells you how to do it.
And if you are really serious about making
money, you not only want to know whether you have
an edge, you want to know how much you are ex-
pected to make per hour. This book tells you how to
find your expected win per hour.
I carry my video-poker strategy in my wallet. I
play if I find an opportunity that is attractive enough.
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In the best video-poker opportunity I personally have

played, in early 1987, I estimate my time was worth
$150 an hour; the pros play quicker than me, and their
time probably was worth $200 an hour on that bank of
machines.
You probably will not find any $200-an-hour
video-poker opportunities. But you could support
yourself at video poker. Video-poker pros still exist as
this book is being restyled in 1991; I think they will
continue to exist for a long time. Sometimes they find
more profitable machines than they personally can
play, so they hire other people by the hour to play the
machines for them.
Thank You
Thanks to the video-poker pros who inspired
and helped create this material — Anne Amster and
Dave Douglas.
Also thanks to John B. Speer, whose detailed com-
ments on the first printing of the first edition helped
make this book more understandable.
Extra Tables Included
The page inside the back cover has the two most
important tables in this book reduced to wallet size.
Feel free to cut them out or reproduce them and carry
them with you when you visit casino country.
1991 Restyling
In the 1991 restyling, all the tables were moved to
the left pages; the right pages still contain the text. I
think this makes the material easier to use.
Since first publishing Professional Video Poker I have
done extensive computer work on the subject, which
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resulted in some changes to this book. The biggest

change is the addition of tables of frequencies of final
hands for seventeen different payoff schedules. Pre-
cise payback percentages for the various payoff sched-
ules also have been added. The break-even point for
the 6-5 machines more common in Atlantic City was
changed from $3000 to $3100. Most of the rest of the
material remains unchanged, which is why I call this a
restyling instead of a new edition.
1993 Printing
The index was added. Other changes were mi-
nor.
1994 Printing
The cover was improved.
2007
The material was compressed slightly, and blank
pages were removed.
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Win Rates ............................... 12

Evaluating Payoff Schedules .........................................14
Rate of Play .......................................................................21
Marginal Win Rate ..........................................................21
Risk While Waiting For
a Royal Flush ....................................................................27
Overall Risk ......................................................................29
Average Winnings Per Hour .........................................31
Details of Strategies .........................................................36
Chapter 2: 8-5 Progressive Strategy ..... 37
Break-Even Points and Win Rates ...............................39
Strategy for 8-5 Progressive ...........................................40
Boldface Numbers ...........................................................41
Numbers in the Column on the Left ............................43
Table 13 Line By Line .....................................................44
2853 5 SF .........................................................................44
Omitted Hands ................................................................45
4 RF ...................................................................................45
6003 5 flush ....................................................................45
4964 3 trips .....................................................................46
4557 5 straight ...............................................................46
3942 4 ss Q-J-10-9 .........................................................47
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3 RF ...................................................................................47
4 two pair .........................................................................47
4 SF ....................................................................................47
2 high pair ........................................................................47
4 flush ...............................................................................48
4 K-Q-J-10 ........................................................................48
5640 2 low pair ..............................................................48
5577 4 Q-J-10-9 ..............................................................49
4484 4 J-10-9-8 ...............................................................49
3246 3 ss Q-J-9 ...............................................................49
2 ss HC-HC ......................................................................49
5573 4 consec no HC ....................................................50
5531 3 ss J-10-9 ..............................................................50
3656 3 SF 1 gap 1 HC ...................................................50
3280 3 SF consec no deuce ..........................................51
2 ss HC-10 ........................................................................51
4 ace-high straight .........................................................51
3 K-Q-J ..............................................................................51
2 HC-HC ..........................................................................52
1 HC ..................................................................................52
3 SF ....................................................................................52
0 nothing ..........................................................................52
Coming Next ....................................................................53
Ch 3: Fine Points of 8-5 Strategy ............ 5 4
2853 5 SF .........................................................................56
6003 5 flush ....................................................................56
4964 3 trips .....................................................................58
4557 5 straight ...............................................................59
3942 4 ss Q-J-10-9 .........................................................60
4 two pair .........................................................................62
4 SF ....................................................................................64
2 high pair ........................................................................65
4 flush ...............................................................................66
4 K-Q-J-10 ........................................................................68
5640 2 low pair ..............................................................68
5577 4 Q-J-10-9 ..............................................................74
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4484 4 J-10-9-8 ...............................................................76

3246 3 ss Q-J-9 ...............................................................78
5573 4 consec no HC ....................................................80
5531 3 ss J-10-9 ..............................................................81
3656 3 SF 1 gap 1 HC ...................................................83
3280 3 SF consec no deuce ..........................................85
4 ace-high straight .........................................................87
3 K-Q-J ..............................................................................88
2 HC-HC ..........................................................................89
1 HC ..................................................................................90
3 SF ....................................................................................91
Cost of Errors ...................................................................92
Ch 4: Other VP Strategies ....................... 94
Strategy for 6-5 Progressives .........................................94
Strategy for 10s-or-Better Progressive .........................99
Video-Poker Tournaments .......................................... 102
Two Jackpots ................................................................. 102
Cards In Order ............................................................. 103
Cards In a Particular Suit ........................................... 103
Double Option .............................................................. 104
Second-Chance Feature .............................................. 105
Wild Cards ..................................................................... 106
Attitude of Casino Personnel ..................................... 110
Literature Cited ....................................... 116
Index ........................................................ 117
About the Author .................................... 119
Books by Pi Yee Press ........................... 120
Wallet-Size Strategies ............................ 123
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LIST OF TABLES
1 9-6-1000: Payoffs & Frequencies ......................... 13

3 9-6-800: Payoffs & Frequencies ........................... 18
11 10s, 9-6-1000: Payoffs & Frequencies ................. 34
12 Payoffs on 8-5 Progressives ................................ 38
13 Strategy For 8-5 Progressives .............................. 42
14 Breaking a Pat Flush ............................................ 55
15 Breaking Trips ....................................................... 57
16 Breaking a Pat Straight ........................................ 59
17 Discarding the 9 From ss Q-J-10-9 ...................... 60
18 Two Pair or Three of a Royal .............................. 61
19 Four of a Straight Flush or Three of a Royal .... 63
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20 K-Q-J-10 or Two of a Royal ................................. 67

21 Low Pair or ss HC-HC ......................................... 69
22 Q-J-10-9 or ss HC-HC ........................................... 72
23 Q-J-10-9 or ss HC-10 ............................................. 73
24 J-10-9-8 or ss HC-J ................................................. 75
25 J-10-9-8 or ss J-10 ................................................... 75
26 ss Q-J-9 or ss Q-J .................................................... 77
27 10-9-8-7 or ss HC-10 .............................................. 79
28 ss J-10-9 or ss J-10 .................................................. 81
29 Three of a Straight Flush or ss HC-10 ................ 82
30 Three Consecutive ss or ss HC-10 ...................... 84
31 Four of Ace-High Straight or ss HC-10 .............. 86
33 Strategy For 6-5 Progressives .............................. 95
34 10s, 9-6-4000: Payoffs & Frequencies ................ 98
35 10s-or-Better Progressives ................................. 100
36 Joker, Kings: Payoffs & Frequencies ................ 107
37 Joker, 2 Pair: Payoffs & Frequencies ............... 109
38 Deuces Wild: Payoffs & Frequencies ............. 111
39 Deuces & Joker: Payoffs & Frequencies ......... 113
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12 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER
CHAPTER 1
WIN RATES
Video-poker slot machines have been proliferat-

ing. The most common are draw poker using one 52-
card deck with a shuffle after every hand. First you
insert your bet; then you are dealt five random cards.
You decide which, if any, of the five you want to keep.
For the cards you discard, you are dealt random re-
placements from the remaining 47 cards. Then your
hand is evaluated, with the different possible poker
hands winning specified numbers of coins.
Since you decide which cards to keep out of your
first five, there is skill involved. The proper way to
play some video-poker hands is different from the way
you would play those same hands in a regular poker
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WIN RATES 13
Table 1
9-6-1000: Payoffs & Frequencies
Final Hand Pay Per Coin Freq (%)
Royal Flush 1000 0.0028
Straight Flush 50 0.0111
Four of a Kind 25 0.2355
Full House 9 1.1484
Flush 6 1.1129
Straight 4 1.1306
Three of a Kind 3 7.4148
Two Pair 2 12.8898
Pair, Jacks or better 1 21.2649
No Pay 0 54.7892
Payback: 100.07
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game. In video poker you are simply trying to get

certain card combinations; you are not trying to beat
anyone else’s hand.
There is such a thing as proper playing strategy
for video poker. You are dealt five cards, and whether
you hold or discard each one is up to you. For a given
set of payoffs, one play is best in the sense of making
more money on average than the other possible ways
to play the hand.
Different payoffs for the various final hands mean
differences in proper playing strategy. This book pre-
sents playing strategies that change with the size of the
jackpot rather than being fixed. The changes involve
making more draws to try for a royal flush as the
payoff for a royal flush increases.
Evaluating Payoff Schedules
Different playing strategies yield different fre-
quencies of final hands. Precise frequencies of final
hands can be calculated if a particular playing strategy
is specified. Table 1 contains a payoff schedule that has
a slight edge for the player who plays perfectly. The
payoff is expressed as a ratio of coins returned to coins
bet. For example, the royal flush at 1000 can mean 5000
coins returned on a bet of five coins.
Table 1 also contains frequencies of the various
final video poker hands, assuming perfect play. The
frequencies are in percent; for example the frequency
of a royal is 0.0028%, which is the same thing as 0.000028.
These frequencies were calculated by VPEXACT, a
computer program I wrote for IBM PCs.
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WIN RATES 15
One thing of interest in table 1 is the similarity of

the frequencies of full house, flush, and straight. Each
is approximately 1.1%.
A customer who uses perfect playing strategy
has a payback of 100.07%, which means an edge of
0.07% over the casino for the payoff schedule of table 1.
The break-even royal-flush jackpot for perfect play on
9-6 machines is 976 coins. Some Nevada casinos have
“flat-tops,” i.e. non-progressive machines, that have
the payoff schedule shown in table 1. The casinos make
money on those machines only because of customer
mistakes.
You ought to play some hands differently as the
jackpot increases. Each strategy change is accompa-
nied by a slight increase in the probability of hitting a
royal flush, and also a slight increase in the per-hour
loss rate while waiting for a royal flush.
On average, a royal flush occurs once per 30,000
to 50,000 hands, depending on how aggressively you
try for a royal. This assumes each card remaining in the
deck is equally likely to be drawn, and each combina-
tion of cards is equally likely. (If you try for royals
only, you should get one per 21,745 hands.)
The technology exists to make some cards more
likely to be drawn than other cards, or to make some
combinations of cards more likely than other combina-
tions. For example, when you draw one card to four of
a royal flush, the machine could be set to give you the
card you need with less than the proper frequency of
1/47. In my opinion this would be cheating. So far as I
know this has not yet occurred in the legal casinos of
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Table 2
Full House 8 1.1455
Flush 5 1.1127
Straight 4 1.0927
Two Pair 2 12.8750
Pair, cks or better 1 20.9741
No Pay 0 55.1288
Payback: 104.60%
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WIN RATES 17
Nevada or Atlantic City. However, some professional

video poker players are less confident about some
overseas video poker games. If you are playing video
poker against machines that promise a generous pay-
off percentage but seem to take everyone’s money too
quickly, save your quarters for a trip to Las Vegas.
You can use table 1 to estimate the casino edge
on machines with payoff schedules that differ from it
in only minor ways. The most common differences are
in the payoffs for royal flush, full house, and flush.
Each 1-coin change in the per-coin payoff for full house
or flush means about 1.1%. Each 1000-coin change in
the per-coin royal-flush payoff means about 3%; thus
on those stretches in which you play these machines
without hitting a royal flush, you lose about 3% faster
than average.
Chapter 2 covers machines that pay 8 for a full
house and 5 for a flush. That is one bet less for a full
house and one bet less for a flush than the payoff
schedule of table 1. Since full house and flush each
occur about 1.1% of the time, 8-5 machines have a 2.2%
greater house edge than otherwise-identical 9-6 ma-
chines.
The hand frequencies in table 2 apply to the play-
ing strategy appropriate for a royal-flush payoff of
3200 coins per coin bet. (On a quarter machine with
five coins played, this is a jackpot of $4000.) The payoff
schedule being different from table 1 means you play
some hands differently, and this means slightly differ-
ent frequencies of final hands from table 1. A player
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Table 3
Full House 9 1.1512
Flush 6 1.1015
Straight 4 1.1229
Two Pair 2 12.9279
No Pay 0 54.5435
Payback: 99.54%
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WIN RATES 19
using perfect strategy has an edge of 4.6% for the pay-

off schedule of table 2.
The actual break-even jackpot size for a progres-
sive jackpot on the 8-5 quarter machines analyzed in
chapter 2 is 1733 bets for perfect play, or 1752 bets for
the usable strategy presented herein. At $1.25 per pull
of the handle, 1752 bets is $2190, which rounds to
$2200. This is the point at which if you played forever,
coins fed in would approximately equal payoffs re-
ceived. At jackpots higher than $2200, you have an
edge.
Your expected loss per hour while waiting for a
royal flush depends on the level of the jackpot. At the
break-even point it is 5.4%, and it increases as the
jackpot increases and you change strategy to try harder
for a royal. At a jackpot of 3200 ($4000 for five quar-
ters), the loss rate between royal flushes is 5.6%.
Tables 3 through 11 contain some of the more
common payout schedules found in Nevada and At-
lantic City, and the frequencies of the various hands if
the machines are played using perfect strategy.
Many Atlantic City flat-tops have the payoff sched-
ule of table 9. This schedule differs from table 1 by
paying 800 for a royal flush, 6 for a full house, and 5 for
a flush. Lowering the payment on the royal flush by
200 gives the casino 0.5%. Lowering the payment on a
full house by 3 gives the casino another 3.4%. Lower-
ing the payment on a flush by 1 gives the casino an-
other 1.1%. You are expected to lose at the rate of 5.0%
if you are so foolish as to play these Atlantic City flat-
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Table 4
Full House 9 1.1503
Flush 6 1.1987
Straight 4 1.1019
Two Pair 2 12.8987
No Pay 0 54.5742
Payback: 98.37%
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WIN RATES 21
tops; and you must play them perfectly to lose at only

