Potential rewards high with Multi-Strike poker

Q. I often play Multi-Strike poker, which has random “free rides.” It seems to me that frequency of the free rides is controlled by the casino and can be adjusted to suit them. The frequency is not posted as part of the payback table, therefore, although the player has more pay back information than a slot machine would give him, he has significantly less than regular video poker provides.
A. I have come to believe that, where I play, dollar machines are “free riding” more than the quarters. Apart from denominations, a machine could be programmed to free ride more with a max coin bet. A machine could be programmed to simply make more money.

Q. Do you believe these games to be smart bets?
A. For those unfamiliar with Multi-Strike, it gives the player the potential for four hands, usually with a 20-coin maximum bet. Either a winner or a free ride on Hand No. 1 takes the player to a hand with double payouts, with the potential to advance to a hand with quadruple payouts, and finally to a hand with 8x payouts. A pair of Jacks or Better, which brings back just five coins with maximum bet, on the first hand, is worth 40 coins on the top hand. A royal flush, worth 4,000 coins on Hand No. 1, brings a 32,000-coin bonanza on No. 4.

The casino does not tinker with the frequency of free rides. They are designed by game manufacturer WMS Gaming to bring the frequency of reaching the next level to about 50 percent. In a game such as Deuces Wild, where about 46 percent of hands are winners, the free ride will come about 4 percent of the time. That does not change with coin denomination.

As with other video poker games, the casino changes payouts by changing pay tables. A 9-6 Jacks or Better game, with full houses paying 9-for-1 and flushes 6-for-1, pays more than an 8-5 Jacks or Better game. As for Multi-Strike being a good bet, it actually pays a little more than single-hand games with the same pay tables, provided you make necessary strategy adjustments. Advancing to higher-paying hands is of prime importance, so in Jacks or Better we don’t hold four cards to a flush on hands Nos. 1 or 2. Our chances of reaching the next level are better if we hold a single high card, or tossing all five cards if there is no Jack or higher.

I like Multi-Strike a lot. Potential rewards are great, but with a 20-coin bet a streak of hands that don’t take you to the higher levels will eat through your bankroll in a hurry. Be prepared for a volatile ride.

Q. Is there any advantage to playing blackjack head-to-head with the dealer instead of at a full table?
A. Only if you’re a card counter and have a mathematical edge on the house. Fewer players means more hands per hour, and that favors whoever has the edge. Most of us are better off at a full table with fewer hands per hour and fewer chances for the house edge to work against us.

Q. Can you explain how comps work. I lost about $150 the last time I played, and got the same offers I did after the trip before, when I won about $60.
A. Most casino comps are how much the casino expects to win from you given the games you play, your average bet size and your playing time, rather than the amount you actually win or lose. Casino operators know that over time, the mathematical edge on games will hold up. If you win, they don’t want to deny you comps. They want to reward you at the level of your play in hopes of turning you into a loyal customer who will come back and let the house edge work against you again.
Let’s say you play roulette at a busy table where the casino knows the wheel is spinning about 40 times per hour. You stay for a couple of hours, and wager about $10 per spin. At $10 per spin at 80 spins per hour, you risk $800. The house edge is 5.26 percent, meaning in an average session, you’ll lose about $42. Regardless of whether you actually win $50, lose $100 or any other result, the casino will base your comps on that $42 average.

Other factors are weighed, especially for direct-mail vouchers designed to bring you back to casinos. Repeat play is important to casinos. A customer who comes every week will see more, better offers in the mail than one who plays twice a year. But the starting point is your theoretical loss rather than your actual results. If the casino knows it’s getting a shot at your money, it wants you to come back.

Q. You have completely tantalized us video poker addicts! You mentioned expert strategy on “certain” video poker games, but which ones? I practice, practice, practice with my little hand-held video game every night– can’t go to sleep without playing it. I prefer “Jacks or Better” but are there games more likely to yield goodies?
Please, at least give us a clue! We don’t expect a row of royal flushes, but maybe a little something for the bank account. I have the following books: “Victory at Video Poker,” by Frank Scoblete, “The Frugal Gambler,” by Jean Scott and “Winning Strategies for Video Poker,” by Lenny Frome. Whatcha think?
A. It depends on the pay tables. In Double Bonus Poker, games with the full 10-7-5 pay table, meaning they pay 10-for-1 on full houses, 7-for-1 on flushes and 5-for-1 on straights, pay 100.17 percent with expert play. Drop the pay table to 9-7-5, and the return drops to 99.1 percent, and at 9-6-5 it’s 97.9. At 9-6-4, it’s only 96.8.

You see the pattern. Each unit that payoffs decrease make Double Bonus a little weaker game, and it’s only with the top pay table that it’s a beatable game.

Another one is full-pay Deuces Wild, which you mainly see in Las Vegas. It’s the only fairly common Deuces game in which four of a kind pays 5-for-1, and four of a kind is a very important hand in Deuces Wild. Full pay Deuces returns 100.8 percent with expert play.

Even some games that don’t return 100 percent with expert play can become positive if you take player rewards into account. The basic game of 9-6 Jacks or Better, with full houses paying 9-for-1 and flushes 6-for-1, returns 99.5 percent with expert play. If the player rewards club at your casino returns cash and benefits in excess of 0.5 percent of your wagers, you have a positive game. The Deuces Wild version known to players as “Not So Ugly” Deuces returns 99.7 percent with expert play. On that one, four of a kind drops to 4-for-1, but full houses pay to 4-for-1, flushes to 3-for-1 and five of a kind to 16-for-1 – all a unit higher than on full-pay Deuces. The result is a game that if you play well enough, and player rewards exceed 0.3 percent of your wagers, you have a positive game.

A couple of cautions. You have to play at expert level to achieve those percentages, and most players don’t. It takes practice. I recommend any of three software packages: “Frugal Video Poker,” “Video Poker for Winners,” or “Bob Dancer Presents WinPoker.” Any will warn you whenever you’re making an incorrect play. That’s something the little hand-held units don’t do.

And no matter how good you are, the majority of video poker sessions will be losers. There’s a lot of marking time, accepting losses until the royal flushes and other big-paying hands come.

Q. Now that nearly all slot machines take currency and pay in tickets, can you tell me, is there any disadvantage for the player as opposed to playing with coins?
A. The one disadvantage is that playing with credits speeds play. Dropping coins for each play takes time. Pushing a button to play credits is nearly instantaneous. That leads to more plays per hour, and more chances for the house edge to work against you.

Of course, the casino wouldn’t see that as a disadvantage.

~ John Grochowski has covered the casino industry for 15 years in newspapers and magazines, and is the author of six books on casino games. Readers can e-mail him at casinoanswerman@casinoanswerman.com.