Playing poker tournaments

[POKERKAT]

Double checking that I have been giving people the right advice when playing in a video poker tournament. Have always told them not to bother going for a full house when for example getting 22,AA. The winners of the tournament usually have a Royal or many significant 4 of a kind hands. I go for the highest hand possible.
Love the tournaments anyway.

[case]

Yes you are correct. Full houses do not win tournaments. One correction on the above hand 22,AA. Most tournaments are DDB. If I am playing that hand in a tournament I would hold AA2. The kicker is worth holding providing you are playing DDB and of course you are in a tournament.

[Bobbi]

DDB is my favorite - where do you find tournaments? Aside from tournament play I would never hold the kicker unless playing TDB.

[POKERKAT]

I get offers from casinos that I play at frequently, usually Boyd properties, for tournaments along with free rooms. We do laugh that we say we are going to Vegas for a few days to play in a tournament and only about 45 minutes of that is actually tournament play!

[onemoretry]

I get offers from casinos that I play at frequently, usually Boyd properties, for tournaments along with free rooms.

As a matter of fact, we are in a tournament at Main Street Station next week.

[Vman96]

Yes you are correct. Full houses do not win tournaments. One correction on the above hand 22,AA. Most tournaments are DDB. If I am playing that hand in a tournament I would hold AA2. The kicker is worth holding providing you are playing DDB and of course you are in a tournament.

AA2? When dealt AA22x? I think that's a big mistake.

If you hold AA2, the odds of making AAAA2 are 1 in 1081.

Just hold AA then the odds of Aces w/kicker are 10/16,215. Or 1 in 1621.5.

BUT you also have a 35/16,215 = 1 in 463.3 chance to make 4 Aces if you just hold AA, which will help you move up the leaderboard significantly. Especially in tournaments that pay out a good chunk of the field.

Now one change I do recommend in tournaments is go for 3 to a Royal over a pair of face cards. The EV difference is marginal and hitting a Royal is much more beneficial than a 250 credit quad.

[case]

I stand corrected

[BobDancer]

I would play as Vman suggested UNLESS I had already hit a royal or AWAK. If I was already onto a good score, I'm playing the highest EV play. Period. Before I get a good score, I'm taking chances to get into the running.

If a tournament is of the sort where you play as many hands as possible during xxx minutes, the key is to play FAST. Make ANY play quick. Do not brood over how to play a particular hand. Do not use the touch screen feature --- it is too slow. Practice playing one-handed so you can hit the deal-draw button with one finger while accurately hitting the hold buttons with the other.

On a hand like Q 'JT' x x, whether you hold QJ or 'JT', do it quickly. Either play can work out. The difference between the two plays is small enough so that an extra hand more than makes up for any difference. If you pick one, don't change your mind and go back to the other. You are losing too much valuable time. (Personally I hold 'JT' in a tournament if I don't have a big score yet. If I do, I hold QJ.

Finally, your last two minutes should be "kamikaze" going for aces and royals assuming you don't already have a good score. If the tournament pays 10 deep and you are in 11th place, you are tied for last. This is VERY different from regular play. If I were at the end of a session and was dealt KK44A, I would hold the single ace. (or maybe 44, depending on how much I thought I needed to get.) If quads won't help you get into payoff territory, don't waste your hand trying for them. Moving up from 19th place to 13th doesn't do you any good.

It is a good idea to know the scores ahead of you. If 10th place is 6525, and the tournament pays 10 places, then you want to be kamikaze until you get that high or higher. If you get above that number, or especially above whatever the first place score is, then you want to take a more conservative approach. Kamikaze is boom or bust. The conservative approach gives you solid increases to your score. Once you get into pay range, you do not want to continue with the kamikaze approach. If you don't know what your target is, it's hard to know when you have 'enough.'

for this reason, it's usually a good idea to be one of the last sessions played and study the previous scores before you play --- if possible. Not all venues post scores (to prevent later players from having advantage), but if your venue does post scores, use this information to your advantage.

[Vman96]

Thank you Bob. I really hoped you'd respond to this. I have seen several threads on video poker tournaments on a few different forums. Your post is the best response I've seen as to how to maximize your winnings in one. Some insights that I had yet to see mentioned before.

[olds442jetaway]

Yes, thank you. I hope Mohegan Sun offers one soon. I doubt it though. They seem to be pulling vp machines and replacing them with mindless penny machines like a cowboy who has never been to a dentist. There is only a tiny non smoking area left now with 3 99 percent machines. The rest are in smoking areas and many of the good pay tables are gone. I think they are making a huge mistake. Their revenue is falling. Of the dozens of die hard vp players that have been going there 20 years or more, only a handful are left. All of us leave tens of thousands of dollars there a year each as did the ones who do not play there anymore. Those numbers are based on playing a million or more hands there each year by the die hards. Playing 2 million in coin a year and keeping 99 percent is still a 20 k annual loss. All I know is the crowds there except Friday and Sat nights seem to be thinner than they ever were.