5.0%.
Atlantic City also has progressives that pay 6 for
a full house and 5 for a flush; strategy for these ma-
chines is presented in chapter 4.
Rate of Play
How fast you play depends on how much prac-
tice you get, how coordinated you are, and what kind
of machine you are playing. Credit machines are faster
than machines into which you must hand-feed five
coins each play.
500 hands an hour is a reasonable rate to use for
planning purposes. The pros play faster than that. With
practice you too probably will play faster than 500
hands per hour. I do not know the upper limit; people
have written to me that they have clocked 800 hands
per hour.
If you play 500 hands per hour, which is not
difficult, you should average one royal flush per 62
hours of video poker. This is a long-run average; it
does not mean one royal flush in every 62 hours of
play. You might hit two royal flushes on the same day
or you might play for hundreds of hours without hit-
ting a single royal.
Marginal Win Rate
500 hands an hour on a quarter machine means
feeding the machine $625 per hour. On dollar ma-
chines you feed in $2500 an hour.
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Table 5
Full House 8 1.1490
Flush 5 1.1023
Straight 4 1.1291
Two Pair 2 12.8981
No Pay 0 54.6999
Payback: 97.81%
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WIN RATES 23
There is a very important thing to realize about

video poker: Your expected result is to lose steadily
between royal flushes. This is true whether you are
playing with an edge or not. If you are playing a break-
even situation, your wins on royal flushes should, in
the long run, exactly cover your losses between hitting
royals. If you are playing with an edge, you still are
expected to lose between royals, but your wins on
royals should more than cover your losses between
royals.
There is no video poker system that makes you a
winner without hitting a royal. Between royals, your
expectation is to lose, period. This book does, how-
ever, help you cut your losses between royals as much
as possible. Someone who plays video poker poorly is
expected to lose more money between royals.
On the 8-5 quarter machines common in Nevada,
a reasonable estimate of the loss rate while waiting for
a royal flush is $35 an hour. In the 6-5 quarter machines
common in Atlantic City, a reasonable estimate of the
loss rate while waiting for a royal flush is $50 an hour.
Each $1000 in the jackpot is worth about 2.5%, or $16 an
hour.
For 8-5 dollar machines into which you must
insert five dollars to be eligible for the jackpot, the
break-even point is a jackpot of about $8800 and each
additional $1000 in the jackpot adds about 0.64% to
your expected win rate. Playing 500 hands an hour on
the dollar machine means betting $2500 an hour, and
0.64% of that is $16 per hour.
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Table 6
Full House 8 1.1514
Flush 5 1.0902
Straight 4 1.1235
Two Pair 2 12.9298
No Pay 0 54.5022
Payback: 97.30%
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WIN RATES 25
Thus each $1000 of the royal-flush payoff adds

the same $16 an hour to your expected hourly win rate
whether you are playing 8-5 progressives, 6-5
progressives, or some other payoff schedule, and
whether you are playing for quarters, dollars, or some
other denomination. Of course jackpots on dollar ma-
chines sometimes rise many thousands of dollars above
the break-even point, whereas jackpots on quarter ma-
chines seldom rise above $5000.
On 8-5 dollar machines, you probably will lose at
a rate of about $140 an hour while trying for the royal.
On 6-5 dollar machines, the waiting loss rate is about
$200 an hour.
To figure out your expected win per hour, just
follow the above examples. First, figure out how fast
you are expected to lose per hour while waiting for a
royal flush. Then divide the jackpot by 1000 and multi-
ply by 16 to get the value per hour of the jackpot. The
amount by which the latter exceeds the former is your
expected win per hour.
Here is an example. In July of 1988 in the West-
ward Ho casino in Las Vegas, I saw a bank of 8-5
quarter machines with a progressive jackpot of just
over $2850. There were 24 slot machines connected to
that jackpot, and I was surprised to see that not a single
one of those machines was in use on the afternoon of
my visit! The value of the jackpot was 2.85 times $16, or
more than $45 an hour; and I would have lost at the rate
of $35 an hour before hitting it. The net is my time
would have been worth more than $10 an hour had I
stopped to play those machines.
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Table 7
Full House 8 1.1520
Flush 5 1.1340
Straight 4 1.1345
Two Pair 2 12.9198
No Pay 0 54.4421
Payback: 96.06%
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WIN RATES 27
Another way to do the calculation of expected

win per hour is to subtract the break-even jackpot from
the actual jackpot, divide by 1000, and multiply by 16.
For example, playing a quarter machine with a jackpot
of $2850, which is $650 above break-even, means ex-
pecting to win 0.65 times $16 or more than $10 per
hour.
Risk While Waiting For
a Royal Flush
The biggest component of the risk is royal flushes;
your outcome is dominated by the number of them
that you receive. The next biggest component is fours-
of-a-kind; how many of them you get is the next most
important factor in explaining how your actual result
differs from your expected result.
The most common expression of risk is standard
deviation. Let us start by ignoring royal flushes. For
the 8-5 machines discussed in chapter 2, the standard
deviation is about 1.82 bets per play while waiting for
a royal flush. For the 6-5 machines common in Atlantic
City, the single-pull standard deviation is about 1.74
bets.
To find the standard deviation for more than one
pull of the handle, multiply the single-pull standard
deviation by the square root of the number of pulls
you want. For example, one hour means 500 pulls of
the handle, and the square root of 500 is 22.4. On 8-5
machines the standard deviation for one hour of play
without royal flushes is about 41 bets, or about $51 for
quarter machines. For 6-5 machines, the standard de-
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Table 8
Full House 6 1.1483
Flush 5 1.1051
Straight 4 1.1347
Two Pair 2 12.8878
No Pay 0 54.7291
Payback: 95.51%
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WIN RATES 29
viation for one hour of play without royals is about 39

bets, or about $49 for quarter machines.
In summary, on quarter 8-5 progressive video-
poker machines you are expected to lose at the rate of
about $35 an hour while waiting for a royal flush, and
the standard deviation applicable to that number is
$51. On quarter 6-5 progressive video-poker machines,
you are expected to lose at the rate of about $50 an
hour while waiting for a royal flush, and the standard
deviation on that number is $49. Expected loss goes up
with the number of hours, and standard deviation goes
up with the square root of the number of hours.
Overall Risk
By far the most important component of overall
risk is the payoff for a royal flush. So dominant is it that
you can ignore everything else except the number of
plays. That is, the overall standard deviation depends
on the size of the royal-flush jackpot only, and not on
the payoffs for other hands and not on the denomina-
tion of coins used.
The overall standard deviation for one pull of the
handle is approximately equal to the jackpot times the
square root of the probability of hitting it. Thus the
overall standard deviation for one pull is equal to
about 0.57% of the jackpot. For example, if the jackpot
is $4000, the overall standard deviation on one pull of
the handle is about $23.
To express overall standard deviation as dollars
for an hour of play, multiply the per-pull standard
deviation by the square root of the number of pulls per
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Table 9
Full House 6 1.1511
Flush 5 1.0911
Straight 4 1.1283
Two Pair 2 12.9250
No Pay 0 54.5068
Payback: 95.00%
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WIN RATES 31
hour. Thus the overall standard deviation on one hour

of 500 pulls is about 12.65% of the jackpot. For a jack-
pot of $4000, the overall standard deviation is about
12.65% of $4000, or $506 per hour.
When you play for quarters, you might find jack-
pots of $4000 or so, but seldom will you encounter a
jackpot above $5000. So $500 seems like a reasonable
estimate of the overall standard deviation for an hour’s
play on quarter machines. For longer plays, the stan-
dard deviation applicable to your winnings on quarter
machines is about $500 times the square root of the
number of hours you play. After 1000 hours of quarter
play for jackpots of $4000 and up, the standard devia-
tion applicable to your total win is around $16,000.
Jackpots of $4000 and up mean an expected hourly win
rate of $30 or so. So after 1000 hours of quarter video
poker with jackpots of $4000 and up, your total ex-
pected win is about $30,000 and the standard deviation
on that number is about $16,000.
The numbers in the above paragraph suggest
that playing video poker is almost as risky as playing
blackjack. A bankroll of about $10,000 is appropriate
for trying to make a living playing quarter video poker.
For machines requiring five dollars, your bankroll
ought to be four times as high.
Average Winnings Per Hour
The size of the jackpot at any instant can be used
to find the win rate at that instant. But for a progressive
jackpot, that is not the same thing as the average you
can expect to make per hour if you play until the
jackpot is hit. On average you will make more than the
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Table 10
Full House 6 1.1517
Flush 5 1.1350
Straight 4 1.1392
Two Pair 2 12.9150
No Pay 0 54.4462
Payback: 93.76%
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WIN RATES 33
instantaneous win rate, because if nobody hits a max-

coin royal flush right now, the jackpot will increase.
Which reminds me: Always play the maximum
coins. No matter how large the five-coin jackpot gets,
you cannot win it if you insert only four coins. One
time when I was trying to win a $5000+ jackpot on one
of the quarter machines in the northwest corner of
Harrah’s Tahoe, the woman next to me groaned, “I
think I made a mistake.” I looked over to see that she
had a four-coin royal flush. Knowing that she had been
playing the full five coins hand after hand for many
hours, I asked her how she had made such a mistake.
She answered that her husband advised her to quickly
push the “deal” button rather than wait for the ma-
chine to deal automatically. That would be harmless
except that sometimes a coin would fall through to the
tray instead of staying in the machine. When that hap-
pened, she played for four coins instead of five. I was
unable to convince her that her husband had given her
bad advice.
Meanwhile, back to the topic. To figure out your
average win rate from this instant until the jackpot is
hit, you need to know how fast the jackpot increases.
Some machines, such as the ones mentioned in the
above paragraph, are set to have the jackpot increase
by a penny for each two quarters played. A penny per
fifty cents is 2%. That is the most generous I have seen,
but I have been told that years ago some machines
were set to have the jackpot increase by 4% of the
amount played. More common nowadays is to find 1%
machines — the jackpot increases by a penny for each
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Table 11
10s, 9-6-1000: Payoffs &
Frequencies
Full House 9 1.1391
Flush 6 1.1085
Straight 4 1.3226
Two Pair 1 12.7417
Pair, Tens or better 1 25.1284
No Pay 0 50.9962
Payback: 91.41%
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WIN RATES 35
four quarters played. Not all machines are that gener-

ous. Some increase at a miserly penny per eight quar-
ters (0.5%) or worse.
A recent development at some casinos is for jack-
pots to increase by one amount until reaching a par-
ticular level, and thereafter increasing by a smaller
amount.
If you are the only person playing the machines,
you can count how many coins you have to put in
between increases in the jackpot. If several people are
playing, you can estimate how fast coins are being
inserted and how fast the jackpot is rising. For ex-
ample, if there are an average of eight machines in use
by people playing about 500 hands an hour each, the
bank of machines is getting about $5000 of play per
hour; if those machines are set to increase the jackpot
by 1% of play, the jackpot will increase by about $50 an
hour.
On average, the jackpot will last for another 32,000
or so plays. On quarter machines that means another
$40,000 or so of coins inserted. Thus the jackpot on a
1% machine will on average be hit at $400 higher than it
is right now. On 0.5% machines, the jackpot will be hit
at an average of $200 higher than it is right now. On 2%
machines, the jackpot will be hit at an average of $800
higher than it is right now.
To find your expected average win from now
until the jackpot is hit, simply add the average increase
to the present jackpot. Suppose you play 500 hands an
hour so each additional $1000 of jackpot is worth an
additional $16 per hour to you. If you are playing a 1%
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machine with its $400 average increase in the jackpot,

