High Expectations?
Unlike slots,
video poker involves skills from the part of the player. Certain strategies exist to increase video poker profits, and some players successfully use them. The house edge of video poker machines is lower than that of most slots. At Nevada casinos there are even so called full pay machines, which, played in the maximum bet mode can produce positive expectation for a player who uses a basic strategies. Casinos are fully aware of that and even promote such machines, and they surely do not lose money on them. Not many players actually bet the maximum amount, and even less players use basic strategy, so these casinos reward good players with a small part of money they take from the bad ones.
However, video poker expectations are not so high, even at these machines. The small advantage given to the player only becomes real when the player bets the maximum amount and wins a royal flush. Nickel machines do not offer full pay time tables, so the player must bet 1.25 dollars per game playing at a quarter machine. The odds of a royal flush are 1 to 40,000, so an average player must play 40,000 games to realize his advantage. If he plays 4 games per minute, such process will take 10,000 minutes (166 working hours) and 50,000 dollars. The players advantage is normally less than one percent, so such player will win less than 500 dollars, investing 50,000 and working a full working month. The worst job in the United States will give this guy a better salary without asking him to deposit any money, so although profiting from video poker is possible it will never provide any serious income and can serve only entertainment.
You should say: people are playing and betting money anyway, so why shouldnt they play these video poker machines and try to win at list a couple of dollars having fun? And you are absolutely right. Although these video poker machines do not make people rich, they provide free fun and even reward good players with pocket money. However, before playing these machines it is necessary to learn basic strategy for a certain video poker game, go to Las Vegas and to determine full pay machines by the payout table posted on the front. After which, a lot of fun is guaranteed.
