Video Poker Forum

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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.