your expected average win per hour from now until
the jackpot is hit is $6.40 higher than your instanta-
neous expected win per hour. For example, suppose
the jackpot right now is $3200. That is $1000 above the
break-even point, so you figure your time is worth $16
an hour right now. If the increment is 1% and you stay
until the jackpot is hit, your expected average win per
hour is about $22.40.
If you are lucky enough to find a 2% machine,
your average expected win per hour is $12.80 higher
than your instantaneous rate.
On machines into which you must insert five
dollars to be eligible for the jackpot, the numbers are
four times as high. For example, the expected average
win per hour on a 1% dollar machine is $25.60 per hour
higher than the instantaneous rate.
Details of Strategies
Chapter 2 presents a usable strategy for the most
common beatable video-poker machines in Nevada.
Chapter 3 presents the details from which the material
in chapter 2 is derived. Chapter 4 presents a usable
strategy for the most common beatable machines in
Atlantic City, and a usable strategy for progressive
machines paying on a pair of 10s. Chapter 4 also covers
video-poker tournaments, double jackpots, bonuses
for certain royal flushes, double-down options, and
the second-chance option.
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CHAPTER 2
8-5 PROGRESSIVE
STRATEGY
This chapter presents basic strategy for the video-

poker machines currently most played by the pros, the
8-5 progressives. These machines pay a progressive
jackpot for a royal flush; if the machine you are con-
templating does not offer a progressive jackpot for a
royal flush, it is not the type of machine covered by this
chapter. 8-5 progressives are most easily distinguished
in that they return eight times your bet for a full house
and five times your bet for a flush; hence the 8-5 in the
name. The full payout schedule for 8-5 progressives is
as shown in table 12.
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Table 12
Payoffs on 8-5 Progressives
Hand Payoff Per Coin Bet
Royal Flush progressive jackpot
Straight Flush 50
Four of a Kind 25
Full House 8
Flush 5
Straight 4
Three of a Kind 3
Two Pair 2
Pair, Jacks or Better 1
Not all video-poker machines have that payoff

schedule. If the payoffs offered for various card combi-
nations are different from table 12, the strategy of this
chapter does not apply. Payoff schedules different from
table 12 are discussed in chapter 4.
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Break-Even Points and

Win Rates
The break-even royal-flush jackpot for 8-5 pro-
gressive video poker machines with the strategy ex-
plained in this chapter is 1752 times the number of
dollars required per pull of the handle to be eligible
for the royal-flush jackpot. This assumes of course that
you insert the maximum five coins before you ask for
cards.
The most common video-poker machines today
require you to insert five quarters to be eligible for the
jackpot. For these machines, the break-even point is
1752 times $1.25, or $2190, which rounds to $2200. You
probably will lose at a rate of about $35 an hour while
waiting for a royal flush.
The next-most-common machines are those re-
quiring five dollars to be eligible for the progressive
jackpot; the break-even jackpot on those machines is
1752 times $5, or $8760, which I usually round to $8800.
You probably will lose at a rate of about $140 an hour
while waiting for a royal flush.
I have also seen some machines that require three
dollars to have a shot at the progressive jackpot; the
break-even jackpot on those machines is $5256. You
probably will lose at a rate of about $84 an hour while
waiting for a royal flush.
On fifty-cent machines, the numbers are $70 an
hour and a BEP of $4380. Some machines require ten
quarters; the numbers for them are the same $70 and
$4380 as for half dollars. On machines requiring $5
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tokens, the numbers are lose at $700 an hour and a BEP

of $43,800.
The best video poker I personally have seen is
jackpots over $18,500 on 8-5 dollar machines at the bar
on the southeast corner of Harvey’s at Stateline, Ne-
vada. Twice I have played those machines at that jack-
pot level, and both times someone else won the jack-
pot. Those jackpots were almost $10,000 above the
break-even point, which means expected win of almost
$160 per hour. And those are credit machines, meaning
winnings are accumulated on a register, and they can
be played very fast. A pro would probably get at least
700 hands an hour, meaning an expected win rate of at
least $200 an hour.
Alternatively, you can do the calculation as ex-
plained in chapter 1: On an 8-5 machine requiring five
dollars, the expected loss rate while waiting for a royal
flush is $140 an hour. A jackpot of $18,500 is worth $16
times 18.5 or $296 an hour. The difference is over $150
an hour.
When a jackpot gets that high, some casino pa-
trons become so devoted to their machines that they do
without some of life’s little pleasures such as eating,
sleeping, and using the lavatory. After the monster
jackpot is hit, the only sound you hear is “clink clink
clink” as all the customers collect their credits so that
they can go do some of the things they have done
without for many hours.
Strategy for 8-5 Progressive
Table 13 has the appropriate strategy for 8-5 pro-
gressive machines.
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Other terms are the same as used in poker. A

flush is five cards all of the same suit. A straight is five
cards consecutive in value, with ace counting either
high or low; examples of straights are A-K-Q-J-10, 7-6-
5-4-3, and 5-4-3-2-A. A straight flush is five consecutive
cards all of the same suit. A royal flush is the highest
possible straight flush, A-K-Q-J-10 all of the same suit.
Full house means three of a kind plus a pair. Trips
means three-of-a-kind. High pair means a pair of jacks
or better. Low pair means a pair lower than jacks.
I like to carry video-poker strategy in my wallet
and maybe you will too, so I reduced table 13 to wallet
size at the end of this book. You may reproduce it for
your own use.
The way to use table 13 is to examine the cards
dealt to see what holdings you might consider, find
them in the table, and see which is highest. For ex-
ample, suppose you are dealt 9-9-8-7-6 of assorted
suits. You might hold the 9-9, or you might hold the 9-
8-7-6. A draw to a low pair is higher on the table than a
draw to four cards “consec no HC,” and thus is the
better play of the hand.
Boldface Numbers
The boldface numbers are the numbers of cards
held. All the possible one-card holdings are lined up,
as are all of the two-card holdings, three-card holdings,
etc. This makes it easy to find the particular row that
describes the group of cards you are considering hold-
ing. For example, suppose you are dealt Q-Q-J-10-9 of
assorted suits. Your decision is whether to hold the Q-
Q or the Q-J-10-9. Look down the column of two-card
holdings to find the row for high pair. Look down the
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Table 13
Strategy For 8-5 Progressives
2853 5 SF
4 RF
6003 5 flush
4964 3 trips
4557 5 straight
3942 4 ss Q-J-10-9
3 RF
4 two pair
4 SF
2 high pair
4 flush
4 K-Q-J-10
5640 2 low pair
5577 4 Q-J-10-9
4484 4 J-10-9-8
3246 3 ss Q-J-9
2 ss HC-HC
5573 4 consec no HC
5531 3 ss J-10-9
3656 3 SF 1 gap 1 HC
3280 3 SF consec no deuce
2 ss HC-10
4 ace-high straight
3 K-Q-J
2 HC-HC
1 HC
3 SF
0 nothing
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Note to table 13:

Never draw to an inside straight except for ace-
high, and never draw two cards to A-HC-HC.
Key to table 13:
A Ace
consec consecutive
HC High Card, i.e. A, K, Q, or J.
Note that 10 is not a high card.
J Jack
K King
Q Queen
RF Royal Flush
SF Straight Flush
ss same suit
column of four-card holdings to find the row for Q-J-

10-9. Holding a high pair is higher on table 13, so it is
preferred over holding Q-J-10-9.
Numbers in the Column on the Left
These are the break-even points for deciding be-
tween this draw and going for a royal flush. Hereafter,
break-even point is abbreviated as BEP. The BEP units
are number of dollars in the jackpot, assuming you
must insert five quarters. If the number of dollars in the
progressive jackpot is higher than the BEP, then the
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next-lower royal-flush draw is a better draw. You can

find the next-lower royal-flush draw quickly because
all those royal-flush draws are underlined. For ex-
ample, the BEP for pat straight flush (5 SF) is 2853. This
means if you are playing a quarter machine and the
jackpot is above $2853, drawing to four of a royal flush
is better than holding a pat straight flush. So if your pat
straight flush just happens to be K-Q-J-10-9 and the
jackpot is above $2853, your expected win is higher if
you discard the 9 and try for a royal flush.
For machines that require other than five quar-
ters, divide the casino’s jackpot by the bet required to
be eligible for the jackpot and multiply by $1.25 to get
the number to compare with the numbers in the first
column of table 13. For example, for machines requir-
ing five dollars, divide the casino’s jackpot by four
before comparing it with the BEP numbers in table 13.
If the machine requires ten quarters or five fifty-cent
pieces, divide the casino’s jackpot by two.
Table 13 Line By Line
This section explains each line in table 13.
2853 5 SF
This is a pat straight flush, five consecutive cards
of the same suit. An example is 9-8-7-6-5 all of hearts. If
the quarter jackpot is above $2853, break up K-Q-J-10-9
of the same suit to draw to four of a royal flush.
When the jackpot is close to the BEP, it does not
matter much which play you make. For example, you
can round off the $2853 to $2900 or a nice even $3000 if
you want. I used $2900 in my first draft of this chapter,
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but then changed my mind and decided to let you do

your own rounding off.
If your machine requires other than five quarters
for the jackpot, use the appropriate fraction of the
jackpot as explained above. For example, if it takes
five dollars to qualify for the jackpot, then divide the
jackpot by four before comparing with the $2853 to
decide whether to discard the 9 from K-Q-J-10-9. Alter-
natively, you could compare the actual dollar-machine
jackpot with four times $2853, or $11,412.
Omitted Hands
Four-of-a-kind does not have a line in table 13.
The reason is the proper play of this hand is obvious —
hold the four-of-a-kind. Likewise a pat full house and
a pat royal flush do not have lines in table 13; the
proper play of those hands obviously is hold all five
cards. The jackpot will never get large enough to jus-
tify breaking up a pat four-of-a-kind or a pat full house.
Using table 13 is quicker with these obvious plays
omitted.
4 RF
This is a draw to four cards of a royal flush, which
in turn is A-K-Q-J-10 of the same suit.
6003 5 flush
A flush is five cards of the same suit. Having the
five dealt is lower on table 13 than holding four of a
royal flush, so it is always correct to break up a flush to
draw one card to try for a royal flush. If the quarter
jackpot is above $6003, holding three cards of a royal
flush is better than holding a pat flush. For example,
suppose you are dealt K-Q-10-8-3 all of hearts. If the
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quarter jackpot is above $6003, you should discard the

8-3, cross your fingers, and draw two cards to try for a
royal flush.
The $6003 is a weighted average of the BEPs on
all possible hands on which you have to decide be-
tween holding a pat flush and breaking it up to draw
two cards to try for a royal flush. Chapter 4 lists the
possible hands and gives the BEP for each. You might
round off the $6003 to $6000. As for me, I ignore this
number because quarter jackpots never seem to get
above $6000.
4964 3 trips
Trips means three of a kind, such as 7-7-7. If the
quarter jackpot is above $4934, then holding three of a
royal flush is preferred to holding three of a kind. For
example, if you are dealt K-Q-J of hearts and two other
kings, draw to the K-Q-J of hearts if the quarter jackpot
is above $4964, and otherwise draw to the K-K-K. You
might prefer to round off the $4964 to a nice even
$5000.
4557 5 straight
A straight is five cards in numerical order, with
ace being high or low. Examples of straights are A-K-
Q-J-10, J-10-9-8-7, and 5-4-3-2-A. A pat straight is lower
on table 13 than four of a royal flush, so it is always
correct to break up a pat straight if it contains four
cards of a royal flush. If the quarter jackpot is above
$4557, holding three cards of a royal flush is better than
standing pat on a straight.
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3942 4 ss Q-J-10-9
An example of this hand is Q-J-10-9 of spades. (I
tend to use spades in my examples, but I could have
said diamonds or hearts or clubs as easily.* This hand
is lower on the table than pat flush and pat straight, so
if the other card you are dealt happens to be of the
same suit or a king or an 8, then standing pat is better
than drawing one card to the Q-J-10-9 suited. The 3942
means if the quarter jackpot is above $3942, throw
away the 9 and the junk card to draw to three of a royal
flush. You might prefer to round off the $3942 to $4000.
3 RF
This is a draw to three of a royal flush. Three-card
combinations that fit this description are A-K-Q suited,
A-K-J suited, A-K-10 suited, A-Q-J suited, A-Q-10
suited, A-J-10 suited, K-Q-J suited, K-Q-10 suited, K-J-
10 suited, and Q-J-10 suited.
4 two pair
Two pair is two pair. Example: 8-8-7-7.
4 SF
This is four of a straight flush. An example is 10-
9-8-6 of hearts. If your other card gives you a flush or a
straight, hold the pat hand. If your other card gives you
a pair, break up the pair and draw one card to try for a
straight flush.
2 high pair
High pair means A-A, K-K, Q-Q, or J-J. This is a
desirable pair of cards to draw to, but not as desirable
as the groups of cards listed higher on table 13. Hold-
ing a high pair is better than holding four of a flush or
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four of a straight, but not as desirable as holding four

