favorite video poker game & why

[cribplayer]

My favorite has to be jacks or better simply because you can play the longest if your hitting hands.  I once played for 3 12 hours on a 20 dollar bill in Reno NV, when i went for the cribbage tournaments out there!!  Jacks or better gives you the best chance to hit the royal because it's the easiest to play and learn. I like to play the double double bonus at little river, on the double draw aces machine where you get a 2nd deal if your delt 2 aces!!Does any 1 know what the correct strategy is for double double bonus, I seem to play right alot but doesn't seem to get the hit.  any help appreciated. Like say in jacks or better you have A, Q, J of hearts and 2 rags, you keep the A,Q, J and go for the royal, but in double double bonus it says to go for the flush if  you have A,Q,J, 5Hearts and 1 rag card. why keep the 4 flush draw, wouldn't you wanna go for the higher payout?

[BillyJoe]

I am actually a TDB fan, so I am probably the wrong guy to respond to your question, since TDB is more volatile than DDB. I like to play for the bigger payout, so  I believe three to the royal is the right play. The only exception may be Random Rewards, if you have some crazy flush payout, like 2000 credits, up at that time.

[damule]

Double Double Bonus. Has big quad payouts but not the penalty on trips like TDB has. Prefer 10/6 paytable. But must be minimum 9/6 paytable on multi-hand and even better when found on Supertimes Pay, Ultimate X, and Quick Quads.

[BobDancer]

Does any 1 know what the correct strategy is for double double bonus, I seem to play right alot but doesn't seem to get the hit.  any help appreciated. Like say in jacks or better you have A, Q, J of hearts and 2 rags, you keep the A,Q, J and go for the royal, but in double double bonus it says to go for the flush if  you have A,Q,J, 5Hearts and 1 rag card. why keep the 4 flush draw, wouldn't you wanna go for the higher payout? 


 You're getting your games confused. From a suited 'AKQ4', you hold all four of them in the better pay schedules of Double Bonus but never Double Double Bonus. The reason is that flushes return 7 for 1 in DB but only 6 for 1 or 5 for 1 in most other games. In the better versions of DDB, though, from a suited 'AKT4' you hold all four of them. (Occasionally you do that in 9/6 Jacks as well). I have Winner's Guides for the games you mention, plus two versions of Deuces Wild. The Winner's Guides tell you the correct strategy for each hand and also 'why.' They give you several hundred examples. They give you lots of cases where the hands are very similar but the play is different (like the ones in the preceding paragraph). I usually don't overtly mention www.bobdancer.com and try to sell my books, but this time the original poster seemed to be asking for the information in those books. If you want to learn those particular game, there is no better source of information. There is no source anywhere I know about that has more than a couple of pages on each game. Each of the Winner's Guides are more than 100 pages. Insofar as the title of this thread goes "favorite video poker game and why," my answer is always "the one that offers the highest return today --- including slot club, point multipliers, mailers, drawings or other promotions." Within the past few months I've played Double Double Bonus, Bonus Poker, Bonus Poker Multi Strike, Bonus Poker Dream Card, Jacks or Better, Double Bonus Deuces Wild, NSU Deuces Wild, Quick Quads, and Super Aces Bonus. Each of these were my "favorite" on the day I was playing it because they were the highest returning games I knew about on that day. It's possible I'm forgetting one or two games.  If I played for different stakes, it's likely my list would be different. Full Pay Deuces Wild might be the best game for single-line quarter players in Las Vegas, but I don't wish to live on the $10 per hour EV that those games offer. I like games with bigger rewards. And I accept that to get the bigger rewards I need to play with a much smaller edge. (If you're in Vegas I'll be teaching a free class in FPDW this Tuesday afternoon at Sam's Town.) In a year's time I wouldn't be surprised that the best games offered in the casinos I frequent will be different than what I'm playing now. Casinos often change what they offer. They are trying to make money for themselves. To maintain my edge I need to learn how to play whatever they offer. And if they don't offer anything where I have the edge, I need to not go there. If they offered a good slot club I would play a change machine! I'm interested in making a good living from gamblng. How much I "like" a particular game or format is largely irrelevant to me. Bob

[Quad Deuces]

Bob -But isn't there a game you *like* to play more.I carried mail for a while when I was younger.  It was all the same job, and paid the same, but the routes down at the beach in Hermosa were a far sight more enjoyable than the ones in North Redondo.I can't remember which of your books it was, but I'm pretty sure you pegged Deuces as your favorite, but it was probably before some of the newer game variations.My favorite video poker event is drawing to three deuces on the 10-line machine I frequent.

