Help with Video Poker

I live in Northern Nevada. I hit my first Royal Flush the other day for $4000. It was a full pay 9-6 Jacks or better dollar machine where the max bet is $5 per pull and the royal tops out at $4000. Usually I only play a little video poker here and there as cover for my blackjack play while waiting for a blackjack table to have ideal conditions (heads up or 1 other player at single deck). I do the same at the craps table with small pass line and come bets, taking full odds. I think this helps give me the look of an all around gambler and helps give me a litle longevity at the blackjack tables in some clubs. Typically I position myself so I can see the BJ tables while playing video poker or craps.

On this occassion, I played a few dollars. I put in $60 and got lucky. I use a simple 9-6 strategy suggested on the wizard of odds web site which has a payback of 99.46% on a full pay Jack or Better
9-6 machine.

Since hitting this royal I started looking around for profitable Jack or Better 8-5 progressives. I found one unusual bank of machines in Reno and am not totally sure if I am evaluating it correctly. The bank of machines are $1 machines and the progressive pays out at the $5 max bet. The progressive starts out at $4000 and goes up $0.025 per pull. Here is the quirk. It DOES NOT pay out the normal 8-5 progressive. It pays out a full 9-6 on full houses and flushes. I've read Stanford Wongs information here on this web sight concerning the Break Even Point (BEP) on 8-5 Jack or Better progressive machines being around $8800 for $1 machines. Since this bank of machines pays 9-6, I've determined the BEP to be $5096.23. This is how I did my math using my simple strategy with a payback of 99.46%. If I am wrong in my logic, please someone correct me and set me straight.

1 - .9946 = .0054 or -0.54% loss per hand.

$5 per pull x .0054 = $0.027 loss per hand

40,601 hands (# of hand between royals playing perfect strategy) x $0.027 = $1096.23 loss if playing a full pay 9-6 jacks or better machine that pays $4000 for a royal flush. This is to say, that when I hit on a standard full pay 9-6 machine I will have lost a total of $5096.23 on average, and then recouped only $4000 once hitting the royal.

Therefore, for the above progressive (9-6 instead of 8-5), when the progressive hits $5096.23 its at the BEP, and when it is higher than this it becomes a winning game.

Did I do this correctly, or am I somehow screwed up?

By the way, the way the casino takes advantage of players on this game is on what the royal pays if you don't max bet $5 per pull. If you were to bet $1 and hit the Royal Flush, the machine would only pay $250 instead of $800. Since I would never bet $1 to $4 at any time, this doesn't pose a problem for me since I always bet $5 in order to be eligible for the progressive. All Other pays look the same as a full pay Jack or Better machine. This is how the first column looks:

Royal Flush 250
Straight Flush 50
Four of Kinds 25
Full House 9
Flush 6
Straight 4
Three of Kind 3
Two Pair 2
Pair, Jacks or Better 1

The $5 column looks like this:

Royal Flush Progressive
Straight Flush 250
Four of Kinds 125
Full House 45
Flush 30
Straight 20
Three of Kind 15
Two Pair 10
Pair, Jacks or Better 5

My other question, is there anywhere I can go for a modified strategy that will adjust as this progressive gets higher. Stanford Wong's 8-5 progressive stratergy is helpful, but obviously the BEP's he recomends for switching plays and going for the royal don't apply to this particular bank of machines.

Last week this bank of machines hit $5800 before someone hit the Royal Flush. As of today, this machine is at $5100. I would like to start playing these machine tomorrow since the progressive will be over my calculated BEP. Any feed back on this post would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

2goodformyowngood,

As for your questions/comments, here are my replies:

Therefore, for the above progressive (9-6 instead of 8-5), when the progressive hits $5096.23 its at the BEP, and when it is higher than this it becomes a winning game.

Did I do this correctly, or am I somehow screwed up?

If you don't change your playing strategy, then you are correct.

However, as you realize you SHOULD change your strategy as the progressive gets higher, taking more chances at getting the RF. In fact, for $1 9/6 JoB, with an optimized strategy the BEP is $5000.

By the way, the way the casino takes advantage of players on this game is on what the royal pays if you don't max bet $5 per pull. If you were to bet $1 and hit the Royal Flush, the machine would only pay $250 instead of $800.

Actually, that's the standard for 1 to 4 coins: the RF pays only 250 per coin bet. You don't get 800 per coin until you play full coin. Check a few other machines and you'll see that that's the usual case.

My other question, is there anywhere I can go for a modified strategy that will adjust as this progressive gets higher. Stanford Wong's 8-5 progressive stratergy is helpful, but obviously the BEP's he recomends for switching plays and going for the royal don't apply to this particular bank of machines.

The best way to do this is for you to invest a few of your new-found dollars in a VP strategy program. I use Video Poker Strategy Master (VPSM) (available for $30: see link below), but I hear that Video Poker for Winners is also good (and VPFW also allows you to practice playing: a valuable addition).

With VPSM, you have to go through a trial-and-error procedure to find the breakpoints. First, set up the "normal" paytable and generate a strategy. Then increase the RF to, say, $4500, and generate a new strategy. See what changes have occurred: if any interest you, keep changing the RF value until you discover the precise point at which the strategy changes. Then up the RF to $5000, and repeat the process. By the way, I wouldn't bother going past about $6500, since you'll almost never see the progressive get above that.

This method works fine for a single progressive, but becomes cumbersome when you have a machine that has several interactive progressives. For example, I know of a casino with $1 8/6 JoB that has progressives for RF, Straight Flush, and 4 of a Kind. In a case like this, the best you can do is just pick a "low" (but above the "reset" value) and "high" value for each progressive and generate strategies for each combination of cases.

I live in Northern Nevada.

You might want to look at 10/7 Double Bonus, which has an EV of 100.17% even without a progressive. I saw this available at several locations in Northern Nevada, some WITH progressives on the RF.

Hope this helps!

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