of a straight flush or holding three of a royal flush.
Holding a kicker is never a good idea. For ex-
ample: With A-J-J and two junk cards, the best play is
to draw three cards to the J-J.
4 flush
This means drawing to four cards of the same
suit. If your four-of-a-suit includes three cards of a
royal flush, then draw two to try for the royal. Drawing
to four of a flush is not as profitable as drawing to a
high pair, but is better than drawing to a low pair.
Drawing to four of a flush is better than drawing to
four of a straight.
4 K-Q-J-10
This is a draw to K-Q-J-10 of mixed suits. It merits
a line all its own because it contains two ways to make
a straight and three ways to make a high pair. Note that
it is not as profitable as a draw to four of a flush or a
high pair or three of a royal flush.
If the other card is a 10, breaking up the pair of
10s is better than drawing to it.
5640 2 low pair
This is a draw to a low pair. Low pair is any pair
that is not a high pair. Examples of low pairs: 10-10, 9-
9, 8-8, 2-2.
In the play of the cards, there are three differences
between low pairs and high pairs. The most frequently-
occurring difference is the draw to four of a flush; it is
preferred over a draw to a low pair but inferior to a
draw to a high pair. A second difference is a draw to K-
Q-J-10, which is inferior to a high pair but superior to a
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low pair. The third difference is that if the quarter

jackpot is above $5640, drawing to ss HC-HC to try for
a royal flush is superior to drawing to a low pair.
Note that the BEP of $5640 refers only to two high
cards of the same suit; it does not refer to a high card
and a 10.
5577 4 Q-J-10-9
This is a draw to Q-J-10-9 of mixed suits. It differs
from K-Q-J-10 in two ways. Drawing to a low pair is
better than drawing to Q-J-10-9 but not better than
drawing to K-Q-J-10. And if the quarter jackpot is above
$5577, then drawing to ss HC-HC to try for a royal flush
is better than drawing to Q-J-10-9.
Again, note that the BEP refers only to ss HC-HC.
It does not refer to ss HC-10.
4484 4 J-10-9-8
This is a draw to J-10-9-8 of mixed suits. It is not
as valuable as a one-card draw to Q-J-10-9 because
only the jack can be matched to make a high pair. If the
quarter jackpot is above $4484, drawing to ss A-J or to
ss K-J to try to make a royal flush is superior to draw-
ing to J-10-9-8. The $4484 does not apply to three-card
draws to ss J-10.
3246 3 ss Q-J-9
This is a draw to Q-J-9 of the same suit. If the
quarter jackpot is above $3246, discard the 9 and draw
to the ss Q-J. For quarter jackpots above $3246, this line
is unnecessary and can be deleted from table 13.
2 ss HC-HC
The abbreviations mean holding two high cards
of the same-suit. This is another way of saying a draw
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to two cards of a royal without the 10. Hands that fit

this description are: A-K suited, A-Q suited, A-J suited,
K-Q suited, K-J suited, and Q-J suited.
Sometimes you will have a choice between two
ss HC-HC combinations in the same hand. The better
choice is to discard the ace. For example, if you have to
choose between A-K of spades and Q-J of clubs, dis-
card the A-K of diamonds and draw to the Q-J of
hearts. The reason for this choice is there are more
ways to make a straight starting with the Q-J.
Drawing to two cards of a royal flush is not as
profitable as drawing to any pair unless the jackpot
gets high enough, as mentioned above. And drawing
to two cards of a royal flush is not as profitable as
drawing to four of a flush. But drawing to two of a
royal flush is better than drawing to four of a straight,
except in the cases of K-Q-J-10, Q-J-10-9, and J-10-9-8 as
mentioned above.
5573 4 consec no HC
This is a draw to four of a straight that is open at
both ends, ranging from 10-9-8-7 to 5-4-3-2. (Higher
straights have their own lines in table 13.* If the quarter
jackpot climbs above $5573, then a draw to 10-9-8-7 is
inferior to a draw to ss HC-10.
5531 3 ss J-10-9
This is a draw to J-10-9 of the same suit. If the
quarter jackpot climbs above $5531, discarding the 9
and drawing to the J-10 is the correct play.
3656 3 SF 1 gap 1 HC
This is a draw to three cards of a straight flush,
providing there is only one one-card gap and a high
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card is held. Only three hands fit this description: ss Q-

10-9, ss J-10-8, and ss J-9-8.
Two straight flushes must be possible. Hands
with a two-card gap such as J-10-7 or two one-card
gaps such as J-9-7 do not belong in this category.
If the quarter jackpot climbs above $3656, then
drawing to ss HC-10 is better than drawing to this three
cards of a straight flush.
This is a draw to three consecutive cards in the
same suit, ranging from ss 10-9-8 to ss 5-4-3. Thus this
heading is draws that have a chance at three different
straight flushes. For example, drawing to ss 5-4-3 can
result in straight flushes headed by the 7, the 6, or the 5.
If you have a choice between drawing to three
consecutive small cards of one suit and to HC-10 in
another suit, go for the royal flush if the quarter jackpot
is above $3280.
2 ss HC-10
This is a draw to a high card and a 10 in the same
suit. These hands are A-10 suited, K-10 suited, Q-10
suited, and J-10 suited
4 ace-high straight
This is a draw to any four cards of A-K-Q-J-10 of
mixed suits except for K-Q-J-10, which is more valu-
able since it has two ways to make a straight, and thus
has its own line in table 13. The possible draws to four
of an ace-high straight are A-K-Q-J, A-K-Q-10, A-K-J-
10, and A-Q-J-10.
3 K-Q-J
This is a draw to K-Q-J of mixed suits.
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2 HC-HC
This is a draw to two high cards of mixed suits. A
reminder: 10 is not a high card because the machine
being discussed does not pay on 10-10.
Hands containing an ace and two other high cards
of mixed suits are nowhere in table 13 except for a one-
card draw to a straight. The reason is drawing to HC-
HC is more profitable than drawing to A-HC-HC. Dis-
card the ace to hold more ways to make a straight.
1 HC
This is a draw to a single high card.
3 SF
This is a draw to three cards of a straight flush,
except that some such hands are mentioned higher in
the table. Examples of hands in this category but not
mentioned higher in the table are 10-9-7 of hearts, 9-7-5
of clubs, and 4-3-2 of diamonds.
The only time you need to know how many ways
you can make a straight flush containing your three
cards is if your hand contains a high card. That is
because a draw to three of a straight flush is such a
lousy hand that holding a high card or two is better
unless you have got at least two ways to make the
straight flush.
0 nothing
This line means throw away all five original cards
to draw five new cards. This is the best play for a hand
with no high card, no pair, no four of a flush, no four of
a straight open at both ends, and no three of a straight
flush.
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Combinations of cards not mentioned above

should not be held. For example, except for ace-high
straights, for this payoff schedule it never is correct to
draw to four of a one-way straight, also known as an
inside straight, such as 9-8-6-5. Likewise for this payoff
schedule it never is correct to draw to three of a straight
except for K-Q-J. And it never is correct to draw to
three of a flush unless a straight flush is possible, for
this payoff schedule. The reason for the qualifier “for
this payoff schedule” is that for video poker with wild
cards, it sometimes is correct to draw to these hold-
ings.
Also, do not hold a kicker with a pair or with
three of a kind. A 10 is not a high card; do not draw four
cards to a 10.
Coming Next
Chapter 3 covers the same material as chapter 2,
but in much more detail. If all you want to do is make a
living from playing video poker, chapter 2 is all you
need. But if you have a question about a particular
hand that has been lumped together with other hands
in table 13, you should be able to find the answer in
chapter 3.
If you do not want more detail about individual
hands, then skip chapter 3. Chapter 4 covers certain
other payoff schedules, advice on tournaments, double
options, second-chance features, and wild cards.
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CHAPTER 3
FINE POINTS OF
8-5 PROGRESSIVE
STRATEGY
The strategy for 8-5 progressive machines pre-