[FloridaPhil]

I agree with Bob, the best game is the one with the best odds in that particular casino at that particular time.  I'm an active recreational player that plays a lot of .25 video poker.  I also play outside Vegas, so finding a positive game is a near impossibility.  You have to decide what you like to do, and for me that changes on a daily basis.  If I want to play a long time, I'll play Jacks or Better.   I've hit most of my Royals on that game probably because I play it longer. My wife plays Jacks because she hates losing and the low variance keeps her loses to a minimum.  If I'm in the mood for a potshot, I'll play DDB.  DDB is very exciting for me, especially if I can get up on the game and move up in denomination.  Unfortunately, you can give it all back if you don't have the guts to walk out.  I love Deuces, but for me it's very hard to play perfectly and the .25 Deuces pay schedules in Florida are terrible. It is fun hitting multiple sets of quad deuces... I use Bob's Video Poker for Winners software to train.  I haven't used any other VP training software, but his program is very flexible.  You can change the game, denomination and pay schedule to match the games at your local casino and simulate moving up in denomination if you wish.  Without Video Poker training software, you are going to get slaughtered by the Casino.  if you use this software and train diligently, you will have a much better chance of getting close to the game's posted odds.

[BillyJoe]

Unless you are playing VP for a living (aka - WORK ), I subscribe to the notion of playing a fun game, even though the variance may be high, and have a win/loss 'walk away' point for your session or visit. I like to have a good time playing VP - that's why I play.
 
Sure, I like to win, and I guess playing 4 hours and winning $10 makes better financial sense than playing 2 hours and losing $1,000. But if my only reason for playing in a casino was to reap financial rewards, I would never go. There are better, easier ways to just make money than trying to beat a casino.  

[BobDancer]

[QUOTE=Quad Deuces]Bob - But isn't there a game you *like* to play more.Sure. I prefer deuces variations and Quick Quads. I prefer multi-line games to single-line games. I prefer no-smoking areas. I prefer stakes where I can average $80+ per hour. But if the choice is deuces multi-line with a negative EV or single-line Jacks or Better (which some people consider the most boring game in the world) with a good enough promotion to make it positive EV, I'm going to play Jacks.To me this is like a disciplined person who goes regularly to buffets. This person might prefer cheesecake to brownies but avoids both because of health and waistline reasons. What you prefer and what you do are very different things. I have no problem if Billyjoe wants to play high variance games where the house has the edge. If he has the wealth to lose tens of thousands of dollars a year to casinos --- and he enjoys the process --- then let him have his fun! He's actually doing me a favor by playing this way.  Casinos need players who are willing and able to lose money! Billyjoe happens to be one of them. We need more people like that! When casinos have enough of these players, they can afford to support me and the rest of you who are trying to eke out a living from the casinos. But without the losers, casinos will tighten up and eliminate the winners as well. Billyjoe called what I do "work." He's exactly right. My mind is totally engaged in seeking out advantages and then trying to exploit them. I find the process of beating casinos psychically rewarding. It gives me great pleasure to beat the game when the other guy sets the rules. Billyjoe has other ways to make money. Good for him! A number of people are struggling financially but apparently Billyjoe isn't. My hat is off to him, but I don't have such a way. Taking money out of casinos is the best way I've found for me. And yes I do earn a little selling books, teaching classes, hosting radio shows, and whatever else I do. Mostly these things keep my skills sharp so that my earning rate in casinos is higher than it would be if I didn't do all these things behind the scenes. 3/4 of my income stream comes from gambling. And if there is a more profitable thing for me to be doing at my age, I don't know what it is. And even if someone suggested another line of work for me to pursue, I'd likely not do it. I enjoy what I'm doing and very likely have enough to make it "the rest of the way." So I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. Bob   

[FloridaPhil]

I truly enjoy posts from pros like Bob.  It's very interesting to me to get a peek into their thinking and the world they live in.   I'm strictly a recreational player with a small bankroll and a $300 session budget.  I'm a big mouth and like to talk about things I'm interested in.  Video Poker is a great hobby and I enjoy talking to other players about the game.I am a person that never does any activity half way.  If I'm going to do something, I'm going to try to be the best I can at it.  When I first started playing video poker, I read every book I could find on the subject.  The books are mostly written by professionals who spend a lot of time talking about 100% plus games. I quickly became disappointed when I couldn't find a positive game within 1,500 miles of where I live.   In my world, Cash Back is a foreign term with no meaning and video poker isn't even eligible for point multiplier play.  I did find that casinos were more than willing to give me free rooms, flights and food if I would just play their machines.  Even with these perks, video poker is still a pay-to-play proposition. These days, I'm a happy recreational player and I don't spend a lot of time walking around dreaming of finding full pay video poker.  I do compare pay schedules and if I find a better paying machine in the same place, I go for it.  These days, my goal is to have as much fun as possible and leave the casino with something in my pockets other than my car keys.Fun means something different to everyone.  Lets face it, Jacks is boring.   On the other hand if I'm going to be on a 3 week gambling vacation and want my money to last, I'm going to have to play Jacks a lot of the time.  If  I'm having a crazy up day, I can always switch games.  I know Bob Dancer would say that winners don't play that way, but it gives me a real shot of adrenaline when I switch from quarter Jacks to dollar DDB and hit a quad.  It's your money, so do what feels good to you.  

[Quad Deuces]

And the conversation has been pleasant all-around for some reason.