Video Poker Forum

Is it better to play a 5 play nickel machine or a single line quarter machine with the pay tables the same on both machines.

If your goal is to lower variance, or have a slower rate of play, then 5-play nickels. If your goal is to increase variance, or have a faster rate of play, then 1-line quarters.

It really depends on what you want.

While I agree with Vman's comment, there is more to it than that. Because of variance, your money lasts longer, on average, on a multi-line machine.I personally find Five Play much more fun than single line. "Fun" is a subjective thing, of course, but it's something you might consider.There can be other differences as well. At the Palms, for example, if you play 25c Five Play or Ten Play 9/6 Jacks you get 150% more drawing tickets than if you play $1 or $2 single line in the same game. While these aren't the specific stakes you asked about, the principle that sometimes you get more slot club "something" on one machine rather than the other should be considered.Sometimes one of the machines is upright and the other is a slant top and you prefer one of those. (I prefer slant tops usually. Playing upright machines for hours is fatiguing). Depending on your body type and the chair configuration on the machines, one may be more comfortable for you.One may be in the smoking section and the other in the non-smoking section. Or if it is in the smoking section, is there someone smoking there today? For some this would trump everything else.Sometimes you know one or more of the people who play one of the machines. You can choose to play next to a favorite person --- or to stay away from somebody you don't care for.For some folks, if a machine is at a bar so you can mainline your alcohol more easily, that is a plus. (For me, it's the opposite. Bar games tend to have stickier buttons, more irrelevant conversations, and more smokers than games not at the bar.)For higher stakes games, single line games get more W2Gs than multi-line games for the same total bet.

I only play multi-line like as mentioned above. If I want more entries into a drawing.

slant tops rule! AND no smoking in Illinois casinos!   WIN WIN - now, i just need to WIN WIN WIN everytime i go and then all will be right with the universe...

slant tops rule! AND no smoking in Illinois casinos!

I like both of these things.