sented in chapter 2 is designed for speed, and is only
approximately accurate. This chapter explains the ap-
proximations. If by chance you value accuracy over
speed you will treasure the material in this chapter,
but my guess is you will decide (as I have) that you can
tolerate minor playing errors to get in more hands per
hour.
Free $50
Free $50
Table 14
Breaking a Pat Flush
Cards Held Cards Discarded BEP
ss A-HC-HC ss small-small $5979
ss A-HC-10 ss small-small 6111
ss K-Q-J ss 9-small 5916
ss K-Q-J ss small-small 5845
ss K-Q-10 ss 9-small 6051
ss K-Q-10 ss small-small 5980
ss K-J-10 ss 9-small 6051
ss K-J-10 ss small-small 5980
ss Q-J-10 ss 9-small 5991
ss Q-J-10 ss 8-small 5920
ss Q-J-10 ss small-small 5849
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠♠
K Q J 9 6
Free $50
Free $50
2853 5 SF
The payoff for a straight flush is 50 bets. With
K-Q-J-10-9 suited, the expected value of discarding the
9 and drawing one card to try for the royal is more than
50 bets if the quarter jackpot is over $2852.50. This is
the only BEP in table 13 that is not a weighted average
of several different BEPs.
6003 5 flush
The $6003 is a weighted average of several num-
bers. The precise BEP for holding a pat flush and
drawing two cards to a royal flush depends on the
values of cards held. Drawing to K-Q-J has a higher
expectation than drawing to A-Q-J because one more
straight is possible. Drawing to A-Q-J has a higher
expectation than drawing to A-Q-10 because ending
up with a high pair is more likely.
The BEP can also be a function of the discards.
For example, drawing to Q-J-10 has a higher expecta-
tion if the discards are 2-3 than if they are 2-8 because a
queen-high straight is less likely if an 8 is discarded.
Table 14 lists the various BEPs that could be used
to be more precise on when to draw to three of a
straight flush rather than standing pat on a flush. For
example, to justify holding A-HC-HC suited and dis-
carding two other cards of the same suit rather than
standing pat on the flush, the jackpot should be above
$5979. I have rounded off these BEPs to the nearest
dollar. The overall weighted average is $6003.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♠ ♣♦
K Q J J J
Table 15
Breaking Trips
Cards Held Cards Discarded BEP
ss A-HC-HC HC-HC $4964
ss A-HC-10 HC-HC 5106
ss K-Q-J HC-HC 4832
ss K-Q-10 HC-HC 4975
ss K-J-10 HC-HC 4975
ss Q-J-10 HC-HC 4844
ss A-HC-10 10-10 5006
ss K-Q-10 10-10 4875
ss K-J-10 10-10 4875
ss Q-J-10 10-10 4744
Free $50
Free $50
4964 3 trips
The expected value of drawing to three of a kind
is 4.24 bets. The expected value of drawing to three of a
royal depends on the size of the jackpot of course, but
it also depends on which three cards of a royal are
held, and whether the trips are high cards or 10s, as
shown in table 15. Discarding a high pair means less
chance of ending up with a high pair, compared to
discarding a pair of 10s. Thus the BEP depends on
which three of the royal are contained in the hand and
whether the trips are high cards. The weighted average
of the BEPs in table 15 is $4964.
There are two corrections in the 1998 printing of
this book. The $4964 for the first row on page 78 was
incorrectly stated as $4864 in previous printings. Cor-
recting this $100 error resulted in a $30 correction in the
weighted average because A-HC-HC hands with trips
make up 30% of the hands with trips that also contain
three cards of a royal; verifying that 30% is a fun exer-
cise left to the reader. This $30 correction changed the
weighted average from $4934 to $4964. It is coinci-
dence that both corrections produced the number $4964.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♠ ♣♣
K Q J 10 9
Table 16
Breaking a Pat Straight
Cards Held Discarded BEP
ss A-HC-HC HC-10 $4557
ss A-HC-10 HC-HC 4696
ss K-Q-J A-10 4446
ss K-Q-J 10-9 4442
ss K-Q-10 A-J 4585
ss K-Q-10 J-9 4581
ss K-J-10 A-Q 4585
ss K-J-10 Q-9 4581
ss Q-J-10 A-K 4454
ss Q-J-10 K-9 4470
ss Q-J-10 9-8 4446
4557 5 straight
A pat straight is worth 4 bets. Should you break
it? The value of drawing to three of a royal flush de-
pends on which three cards are held, whether any of
the discards are high cards, and where in the straight
the royal-flush cards are located, as shown in table 16.
The weighted average BEP is $4557.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠♣
Q J 10 9 6
Table 17
Discarding the 9
From ss Q-J-10-9
Fifth Card BEP
A $3952
Q or J 3964
10 3944
9 3969
smaller 3929
3942 4 ss Q-J-10-9
The fifth card originally in this hand is not a king
or 8, because such a hand would be evaluated as a pat
straight. Likewise the fifth card is not the same suit,
because then the hand would be a flush. The BEP for
deciding whether to draw one card to try for a straight
flush or two cards to try for a royal flush depends on
whether the fifth original card is an ace, another high
card, a 10, a 9, or a smaller card. The possibilities are
listed in table 17. The weighted average is $3942.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♠ ♣♣
A K 10 A 10
Table 18
Two Pair or Three of a Royal
ss A-HC-HC no 10 $2626
ss A-HC-10 no 10 2769
ss A-HC-10 10 2719
ss K-Q-J no 10 2495
ss K-Q-10 no 10 2638
ss K-Q-10 10 2588
ss K-J-10 no 10 2638
ss K-J-10 10 2588
ss Q-J-10 no 10 2506
ss Q-J-10 10 2456
Free $50
Free $50
4 two pair
The expected value of drawing to two pair is
2.51064 no matter what the pair. In video poker, unlike
regular poker, a high two pair is worth the same as a
low two pair. The BEP for deciding whether to break
up two pair to draw to three cards of a royal flush
depends on which three of a royal are held and whether
a 10 is discarded, as shown in table 18. The weighted
average is a jackpot of $2626. Drawing to two pair is
less desirable than drawing to three of a royal flush
unless the quarter jackpot is below $2626, in which
case drawing one card to two pair is better.
If you sometimes play video poker with quarter
jackpots under $2626, you can rewrite table 13 with
two pair ahead of three of a royal flush, and a BEP of
$2626 in front of two pair.
If a full house pays 6 instead of 8 as in the Atlantic
City video-poker machines discussed in chapter 4, the
weighted-average BEP is $2396.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠♣
K Q 10 9 7
Table 19
Four of a Straight Flush
or Three of a Royal
SF Draw Fifth Card BEP
ss K-Q-10-9 A $2374
ss K-Q-10-9 K or Q 2385
ss K-Q-10-9 10 2365
ss K-Q-10-9 small 2350
ss K-J-10-9 A 2374
ss K-J-10-9 K or J 2385
ss K-J-10-9 10 2365
ss K-J-10-9 small 2350
ss K-Q-J-9 A 2325
ss K-Q-J-9 K or Q or J 2333
ss K-Q-J-9 small 2301
ss Q-J-10-8 A 2247
ss Q-J-10-8 K 2263
ss Q-J-10-8 Q or J 2354
ss Q-J-10-8 10 2234
ss Q-J-10-8 small 2219
Free $50
Free $50
4 SF
Drawing to three of a royal flush is more profit-
able than drawing to four of a straight flush if the
progressive jackpot is high. For low jackpots, drawing
to four of a straight flush might be preferred. The BEP
for Q-J-10-9 suited is 3942, which is high enough that I
gave that hand a line of its own in table 13. For other
draws to four of a straight flush, the BEPs are smaller
than any jackpots I expect you to be playing; so I did
not give them lines of their own. They are listed in
table 19.
Here is an example of the meaning of the num-
bers in table 19: If you are dealt K♥-Q♥-10♥-9♥-A♠,
and the quarter jackpot is above $2374, try for a royal
by holding only the K♥-Q♥-10♥ rather than holding
the 9♥ with it and drawing for a straight flush.
For impossibly high jackpots, drawing to two of
a royal might be preferred over drawing to four of a
straight flush. For example, with Q-J-9-8 suited and a
small card of another suit, holding the Q-J suited is
preferred if the jackpot is above $35,968, a jackpot that
just is not going to happen on a quarter video-poker
machine.
Free $50
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♠ ♠ ♣ ♣♣
K J K 4 3
2 high pair
Likewise for jackpots so large they never hap-
pen, it might be advisable to break up a high pair to
draw to two of a royal flush. An example is: Holding
K♥-J♥ and discarding a king and two small cards of
another suit can be justified if the jackpot is above
$21,375. But jackpots do not get that high on quarter
video-poker machines.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♠ ♠♣
Q J 8 7 6
4 flush
If the jackpot gets above $11,066, drawing to Q-J
suited is better than drawing to four of a flush. The
chance of a quarter jackpot getting that high is so small
that I did not put a number in front of the draw to four
of a flush in table 13.
Joel Friedman, who figured out how to get an
edge at video poker long before I did, told me he saw a
quarter jackpot higher than that once, but it was a
special circumstance. On 22 November 1982 Joel vis-
ited the Playboy casino in Atlantic City to play a bank
of five-coin dollar 6-5 video poker machines with a
jackpot over $31,000. Joel found that those machines
had been replaced by five-coin quarter machines. The
monster jackpot was carried over, and Joel could try
for it for five quarters instead of five dollars.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♣ ♦♦
K Q J 10 7
Table 20
K-Q-J-10 or Two of a Royal
Cards Held Fifth Card BEP
ss K-Q small $7033
ss K-J small 7033
ss Q-J 8 6802
ss Q-J smaller 6742
ss K-10 small 9752
ss Q-10 8 9521
ss Q-10 smaller 9461
ss J-10 8 9230
ss J-10 7 9170
ss J-10 smaller 9090
Free $50
Free $50
4 K-Q-J-10
The value of drawing to K-Q-J-10 of assorted
suits is 0.87234 bets. If the jackpot gets high enough,
drawing to two of a royal flush is better than drawing
to four of a straight.
Table 20 lists the BEPs for breaking up this hand
to draw to two of a royal flush, assuming that all three
discards are of suits different from the two of the royal.
If one of the discards is the same suit as the cards held,
the BEP is higher by $281.
The BEPs in table 20 are so high that I have not
bothered to figure the weighted average for inclusion
in table 13.
5640 2 low pair

The value of drawing to a low pair is 0.8135 bets.
This is less than the value of drawing to K-Q-J-10 of
assorted suits, which is why if you are dealt K-Q-J-10-10
you should hold K-Q-J-10.
Drawing to ss HC-HC is more attractive than draw-
ing to a low pair if the jackpot gets high enough.
Finding the weighted average of all possible hands
that have this choice is complicated. The BEP depends
on the value of the higher of the two high cards held
because the higher it is, the fewer straights are pos-
♠ ♠ ♣ ♣♦
K Q 9 8 8
Free $50
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Table 21
Low Pair or ss HC-HC
Hold Discard BEP
ss A-HC HC-10-10 $6117
ss A-HC HC-small-small 5997
ss A-HC 10-10-small 5942
ss A-HC 10-small-small 5862
ss A-HC small-small-small 5782
ss K-Q A-10-10 5906
ss K-Q A-9-9 5786
ss K-Q A-small-small 5626
ss K-Q J-9-9 5826
ss K-Q J-small-small 5706
ss K-Q 10-10-9 5771
ss K-Q 10-10-small 5731
ss K-Q 10-9-9 5691
ss K-Q 10-small-small 5571
ss K-Q 9-9-small 5571
ss K-Q 9-small-small 5491
ss K-Q small-small-small 5411
ss K-J A-10-10 5906
ss K-J A-9-9 5786
ss K-J A-small-small 5626
ss K-J Q-9-9 5826
ss K-J Q-small-small 5706
ss K-J 10-10-9 5771
ss K-J 10-10-small 5731
Free $50
Free $50
Table 21 continued
Hold Discard BEP
ss K-J 10-9-9 5691
ss K-J 10-small-small 5571
ss K-J 9-9-small 5571
ss K-J 9-small-small 5491
ss K-J small-small-small 5411
ss Q-J A-10-10 5695
ss Q-J A-9-9 5575
ss Q-J A-8-8 5415
ss Q-J A-small-small 5255
ss Q-J K-9-9 5615
ss Q-J K-8-8 5495
ss Q-J K-small-small 5335
ss Q-J 10-10-9 5600
ss Q-J 10-10-8 5560
ss Q-J 10-10-small 5520
ss Q-J 10-9-9 5520
ss Q-J 10-8-8 5340
ss Q-J 10-small-small 5280
ss Q-J 9-9-8 5400
ss Q-J 9-9-small 5360
ss Q-J 9-8-8 5320
ss Q-J 8-8-small 5200
ss Q-J small-small-small 5040
Free $50
Free $50
sible. The BEP also depends on which cards are dis-

