Archive for the ‘Online Poker Games’ Category
Video Poker - The Continuum Of Freedom
May 20th, 2009
Let us take a look at the machine games in a somewhat different light. If I use my fate vs. free will analogy, we can place the machine games on a continuum—from left to right according to the amount of choice offered the player. The fact that a machine is under "free will" does not necessarily mean that all machines of this type will offer the same games. Some video-poker and video-blackjack games are decidedly inferior in terms of their paybacks (even for expert play) than are some slot machines. But all things being equal, the best video-poker and video-blackjack games are better than the best slot machines because they offer a better than 100 percent return and this return is fundamentally a product of the player's skill in choosing which hands to play and how to play them.
FATE LIMITED
Slot machines
LIMITED FREE WILL
Video keno
Video craps
FREE WILL
Video blackjack
Video poker
The slot machine offers only a limited number of choices, as previously discussed. You get to pick your machine and decide for how long and for how much you'll play. But once the coin is deposited, the god-in-the-machine takes over and merely informs you of your fate. Range of paybacks vary— from very good (99 percent) to poor (80 percent or lower), depending on where you play.
In video keno, you get to pick the machine and decide for how much and for how long you'll play. But you also get to choose which numbers are yours. Then the god-in-the-machine picks its numbers. You learn your fate. On every turn you can bet more or less, fewer or greater total numbers. Payback is poor (75 percent).
In video craps, you get to pick the machine and decide for how much and for how long to play. You also get to select which bets to try and which to avoid. When the shooter-in-the-machine rolls, you await the decision. Range of paybacks are from very good (98.6) to poor (83 percent).
In video blackjack you get to select the machine and know whether it's a good machine or a poor machine based on the payout scale and rules. You decide how to play the cards dealt you. Card counting can give you an edge on some machines. Skill is the determining factor in the long run for good players. Payout range for expert play is excellent (100+ percent) to fair (98 percent).
Video poker has the same skill factor as video blackjack but the player has a multitude of machines and types of games to choose from. Blackjack is essentially blackjack. But video poker comes in an amazing assortment of games—each with its own distinct strategies. You can determine which games are worth playing and which should be avoided. You can determine how much to play for. Expert play is the deciding factor in the long run. Payout range is excellent (100+ percent) to poor (80 percent).
So pick the right machines, play them properly and you can wrest victory at video poker and video blackjack! Now, let's get it on.
Casino Games glowingcasino.comOnline Casino Craps - Casino Betting List Of Casinos
Tags: poker, video blackjack, video poker
Related posts
Video Poker - The Game Of Choice Part2
May 19th, 2009
So we can use simple addition to figure out why video poker is the growth game in casinoland. Video generation + choice + good gamble + reasonable betting limits + no one bothering you = growth of video poker.
In the words of one former casino executive who now spends his leisure playing video Tacks-or-Better Draw Poker: "I envision the casinos of 30 or 40 years from now as fundamentally different places than the casinos of today. The table-game area will be pushed into some small corner of the casino and will be dominated by blackjack. There will be one or two craps tables and several roulette wheels off to the side and that's about it. But the table-game area will be an afterthought just like the slot-machine areas were afterthoughts in the 1950s. The rest of the casino will consist of acres and acres of machines— most of them video poker. Some of them will be games that we haven't yet invented but will appeal to the generations brought up on combat video games like Mortal Kombat and such.The only noise will be machine sounds and the occasional shout of the jackpot winners. The casino gambler of 30 years ago, like the human being of a thousand years ago, would not recognize except in a vague way the casino of the future—it will be that different."
And why did he play video poker? As a casino executive, hadn't he seen nothing but losers over the years? "That's where video poker differs from most games. In Nevada you can play machines that have only a slight casino edge or are break-even propositions or, in some cases, there are machines that a player can actually beat in the long run. If you enjoy gambling, these machines are good bets. You aren't really risking all that much and you are getting hours and hours of entertainment value for your hard-earned dollar."
Walk down any video-poker aisle and you will see a number of video-generation players, those twenty-or-thirty-somethings, challenging the gods of chance as they once challenged Pac-Man. For them video poker is just another form of interactive games-playing.
Unfortunately, most of them get eaten alive, or rather their bankrolls do, since they are playing inferior machines with poor paybacks, or they are playing strategies that even on the best machines will incur long-term losses. Sadly, some may even be playing machines that only appear to be video-poker machines but are in actuality "slot machines in video-poker machines' clothing" as I reveal in Chapter 12. On these machines even expert play will result in long-term losses because the machines are legally rigged—to put it bluntly.
With all that said—here's a marvelous fact: video poker can be beaten. It can be beaten in the short run by luck, of course— and anyone, be he a fool or a philosopher, can be visited by Dame Fortune on occasion. But, more importantly, video poker can be beaten in the long run by using the proper strategies. If—isn't there always an "if" in life?—if you play these good strategies on good machines. What are good machines? Machines that return close to, at, or over 100 percent of the money put in them.
Unlike real life, which is a negative expectation game since it always ends in the death of the player (you and me, unfortunately), some video-poker machines are positive expectation devices. In the long run our bankrolls can grow and prosper. But not all casino video games can offer us the hope of long-run gains. While video craps has a marvelous payout percentage compared to most regular slots (proper play = a 98.6 percent payback), it still is a negative expectation game. Video keno is a loser with house edges in the double digits—just like its table-game kinsman.
Video poker and its cousin video blackjack have as their underpinnings a delightful mixture of chance and design. The game is dealt randomly from a deck of cards (usually 52, sometimes 53 or more in some wild-card video-poker games) and those cards will fall as they may. However, once the initial hand is dealt, fate must take a back seat to free will because the player is now in control. His choices, his strategy and money management methods, his knowledge of play will ultimately determine his future earnings.
There is only one caveat, as I've mentioned, and that is this: you have to select the right machines to play. This book will steer you to those machines and give you the proper strategies to attain victory. But the choice of playing them is up to you.
Tags: casino gambler, draw poker, poker