Video Poker vs the tables

Why do you play video poker? What is your favorite game and why?
Jenwith1n676
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Video Poker vs the tables

Post by Jenwith1n676 »

I've been gambling for quite some time now, but I've never played any real table games. Only the ones online have I played, those aren't the real ones to me. So I'm wondering which is better - video poker or the poker tables? :|

Eduardo
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Post by Eduardo »

They are very different experiences. Video poker is you against the machine. Poker at a table will be you against other players, with entirely different strategies. I like playing a few hands of poker with friends but playing it competitively against experienced players is not my thing. I like sitting at a video poker machine, personally.

Player422738
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Post by Player422738 »

Poker is like sports, it requires talents. Most runners can’t beat Usain Bolt even they train themselves very well.

Playing video poker doesn’t need talents. Practice makes perfect.

BobDancer
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Post by BobDancer »

hophoofer wrote:
Fri Feb 07, 2020 10:30 am


Playing video poker doesn’t need talents. Practice makes perfect.
I think playing video poker well requires a lot of talent. And many separate talents. While I agree practicing helps a lot, you need to know what and how to practice, how to identify which games are worth practicing, how to avoid the games you can't beat, how to exploit what a slot club offers, and bunches of other things.

Is video poker easier than live poker? Absolutely. Without a doubt. Is it easy? Absolutely not. A very high percentage of players will never be net winners at this game.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

It is like asking which is better- an apple or a meatball hero.

Jstark
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Post by Jstark »

Slot club has ZERO to do with the game itself. And slot benefits are NOT guaranteed!

billryan
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Post by billryan »

Jstark wrote:
Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:14 pm
Slot club has ZERO to do with the game itself. And slot benefits are NOT guaranteed!
It makes many games playable that normally wouldn't be, so I disagree. I don't think anyone could make a living off VP if there were no slot clubs or promotions.

BobDancer
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Post by BobDancer »

billryan wrote:
Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:45 pm
Jstark wrote:
Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:14 pm
Slot club has ZERO to do with the game itself. And slot benefits are NOT guaranteed!
It makes many games playable that normally wouldn't be, so I disagree. I don't think anyone could make a living off VP if there were no slot clubs or promotions.
I agree with BR, at least for me. While there were a legion of quarter players who survived on 25 cent FPDW (100.76%) with little or no slot club benefits, I have a higher standard of living than that. I want to address some of what Jstark said as well.

There are slot club promotions that affect the play of the game. A "card of the day" promotion can change whether it's correct your hold in NSU on a hand like '567'78. If 7s are your COD, you hold them. If not, you don't. There are numerous other examples.

Insofar as being guaranteed goes, I've been burned by that a few times. But usually you can get a feel for what you're going to get. You can do a probabilistic calculation.

That is, if you figure you're going to be getting $100 about 90% of the time and $0 the rest of the time, it makes more sense to me to calculate this as $90 than $0 and make your decisions based on that. Will you ever be exactly right? No. Will you be correct on average and be making better decisions? Yes.

The same with drawings. I never know for sure I'm going to be called. But I can learn from experiene that such-and-such amount of play gets me called 25% (as an example) of the time with an average win of $1,000 each time I'm called. That makes the drawing worth $250 to me --- and I'm very likely showing up for it (depending on what else is happening). I would definitely NOT consider that drawing worth zero because this week isn't guaranteed.

COOKIELHS
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Post by COOKIELHS »

I love playing video poker. That is is the games I play when I go to the casinos. We go to Mohegan Sun at least once a month. I even wore my T-shirt from video poker up there and everyone wanted to know where I got it. I told them to start playing on line and become a gold member!😃

ajs1956
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Post by ajs1956 »

When I check the actual payback for table games (based on reports filed with state agencies) the returns are usually between 80 to 85%. That's probably more of an indictment of the players than the games, but shows that if you play table games make sure you know what you're doing. I think most should pay at least 99% if you know what you're doing. Reported returns on slots are usually between 90 and 95%, I guess that includes video poker. But if you're good at video poker your returns should be over 99% before comps and such. I'm guessing that there's a higher learning curve for table games.

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