carded. Discarding one of the same suit reduces the
probability of a flush, and possibly reduces the prob-
ability of a straight flush. Discarding one or more cards
high enough to fit into a straight reduces the probabil-
ity of a straight. For example, the BEP for deciding
whether to draw to a low pair or to Q-J suited depends
on how many 10s, 9s, and 8s are discarded, whether an
ace or king is discarded, and which if any of the dis-
cards is the same suit as the Q-J.
I have worked out all the possible hands involv-
ing decisions between drawing to a low pair and draw-
ing to ss HC-HC. The weighted-average BEP is $5640.
Some of the possible hands are listed in table 21. Those
listed are for discards of different suits from the ss HC-
HC. You can recreate the rest of the BEPs yourself by
adding amounts that depend on which of the discards
is the same suit as the ss HC-HC. If the discards reduce
the number of possible straight flushes by two, the
BEP is higher by $384. If the discards reduce the num-
ber of possible straight flushes by one, the BEP is
higher by $333. If the discards contain one of the same
suit as the ss HC-HC but that card does not fit into a
straight flush, the BEP is higher by $281.
Note that this $5640 applies only to ss HC-HC. It
does not apply to ss HC-10. The average BEP for that
draw is much higher — probably over $8000.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♠ ♣♣
Q J 9 10 6
Table 22
Q-J-10-9 or ss HC-HC
Hold 5th Card Discard ss BEP
ss A-HC ace 9 $6252
ss A-HC ace none 5971
ss Q-J ace 9 5892
ss Q-J ace none 5509
ss Q-J small 9 5697
ss Q-J small small 5595
ss Q-J small none 5314
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♣ ♠ ♣♣
Q J 10 9 7
Table 23
Q-J-10-9 or ss HC-10
ss A-10 ace 9 $8971
ss A-10 ace none 8690
ss Q-10 ace 9 8611
ss Q-10 ace none 8227
ss Q-10 small 9 8416
ss Q-10 small small 8313
ss Q-10 small none 8032
ss J-10 ace 9 8371
ss J-10 ace none 7936
ss J-10 7 9 8236
ss J-10 smaller 9 8176
ss J-10 7 none 7801
ss J-10 smaller smaller 8022
ss J-10 7 7 8133
ss J-10 smaller none 7741
Free $50
Free $50
5577 4 Q-J-10-9
The expected value of drawing to this holding is
0.80851 bets; so if the fifth card makes a pair, drawing
to the pair is better by at least 0.005 of a bet.
The BEP depends on which high cards have the
same suit, the value of the fifth card, and whether a
third card is the same suit as the ss HC-HC, as shown in
table 22. The weighted-average BEP of table 22 is $5577.
Table 23 lists the BEPs for holding a high card
and a 10 of the same suit. These numbers are so high
that I have not averaged them into the BEP for Q-J-10-9.
Free $50
Free $50
Table 24
J-10-9-8 or ss HC-J
Hold Discard ss BEP
ss A-J none $4482
ss A-J 9 or 8 4764
ss K-J 9 4584
ss K-J 8 4532
ss K-J none 4251
Table 25
J-10-9-8 or ss J-10
ss J-10 A 9 $6882
ss J-10 A 8 6831
ss J-10 A none 6448
ss J-10 K 9 6942
ss J-10 K 8 6891
ss J-10 K none 6507
ss J-10 small 9 6667
ss J-10 small 8 6616
ss J-10 small small 6514
ss J-10 small none 6232
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♣ ♣♣
A J 10 9 8
4484 4 J-10-9-8
The weighted-average BEP of $4484 applies to
draws to the jack and another high card of the same
suit. The only possibilities are ss A-J and ss K-J; if you
have a queen you have a straight. And of course the
BEP depends on whether one of the discards is the
same suit. The possibilities are shown in table 24.
Table 25 contains the BEPs for draws to ss J-10.
The weighted average BEP for drawing to ss J-10 in-
stead of drawing to J-10-9-8 is $6580.
Table 13 does not contain a number for drawing
to ss J-10 out of a holding of J-10-9-8. The break-even
points are so high that table 13 says always draw to
J-10-9-8 when the alternative is drawing to J-10 of the
same suit.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♠ ♣♣
Q J 9 6 5
Table 26
ss Q-J-9 or ss Q-J
Discards BEP
A-8 $3204
A-small 3444
K-8 2964
K-small 3204
8-small 3045
small-small 3285
Free $50
Free $50
3246 3 ss Q-J-9
For low jackpots, drawing to this combination is
better than drawing to ss Q-J, as shown in table 26. The
BEP is $3246, the weighted average of the BEPs of table
27.
You can simplify table 13 by omitting this line.
The conditional cost of this simplification is 0.005% of
the amount by which the jackpot is less than $3246. For
example if the jackpot is $3000, drawing to ss Q-J
instead of to ss Q-J-9 costs only 1.2 cents per hand
containing those cards.
Draws to three-card straight flushes with two high
cards and gaps of two cards, such as ss Q-J-8, are
inferior to draws to two of a royal for all jackpots with
positive expectations.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♣ ♣♣
Q 10 9 8 7
Table 27
10-9-8-7 or ss HC-10
Cards Held ss discards BEP
ss A-10 none $5692
ss A-10 9 or 8 or 7 5973
ss K-10 none 5401
ss K-10 9 5733
ss K-10 8 or 7 5682
ss Q-10 none 5170
ss Q-10 9 5554
ss Q-10 8 5502
ss Q-10 7 5451
Free $50
Free $50
5573 4 consec no HC
Those fours-in-a-row headed by high cards are
treated individually. Drawing one card to 4-3-2-ace of
mixed suits is not as profitable as drawing four cards
to the ace. So this heading relates only to four consecu-
tive cards headed by the 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, or 5. Drawing one
card to any of them is worth 0.681 of a bet. Only one of
them, 10-9-8-7, is affected by the $5573; the others can-
not possibly contain two cards of a royal flush.
Thus the BEP applies when the four-in-a-row is
headed by the 10 and the fifth card is a high card of the
same suit as the 10. The BEP is a function of which high
card is held with the 10, and which, if any, of the 9-8-7 is
the same suit as the HC-10. The BEPs are shown in
table 27.
In an early version of this book, the table that is
now 27 included ss J-10. That was a mistake because
that hand is more valuable as a straight.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♠ ♣♣
J 10 9 7 4
Table 28
ss J-10-9 or ss J-10
Discards BEP
A-K-9 $5630
A-9-7 5491
A-9-small 5731
K-9-7 5251
K-9-small 5491
9-7-small 5332
9-small-small 5572
5531 3 ss J-10-9
The BEP for deciding whether to hold J-10-9 of
the same suit or just the J-10 depends on whether the
discards contain an ace, king, or 7. The break-even
points are shown in table 28. The weighted average of
those BEPs is $5531.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♠ ♣♣
Q 10 8 K 6
Table 29
Three of a Straight Flush
or ss HC-10
ss Q-10-9 A-K $3901
ss Q-10-9 A-8 3762
ss Q-10-9 A-smaller 4002
ss Q-10-9 K-8 3522
ss Q-10-9 K-smaller 3762
ss Q-10-9 8-smaller 3604
ss Q-10-9 small-small 3844
ss J-10-8 A-K 3850
ss J-10-8 A-Q 3610
ss J-10-8 A-7 3391
ss J-10-8 A-smaller 3631
ss J-10-8 K-7 3471
ss J-10-8 K-smaller 3711
ss J-10-8 Q-7 3231
ss J-10-8 Q-smaller 3471
ss J-10-8 7-smaller 3232
ss J-10-8 small-small 3472
Free $50
Free $50
3656 3 SF 1 gap 1 HC
The high card is part of the three-card straight
flush.
The value of a high card is slightly more than the
value of having one more way to make a straight. For
example, the value of drawing to ss J-9-8 is about 0.003
of a bet higher than the value of drawing to ss 10-9-8. In
other words, a gap in a possible straight is a negative
that is canceled out by the presence of a high card.
The three holdings that are three of a straight
flush with one gap and one high card are ss Q-10-9, ss J-
10-8, and ss J-9-8. Only the first two contain possible
three-card draws to ss HC-10. The BEPs depend on the
values of the discards, and are shown in table 29. The
weighted average of these BEPs is $3656.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♣ ♣♣
J 10 8 7 6
Table 30
Three Consecutive ss
or ss HC-10
3-card ss ss HC-10 BEP
ss 8-7-6 ss K-10 $3259
ss 8-7-6 ss Q-10 2967
ss 8-7-6 ss J-10 2736
ss 7-6-5 ss J-10 2896
ss 6-5-4 ss A-10 3930
ss 6-5-4 ss K-10 3559
ss 6-5-4 ss Q-10 3187
ss 6-5-4 ss J-10 2816
ss 5-4-3 ss A-10 3630
Free $50
Free $50

The highest hand in this category is ss 10-9-8, and
the lowest is ss 5-4-3. The value of drawing to this
group of cards is at most 0.597 bets; that value comes
when the discards contain no high cards and no cards
that could fit into a straight. Thus drawing two cards to
try to make a straight flush is not as profitable as most
video poker beginners seem to think.
Table 30 contains the distinguishably different
hands in which you have to choose between ss HC-10
and three consecutive cards in another suit. The
weighted average BEP is $3280.
The hand ss 4-3-2 is not included in this category
because $3280 grossly overstates its BEP. The BEP for
ss 4-3-2 is $1661 or less; the $1661 applies when the
other two cards are ss A-10.
Free $50
Free $50
♠ ♠ ♦ ♣♣
A 10 K Q 7
Table 31
Four of Ace-High Straight
or ss HC-10
Cards Held Discards BEP
ss A-10 HC, HC, ss small $2635
ss A-10 HC, HC, offsuit small 3084
ss K-10 A, HC, ss 9 3185
ss K-10 A, HC, ss smaller 3074
ss K-10 A, HC, offsuit 9 2852
ss K-10 A, HC, offsuit smaller 2792
ss Q-10 A, K, ss 9 2945
ss Q-10 A, K, ss 8 2834
ss Q-10 A, J, ss 8 2894
ss Q-10 A, K, ss smaller 2702
ss Q-10 A, J, ss smaller 2782
ss Q-10 A, K, offsuit 9 2561
ss Q-10 A, K, offsuit 8 2501
ss Q-10 A, J, offsuit 8 2561
ss Q-10 A, K, offsuit smaller 2421
ss Q-10 A, J, offsuit smaller 2501
ss J-10 A, K, ss 8 2594
Free $50
Free $50
Table 31 continued
Cards Held Discards BEP
ss J-10 A, Q, ss 8 2654
ss J-10 A, K, ss 7 2463
ss J-10 A, Q, ss 7 2542
ss J-10 A, K, ss smaller 2331
ss J-10 A, Q, ss smaller 2411
ss J-10 A, K, offsuit 9 2270
ss J-10 A, Q, offsuit 8 2270
ss J-10 A, Q, offsuit 7 2210
ss J-10 A, K, offsuit smaller 2050
ss J-10 A, Q, offsuit smaller 2130
4 ace-high straight
This is a draw to an ace plus any three of K-Q-J-10.
The expected value of drawing to A-K-Q-J is 0.596, and
the expected value of drawing to A-HC-HC-10 is 0.532.
The BEP for deciding between drawing to four
cards of an ace-high straight and drawing to ss HC-10
depends on the high card, whether the fifth card is the
same suit, and whether that fifth card fits into a straight
with the HC-10. These BEPs are shown in table 31.
Free $50
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Table 31 reflects two things. First, the value of

drawing three cards to try for a royal is almost insensi-
tive to the amount of the jackpot; the expectation rises
by only five cents per thousand dollars of jackpot.
Second, the smaller the high card held with the 10 the
greater the likelihood of making a straight; this means
the smallest BEPs are for holding J-10, and the largest
BEPs are for holding ace-10.
The weighted-average BEP for ace-high straight
is $2696. If you want to play video poker with jackpots
that low, rewrite table 13 with 4 ace-high straight moved
ahead of 2 ss HC-10, and with the BEP equal to $2696.
3 K-Q-J
The expected value of drawing to K-Q-J of as-
sorted suits is 0.515 bets if the discards are both smaller
than 9, and 0.500 if one of the discards is a 9.
♠ ♣ ♦ ♣♣
K Q J 7 6
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♠ ♣ ♠ ♣♣
K J 6 5 4
2 HC-HC
The best pair of high cards to hold is Q-J, with K-J
and K-Q tied for next best. After that comes a tie be-
tween A-K, A-Q, and A-J.
Drawing three cards to K-Q, K-J, or Q-J is better
than drawing four cards to a single high card.
With A-K, A-Q or A-J of mixed suits, there is
almost no difference between drawing three cards and
drawing four cards to the face card. The chance of
hitting a royal flush on a four-card draw is worth less
than half a cent per $1000 of jackpot. The decision on
whether to draw three cards to A-HC or four cards to
the HC depends on what the discards do to the chances
for a flush or a straight. While differences do exist, they
are so minor that it is not worth spending time ponder-
ing them.
When scrutinizing a hand for high cards, look for
face cards first. If you have an ace and a face card of a
different suit, the important thing is to hold the face
card. Whether you hold the ace with it does not matter
much. I find I play quicker if I do not worry about off-
suit aces.
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♠ ♦ ♠ ♣♣
J 9 8 4 3
1 HC
The best high card to hold is a jack. Next best is a
queen. Next best is a king. Then comes ace. The reason
is the number of straights that can be made with each
card.
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3 SF
Drawing to three cards of a straight flush with
one gap and no high cards (example: 9♣-8♣-6♣) is
worth about the same as drawing four cards to a high
card or three cards to HC-HC. The differences depend
on which high cards are involved, whether the dis-
cards are the same suit as the high card, and whether
any of the discards fit into a straight with the card or
cards held.
Suppose you have the following hand dealt to
you: K♥-J♠-7♣-5♣-4♣. Drawing to the K-J is worth
0.493 times your bet. Drawing to the lonesome jack is
worth 0.465 plus .00000449 times the jackpot; for a
jackpot of $4000, the value of drawing to the jack is
0.483 times your bet. The value of drawing to the
7♣-5♣-4♣ is 0.494 times your bet.
If the example were changed so the high cards
were A♥-J♠, then drawing to the three of a straight
flush with one gap would be the best play. If the
example were changed so the high cards were Q♥-J♠,
then the best play would be hold the Q-J.
A draw to three cards of a straight flush that has
only one way to make a straight (such as ss 9-7-5) is
inferior to draws to one or two high cards.
♠ ♠ ♠ ♣♣
9 8 6 4 2
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I decided to put the two-card draw to a straight

flush below the four-card draw to a high card after
playing a lot of video poker. I found that looking for
three-card straight-flush draws took too much time.
Figuring how many straights were possible took too
much time. I was spending too much time sorting out
differences in expected values that were too small to
worry about. Looking at the high cards and ignoring
the low cards makes for faster play. This is the main
category of deviation from perfect play.
Cost of Errors
On decisions between holding three of a royal
flush and holding anything else, the cost of an error is
74 cents per $1000 of difference between the actual
quarter jackpot and the BEP.
On decisions between holding two of a royal
flush and holding anything else, the cost of an error is 5
cents per $1000 of difference between the actual quar-
ter jackpot and the BEP.
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Table 32
Full House 6 1.1440
Flush 5 1.1176
Straight 4 1.1098
Two Pair 2 12.8517
No Pay 0 55.0758
Payback: 99.79%
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CHAPTER 4
OTHER
VIDEO-POKER
STRATEGIES
This chapter presents strategies for other payoff

schedules and other options.
Strategy for 6-5 Progressives

Table 32 lists the payoffs for video-poker ma-
chines you are likely to encounter in Atlantic City.
They pay 6 for a full house and 5 for a flush so I call
them 6-5 machines. The machines worth playing have
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Table 33
Strategy For 6-5 Progressives
2853 5 SF
4 RF
6003 5 flush
4869 3 trips
4557 5 straight
3942 4 ss Q-J-10-9
3 RF
4 two pair
4 SF
2 high pair
4 flush
4 K-Q-J-10
5622 4 Q-J-10-9
5273 2 low pair
4529 4 J-10-9-8
2 ss HC-HC
5618 4 consec no HC
5576 3 ss J-10-9
3701 3 SF 1 gap 1 HC
2 ss HC-10
4 ace-high straight
3 K-Q-J
2 HC-HC
1 HC
3 SF
0 nothing
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Note to table 33:

Never draw to an inside straight except for ace-
high, and never draw two cards to
A-HC-HC.
Key to table 33:
A Ace
consec consecutive
HC High Card, i.e. A, K, Q, or J.
Note that 10 is not a high card.
J Jack
K King
Q Queen
RF Royal Flush
SF Straight Flush
ss same suit
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a progressive jackpot for a royal flush. Table 32 has

2400 (which is $3000 for five quarters) listed as the
payoff for a for royal flush because a value has to be
specified to be able to calculate frequencies. The break-
even point for perfect play is 2468, or $3085 for five
quarters. The break-even point for the strategy pre-
sented in this chapter is $3107, which I round to $3100.
Table 33 presents the strategy for video-poker
machines that have the payoff schedule of table 32,
with a progressive jackpot for a royal flush. It differs
only slightly from table 13. The only switching of lines
from table 13 is swapping a draw to a low pair and a
draw to Q-J-10-9. The ss Q-J-9 line is gone because
drawing to those three cards is inferior to drawing to ss
Q-J for all jackpots above the break-even point. Some
of the BEPs in table 33 are slightly different from those
of table 13.
The expected loss rate while waiting for a royal
flush is about $50 an hour on quarter 6-5 machines, and
the BEP royal flush jackpot is about $3100. For fifty-
cent machines the numbers are double: $100 an hour
and a BEP of $6200. For dollar machines the numbers
are double again: $200 an hour loss rate waiting for a
royal, and a BEP of $12,400.
Since the BEP for a pat ss K-Q-J-10-9 is $2853, if
you are playing a 6-5 progressive with an edge you
ought always throw the 9 from that straight flush and
draw one card to try for a royal flush.
Table 33 is reduced to wallet size at the end of
this book, along with table 13. You may reproduce
either for your own use.
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Table 34
10s, 9-6-4000: Payoffs &
Frequencies
Full House 9 1.1188
Flush 6 1.1328
Straight 4 1.2352
Two Pair 1 12.5192
Pair, 10s or better 1 25.6422
No Pay 0 50.9730
Payback: 101.02%
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Strategy for 10s-or-Better

Progressive
Table 34 is the set of payoffs common on progres-
sive video-poker machines that pay for a pair of 10s. A
jackpot of 4000 coins ($5000 for five quarters) is used
for the royal flush to find frequencies of the various
final hands. These frequencies were found by VP-
EXACT.
The BEP for quarter 10s-or-better machines is
$4618 for perfect play on machines requiring five quar-
ters. This is considerably higher than the BEP of $2166
for perfect play of the 8-5 progressives of chapter 2.
The reason is the even money paid for two pair costs a
whole lot more than the benefit of getting paid on 10-
10. The expected loss rate while waiting for a royal
flush on quarter 10s-or-better machines is around $80
an hour.
For fifty-cent machines, the numbers are $160 an
hour and a BEP of $9,280. For machines requiring five
dollars, the numbers are $320 an hour loss rate and a
BEP of about $18,560.
Table 35 is the strategy for progressive machines
with the payoff schedule of table 34. Table 35 differs
considerably from table 13. Abbreviations are the same
as for table 13 except that 10 is a HC. The BEP for using
this table is $4640.
If you have J-10-9 of one suit and A-K of another
suit and the jackpot is above $5812 so you would
rather hold ss HC-HC than ss J-10-9, you are slightly
better off holding the ss J-10 rather than the ss A-K.
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Table 35
10s-or-Better Progressives
4 RF
5 SF
5916 5 flush
4937 3 trips
3 RF
5 straight
4 SF
4 two pair
2 high pair
4 flush
4 K-Q-J-10
4 Q-J-10-9
5837 4 J-10-9-8
5812 3 ss J-10-9
2 ss HC-HC
4 10-9-8-7
3 ss 10-9-8
4 consec no HC
2 low pair
3 SF with HC
3 SF consec no deuce
4 ace-high straight
4 king-high straight
3 HC-HC-HC no ace
2 HC-HC no ace
1 HC
3 SF
0 nothing
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Notes to table 35:

1. Never draw to an inside straight except for
ace-high or king-high.
2. Never draw two cards to A-HC-HC or three
cards to A-HC.
Key to table 35:
A Ace
consec consecutive
HC High Card, i.e. A, K, Q, J, or 10
J Jack
K King
Q Queen
RF Royal Flush
SF Straight Flush
ss same suit
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Video-Poker Tournaments
Tournament strategy is different from regular
strategy for all casino games, including video poker.
If the tournament format rewards speed and you
play faster than your opponents, your best chance to
advance in the tournament is by playing your normal
style.
Generally, however, you are not going to win a
video-poker tournament with two pair. You must get
lucky and receive big-payoff hands. In a tournament,
holding multiple high cards makes sense only if they
are all the same suit; if your high cards are of assorted
suits, hold just one high card.
Do not try to make other hands that will not help
you in the tournament. For example, if straights and
flushes will not give you enough points in the tourna-
ment, do not make one-card draws to try to complete a
straight or flush. If a full house will not help you, do
not draw one card to two pair. At the extreme, if the
only hand that will win for you is a royal flush, then go
for a royal flush on every draw.
Two Jackpots
Some video-poker machines have two jackpots
for a royal flush. For the ones that pay the larger of the
two jackpots, simply look at the larger jackpot and
ignore the smaller one.
Other machines pay whichever of the two jack-
pots an arrow happens to be pointing toward when
you hit. It may be possible to time your jackpot to
receive the higher payoff. If you need only one or two
cards to make a royal flush, you may be able to time
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your draw so that you catch the arrow pointing to the

higher jackpot. In some casinos this is easy; for ex-
ample, in the Frontier in Las Vegas, the arrow seems to
point to one jackpot for at least 30 seconds at a time.
There is no guarantee that your royal flush will come
when the arrow points to the higher jackpot of course;
you might get your royal on your first five cards or on
a draw of four or five cards. If you do not think you can
time your best royal-flush draws to correspond to the
higher jackpot, then use the average of the two jack-
pots for playing strategy and computing the value of
your time.
Cards In Order
Some casinos offer a bonus for getting your royal
flush with all cards in order. The total number of ways
to get a royal flush, paying attention to position and
suit, is 480. One royal flush out of 120 is in the order A-
K-Q-J-10, and one out of 120 is in the order 10-J-Q-K-A.
If the royal-flush jackpot is worth $16 per hour
per $1000 of payoff, and the bonus for cards in order
left to right or right to left is worth 1/60 of that much,
then the bonus for cards in order is worth 27 cents an
hour per $1000 of bonus payoff. A bonus for cards in
order just one way, say left to right, is worth half as
much.
Cards In a Particular Suit
There are four suits, and the royal must be in one
of them. So if a bonus is offered for a royal in a particu-
lar suit, that bonus is worth 1/4 of the $16, or $4 per
hour per $1000 of bonus.
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If the royal-flush payoff depends on the suit, i.e.

different payoffs for different suits, add the payoffs
and divide by four to decide whether the machine is
worth playing.
If a bonus is offered for a royal flush in a particu-
lar suit with cards in order right to left or left to right,
you will get that bonus on one royal flush out of 240.
Thus it is worth 7 cents an hour per $1000 of bonus. A
bonus for cards in a specified suit in order left to right
is worth half that much.
Double Option
Some video-poker machines offer you an option
to go for double or nothing on a winning hand. That
option can be worth considering if it involves guessing
whether a card drawn from the remainder of the deck
is high or low (8s lose), or guessing if it is odd or even
(aces lose). On average the house makes 8% on those
bets, but if your final hand plus the cards you discard
have an excess of five or more cards in one category,
then the odds favor your trying to double your payoff.
For example, at the Ambassador (now Anthony’s)
in Las Vegas I have seen video-poker machines that
allow you to guess odd or even to try to double your
payoff. Suppose you are dealt 4-6-10-10-10, discard the
4-6, and receive 8-Q. You have three of a kind, which if
you have inserted five coins is worth fifteen coins. You
have an edge if you opt to go for double because the
remaining 45 cards contain 24 winners and only 21
losers if you guess odd. I have not run a simulation to
find the overall value of the double option, but since it
yields an advantage only rarely and the advantage
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generally is small when it does occur, the double op-

tion probably is worth less than one percent.
More common is a double-down feature that re-
shuffles all 52 cards. The first card is the dealer’s, and
you select one of the other four as your card. If your
card is higher than the dealer’s card you win, and if the
dealer’s card beats your card you lose. Ties are re-
played. The casino’s edge on this form of the double
option is zero.
Second-Chance Feature
Some video-poker machines have a “second
chance feature.” After the draw, if your hand is only
one card away from a straight or better, you have the
option of inserting more coins and getting one more
card.
The payoffs on winning second-chance hands
are not the same as what the payoffs would have been
had you won on your first chance. You can figure out
how good the second-chance feature is. First figure out
how many of the cards left in the deck will win each
payoff. Then multiply each by the payoff offered. Add
them up. If the total is more than the number of cards
left in the deck, you have an edge.
For example, suppose that you hold four spades
including the jack, and draw a small card of the wrong
suit. The second-chance feature then will offer you
four times your bet if you make your flush and even
money if you draw another jack. Out of 46 cards you
have not seen, 9 will complete your flush and 3 are
jacks. Multiplying probabilities times payoffs shows
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that the casino is giving you 39/46 of your money

back, and is keeping the other 15.2% for its edge.
Here is one I saw that is zero edge for the casino.
The player held 7-6-5-4 of assorted suits, discarded a 2,
and drew a 4. That left 46 cards in the deck. The sec-
ond-chance feature offered three coins for a straight,
and 8 cards remained that would make the straight.
Three of a kind would pay two coins, and 2 cards in the
deck would make the three of a kind. Two pair would
pay two coins, and 9 cards in the deck would make two
pair. Multiply all those together and add them up and
you find the machine is offering to return 46/46 or
100% of the second-chance bet.
The way I suggest playing the second-chance fea-
ture is to ignore it as if it did not exist. On the second-
chance payoffs I have worked out, the casino edge has
generally been above 10%. I have yet to see a second-
chance offering that is a positive expectation for the
player.
Wild Cards
Some video-poker machines have jokers. On other
machines, deuces are wild. With wild cards it is pos-
sible to get five of a kind. The payoff for a royal flush
depends on whether the hand contains a wild card.
Tables 36-39 present four different payoff sched-
ules for wild-card video poker, and the frequencies of
final hands for perfect play. These frequencies were
found by VPEXACT. You can use these frequencies to
approximate your edge (if any) for the various payoff
schedules you encounter in casinos. Tables 36 and 37
are two different versions of joker wild, table 38 is one
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Table 36
Joker, Kings: Payoffs &
Frequencies
Natural Royal Flush 800 0.00243
Five of a Kind 200 0.00933
Royal Flush — Wild 100 0.0104
Full House 7 1.5679
Flush 5 1.5577
Straight 3 1.6595
Two Pair 1 11.0873
Pair, Kings or better 1 14.1958
No Pay 0 55.6029
Payback: 100.65%
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version of deuces wild, and table 39 is one version of

deuces and joker wild.
There are books that give good information on
wild-card video poker. Bradley Davis presents accu-
rate playing advice for nineteen different varieties of
joker video poker in his Mastering Joker Wild Video Poker.
Lenny Frome presents playing accurate playing ad-
vice for selected payoff schedules for joker wild, deuces
wild, and both joker and deuces wild in his Expert
Video Poker for Las Vegas and Expert Video Poker for Atlan-
tic City. On decisions on which Frome and Davis dis-
agree, Davis is more accurate.
The reason I am able to say with assurance that
Frome and Davis have done good work is I checked
their advice with computer programs I wrote. One of
the programs was originally named Video Poker Ana-
lyzer. In 1991 Villa Crespo Software upgraded the graph-
ics, added more features, and renamed it Stanford Wong
Video Poker. With it you can evaluate any video poker
game. For any payoff schedule you specify: You can
measure the casino’s edge, figure out the proper play
of any hand, and practice with feedback on how accu-
rately you are playing. My other video poker program,
VPEXACT, calculates the overall payback and frequen-
cies of various hands for any set of video poker payoffs
you specify.
Some casinos offer wild-card video poker that
yields over 100% payback to perfect play. They can
afford to do this because most video-poker players
play far from perfectly. A caution: The strategies in this
book do not apply to wild-card machines.
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Table 37
Joker, 2 Pair: Payoffs &
Frequencies
Full House 8 1.4902
Flush 7 2.2560
Straight 5 2.8254
Two Pair 1 10.3877
No Pay 0 69.8847
Payback: 98.68%
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Attitude of Casino Personnel

“Will this book negate any advantage after ca-
sino management reacts to it? Are gambling bosses
aware of the profitability of video poker to players?
Have they taken any countermeasures yet? Do you
expect that they will? Are people ever barred from
playing video poker? Do you expect phasing out of
profitable machines? Do winning players ever experi-
ence heat? Isn’t it possible that a large proportion of the
limited number of profitable machines could be mo-
nopolized by a small number of well-financed play-
ers?”
The above paragraph includes some of the many
questions I have received on the viability of video-
poker play. Most of these questions come from card
counters who have had unfriendly interactions with
blackjack pit bosses. Video poker is different from
blackjack in many respects.
Blackjack bosses watch their customers closely
because of the possibility of cheating, but there is less
the customer can do to cheat at video poker so there is
less reason to watch the customers closely. In blackjack
your bet sits on the table, and someone has to watch to
be sure you do not add to bets on good hands or
remove chips from bets on bad hands; in video poker
the machine holds your bet so nobody has to watch
you to be sure you do not change it. In blackjack the
cards are sitting in front of you, and most casinos allow
you to handle them yourself; someone has to watch to
be sure the cards you place on the table are the same as
the cards you are dealt. In video poker, the cards exist
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Table 38
Deuces Wild: Payoffs &
Frequencies
Four Deuces 200 0.0204
Full House 3 2.1229
Flush 2 1.6522
Straight 2 5.6623
No Pay 0 54.6800
Payback: 100.76%
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as images on the screen and nobody has to watch to be

sure you play the same cards you are dealt.
You may have experienced “heat” (i.e. unwel-
come attention) at blackjack simply because you were
making bets that were large for that casino. You will
not experience heat for that reason at video poker
because all customers on your bank of machines are
betting the same denomination of coins. If you were
one of dozens of blackjack customers betting $2 every
hand, you likely would be ignored. In video poker,
you are one of dozens of customers betting $1.25 every
hand.
The main problem with casino employees is com-
peting with them for machines. For example, in 1987 at
Caesars Tahoe, many dealers headed for the high-jack-
pot video-poker machines as soon as they got off work.
A Caesars employee would give up a video-poker
machine only to another Caesars employee. Patrons of
Caesars Tahoe who were not also employees of the
casino were not able to play the video-poker machines
with high jackpots. This practice continued until a few
hotel guests raised such a ruckus that management
abolished the common practice of allowing the current
user of a machine to decide who would play it next,
and set up a waiting line. Caesars continued to allow
its employees to play video poker, but they had to
wait in line for a machine like other customers.
Whereas a blackjack card counter may be hard to
spot unless the person doing the looking is also a card
counter, good video-poker players are easier to spot.
They are the people who show up only when the
jackpot is high. But to my knowledge the only behav-
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Table 39
Deuces & Joker: Payoffs &
Frequencies
Five Wild Cards 2000 0.000773
Four Deuces 25 0.0149
Full House 3 2.6613
Flush 3 2.9022
Straight 2 6.6109
No Pay 0 49.6232
Payback: 99.07%
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ior for which customers have been barred from playing

video poker is tying up machines so that other custom-
ers do not have access to them. Thus if you show up
with your spouse and two other couples, and the six of
you monopolize a couple of machines 24 hours a day
for day after day so that other customers do not have a
chance to play them, you are engaging in behavior that
has led to barrings in the past.
When a customer has been waiting to play a
machine, and sees that machine turned over to a newly-
arrived teammate instead, that customer’s complaints
to management will bring wrath down on the team.
There are several ways to avoid this. One is to not try
to monopolize a machine; i.e. do not take turns on it
with your spouse or a friend if other people are wait-
ing to play it. Another way is to pretend the teammate
is a stranger but someone you find attractive; flirt as
you are giving up your machine. What customer will
complain if you gave up your machine because of
sexual attraction? Another possibility is to have your
teammate buy the right to play your machine. If your
teammate offers you $50 for your machine, you could
look at the stranger and say “This person offered me
$50 for this machine. I’m willing to consider a better
offer.” Make the price low enough to be believable, but
high enough that you would be willing to give up the
machine if the stranger offers more.
Would a casino knowingly offer a game in which
the customer has an edge? Yes. Some casinos offer big
cash prizes on games that are completely free to play!
Back in 1984, Matthew Balsam of Denver, Colorado
won $100,000 in cashball, a free game at the Sands in
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Las Vegas. The Sands was giving away money, know-

ingly and willingly. Plaza and El Cortez in Las Vegas
have had promotion after promotion that offer cash
prizes at no cost to customers. These casinos offer free
games with cash prizes to bring people in. Large pro-
gressive jackpots also bring people into the casino.
Some of those people eat meals, rent rooms, and pa-
tronize games of chance. If I ran a casino I would be
happy to offer large progressive jackpots at video
poker; I would refuse to give information on jackpot
sizes over the telephone because I would want you to
come in to see for yourself.
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LITERATURE
CITED
Dancer, Bob. WinPoker. Fountain Hills, AZ: Zamzow,

1998.
Davis, Bradley. Mastering Joker Wild Video Poker. Au-
rora, CO: Applied Technology Press, 1990.
Frome, Lenny. Expert Video Poker for Atlantic City. Las
Vegas: Compu-Flyers, 1989.
Frome, Lenny. Expert Video Poker for Las Vegas. Las
Vegas: Compu-Flyers, 1990.
Paymar, Dan. Video Poker — Optimum Play. Pittsburgh:
Conjelco, 1998.
Wong, Stanford. Stanford Wong Video Poker. Highland
Park, IL: Villa Crespo Software, Inc., 1991.
Wong, Stanford. VPEXACT. Las Vegas: Pi Yee Press,
1991.
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INDEX
INDEX
Symbols C
10s-or-better progres- cards in a particular
sive 99 suit 103–104
6-5 progressive strat- cards in order 104
egy 94–97 cashball 114
8-5 progressive strat- cheating 17
egy 37–53 cost of errors 92
A D
Amster, Anne 5 Dancer, Bob 116
attitude of casino person- Davis, Bradley 108, 116
nel 110–115 double option 104–105
Douglas, Dave 5
B
Balsam, Matthew 114 E
break-even jackpot evaluating payoff sched-
size 19, 23, 97, 99 ules 14–21
Expert Video Poker for
Atlantic City 108,
116
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Expert Video Poker for Las P

Vegas 108, 116 pair of high cards 89
F Paymar, Dan 116
probability of royal 15
flat-top 15
flush 41, 66 R
frequencies of final risk 27–29
hands 14–21, 93, royal flush 41
98, 106
Friedman, Joel 66 S
Frome, Lenny 108, 116 second chance fea-
full house 41 ture 105–106
Speer, John B. 5
H Stanford Wong Video
hands an hour 21 Poker 108, 116
high pair 41, 65 straight 41
I straight flush 41
inside straight 53 T
J tournaments 102
trips 41
joker 106–108
two jackpots 102–103
K V
kicker 48, 53
value of royal flush pay-
L off 23
losses between royals 19– Video Poker — Optimum
21, 23-27, 97, 99 Play 116
low pair 41, 68–74 Video Poker Analyzer 108
VPEXACT 15, 99, 106,
M 108, 116
Mastering Joker Wild
Video Poker 108,
W
116 wild cards 106–108
monopolize a ma- winnings per hour 31–36
chine 112–114 WinPoker 116
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ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Stanford Wong is my nom de plume. I was born

in 1943. I have a BS and an MBA from Oregon State
University, and a Ph.D. in finance from Stanford Uni-
versity. I have taught at several universities, most re-
cently in the 1975-76 school year. I have taught statis-
tics, calculus, linear programming, accounting, and a
few finance courses. I have always been an intensely
competitive game player, and I like to solve puzzles. I
consider myself fortunate that I can spend my time
doing things I enjoy doing, and that it pays enough to
keep rice on the table.
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BOOKS BY
PI YEE PRESS
Bryce Carlson’s Blackjack for Blood discusses count-
ing cards at blackjack. It contains an excellent level 2
counting system.
Tino Gambino’s The Mad Professor’s Crapshooting
Bible discusses beating craps. Its strengths are discus-
sions of grips, tosses, practice tips, adjusting to table
conditions, dice setting, and betting.
Bob Nersesian’s Beat the Players describes how the
rights of casino customers are abused by casinos and
law enforcement. Nersesian is a lawyer who has won
many lawsuits brought by customers, particularly ad-
vantage players, against casinos.
Stanford Wong’s Wong on Dice discusses beating
craps. It covers rules, sets, gripping, and tossing. Its
strengths are practice tips and advice on dice setting
and betting.
Stanford Wong’s Casino Tournament Strategy ex-
plains how to get an edge over the other players in
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casino-games tournaments. It covers blackjack, craps,

baccarat, keno, and horses.
Stanford Wong’s Professional Blackjack has a com-
plete and accurate presentation of the high-low, the
counting system used by more card counters than any
other because of its combination of simplicity and
power. If you want a more advanced counting system,
Professional Blackjack also contains the halves.
Stanford Wong’s Blackjack Secrets explains how to
get away with playing a winning game of blackjack in
casinos. It also contains an introduction to the high-low
card counting system.
Stanford Wong’s Basic Blackjack is a comprehen-
sive presentation of basic strategy and win rates for all
common rules and most exotic rules for the game of
blackjack. It also explains methods of getting an edge
that do not involve counting cards.
Stanford Wong’s Sharp Sports Betting explains how
to bet sports, primarily NFL football. It covers home
field advantage, the trade-off between the money line
and betting against the spread, totals, teasers, money
management, betting sports on the Internet, props on
season win totals, and use of the Poisson distribution
to analyze other props.
Stanford Wong’s Optimal Strategy for Pai Gow Poker
shows how to get an edge at pai gow poker, and
includes advice on setting every possible hand.
King Yao’s Weighing the Odds in Hold’Em Poker
discusses limit hold’em. Topics include sizing up your
opponents, counting “outs,” figuring pot odds, the
value of position, determining when to raise, call, or
fold, bluffing, semi-bluffing, slowplaying, check-rais-
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ing, regular games, shorthanded games, and playing

poker on the Internet.
King Yao’s Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting
discusses sports betting. Football is emphasized, but
there also is coverage of basketball, baseball, and triple-
crown betting on horse racing. Included are chapters
on season wins, first-half betting, March Madness pools,
hedging, and more.
Ordering Information
The easiest way is to use the online order form on
www.BJ21.com. Or you can visit in person or write to
Pi Yee Press, 4855 West Nevso Drive, Las Vegas NV
89103-3787 for prices and an order form. Or email
[email protected]. Or call 702-579-7711.
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WALLET-SIZE
STRATEGIES
You may reproduce these for your own use.
Table 13 Table 33
Strategy For 8-5 Progressives Strategy For 6-5 Progressives
2853 5 SF 2853 5 SF
4 RF 4 RF
6003 5 flush 6003 5 flush
4964 3 trips 4869 3 trips
4557 5 straight 4557 5 straight
3942 4 ss Q-J-10-9 3942 4 ss Q-J-10-9
3 RF 3 RF
4 two pair 4 two pair
4 SF 4 SF
2 high pair 2 high pair
4 flush 4 flush
4 K-Q-J-10 4 K-Q-J-10
5640 2 low pair 5622 4 Q-J-10-9
5577 4 Q-J-10-9 5273 2 low pair
4484 4 J-10-9-8 4529 4 J-10-9-8
3246 3 ss Q-J-9 2 ss HC-HC
2 ss HC-HC 5618 4 consec no HC
5576 3 ss J-10-9
5573 4 consec no HC 3701 3 SF 1 gap 1 HC
5531 3 ss J-10-9 3325 3 SF consec no
3656 3 SF 1 gap 1 HC deuce
3280 3 SF consec no 2 ss HC-10
deuce
4 a c e - h i g h
2 ss HC-10 straight
4 a c e - h i g h 3 K-Q-J
straight 2 HC-HC
3 K-Q-J 1 HC
2 HC-HC 3 SF
1 HC 0 nothing
3 SF
0 nothing
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PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 1

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 2

copyright © 1988, 1991, 1993, 2007 by Pi Yee Press

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 3

Some of my Nevada friends support themselves

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 4

intent of maximizing winnings per hour. These strate-

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 5

In the best video-poker opportunity I personally have

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 6

resulted in some changes to this book. The biggest

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 7

Chapter 1: Win Rates ............................... 12

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 8

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 9

4484 4 J-10-9-8 ...............................................................76

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 10

1 9-6-1000: Payoffs & Frequencies ......................... 13

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 11

20 K-Q-J-10 or Two of a Royal ................................. 67

12 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

Video-poker slot machines have been proliferat-

14 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

game. In video poker you are simply trying to get

One thing of interest in table 1 is the similarity of

16 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

Nevada or Atlantic City. However, some professional

18 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

using perfect strategy has an edge of 4.6% for the pay-

20 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

tops; and you must play them perfectly to lose at only

22 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

There is a very important thing to realize about

24 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

Thus each $1000 of the royal-flush payoff adds

26 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

Another way to do the calculation of expected

28 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

viation for one hour of play without royals is about 39

30 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

hour. Thus the overall standard deviation on one hour

32 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

instantaneous win rate, because if nobody hits a max-

34 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

four quarters played. Not all machines are that gener-

36 PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER

machine with its $400 average increase in the jackpot,

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 37

This chapter presents basic strategy for the video-

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 38

Not all video-poker machines have that payoff

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 39

Break-Even Points and

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER 40