Color Match Royal 9/6 DDB+TDB Basic Strategy

[alpax]

Alpax you are incredible

Thanks Lionqueen! I appreciate the compliment! It is likely that the first contest of this game will be held next week because the Gold Members are voting for it. Hope you can enjoy the game at no monetary wager risked, otherwise this game will need a big bankroll like TDB to survive.

Another update as my odds tables are off again. I found the reason on the Wizard's website. It has to be normalized in the least common multiple format in which I did not do. I was baffled at how Nothing is 1 in over 3. I found my reasoning. I will update it again when I get the chance tonight.

From the Wizard's website.

[QUOTE]
The least common multiple of all those combinations is 5×combin(47,5)= 7,669,695. Regardless of how many cards the player discards, the return combinations should be weighted so that the total comes to 7,669,695. For example, if the player discards 3, there are 16,215 possible combinations on the draw, and each one of them should be weighted by 7,669,695/16,215 = 473.

So the total number of combinations in video poker is 2,598,960 × 7,669,695 = 19,933,230,517,200 . For more on how to program video poker returns yourself, please see my page on Methodology for Video Poker analysis.
[/QUOTE]

[asteroid]

Thank you for the fantastic effort Alpax. Is it correct to assume that the trainer has the option to be set not to take into account penalty card situations ? I see that there is a divergence between what your Monte Carlo derived strategy says to hold (4 to a black flush) and what the trainer says to hold (two aces of a different color) and I assume that this must be the reason why.Cheers, Asteroid

[alpax]

Thank you for the fantastic effort Alpax. Is it correct to assume that the trainer has the option to be set not to take into account penalty card situations ? I see that there is a divergence between what your Monte Carlo derived strategy says to hold (4 to a black flush) and what the trainer says to hold (two aces of a different color) and I assume that this must be the reason why.Cheers, Asteroid




asteroid, you are very welcome and I hope you can enjoy this game a little more by learning this strategy.

With regards to your questions, I'll try to answer the best I can.

1. For the trainer on the website

I do not think the training mode for GOLD members on the website allows for much customization. It is purely the 3 light system, Green if you got the best hold, Yellow if you come anything close, Red if the mistake is critical.

It does not even show a detailed report about the reason the cards that the player held is inferior to the best hold. I've always suspected that Action Gaming wants people to purchase Video Poker for Winners for detailed information in which it does, but Video Poker for Winners does not have all of the specialty games offered on this website.

On Video Poker for Winners, you can customize the play error alerts to either Perfect Play Occurrence or Strategy Player Occurrence (if you are abiding by the strategy properly).

2. About the hold situation I brought up in example 5

The strategy chart, each value in parenthesis is the best case scenario Expected Return of each play, it will be a lot of time to get the average play which I am able to do, but any further efforts to study this game will depend on how popular this game gets. I think I've covered a great deal in itself.

Going back to the strategy, the high card in that scenario where 4 to a Colored Flush with 1 High Card had an Ace. The 5th card however was another Ace. If the player makes the 4 card hold, they will have to give up that Ace which will affect the overall expected return since it is one less high pair the player can get in that scenario. The loss to the expected value is big enough where the Pair of Aces (different color) may have the higher expected return.

35. 4 to Colored Flush with 1 High Card (9.375)

38. Ace Pair of Different Color (9.15)

I will go ahead and make the footnote on the chart, that 4 to a Colored Flush with 1 high card is less than Pair of Aces.

UPDATE: I was able to recompute the totals for DDB and TDB by using the Least Common Factor normalization technique. The results seems to be a lot more in line with Action Gaming (off by about 0.01-0.02% return) and the odds of each outcome are more reasonable. The DDB premium hands are harder to get when you are more focused on completing the flush type hands

[asteroid]

Thank you for the very clear explanation Alpax. Color Match does some interesting things to the variance. In conjunction with 3 hands being played per deal, I would think it more than makes up for the additional 15 coin bet in terms of lowering bank roll requirements for some goal like free slot play, dining/gift comps, or gift cards.

[alpax]

Thank you for the very clear explanation Alpax. Color Match does some interesting things to the variance. In conjunction with 3 hands being played per deal, I would think it more than makes up for the additional 15 coin bet in terms of lowering bank roll requirements for some goal like free slot play, dining/gift comps, or gift cards.

As I suspected, the variance on these games are quite high. I played this game for about 2-3 hours and really saw my balance sinking fast before some Colored Royals saved my balance. I did an analysis of the variance for each game and came out with this result.

DDB - 92.2
TDB - 133.59

The most interesting part of this game I found is that the Colored Flush makes up about 57% of the return. From my past study, usually a 10-play will reduce the variance by 80%, a 5-play will do it by about 72.5%, so it is a good thing that this game is available strictly on a multi game format.

Players might give up easily if it was strictly single line.

Easy this game will generate the coin-in needed to earn the comps from the casino like you've mentioned.

UPDATE: Added the Variance breakdowns for each game

[alpax]

I could not live with providing false information so just once again I did recalculations. This time I did not cut any corners and evaluated all 2598960 possible 5 card draws for DDB and TDB and the breakdowns/return tables have been updated yet again. The Variances were updated too.

This time it should be correct.

DDB - 98.719% (I am hoping Action Gaming did not round up or down on their return of 98.71%)
TDB - 98.192% which is exactly what Action Gaming reported at 98.19%

[pokerpokerpoker]

Well done Alpax, well done.

I couldn't see playing this in a casino. With the 10 coin bet and all the strategy changes I would probably feel like I was just donking money away. Really all these strategy adjustment games: Split Card poker, Crazy Times pay, Peek a Play ect just seem like money-grabbers. I do have a liking for Random Rewards though.

[alpax]

Well done Alpax, well done.

I couldn't see playing this in a casino. With the 10 coin bet and all the strategy changes I would probably feel like I was just donking money away. Really all these strategy adjustment games: Split Card poker, Crazy Times pay, Peek a Play ect just seem like money-grabbers. I do have a liking for Random Rewards though.

Thanks PPP for the compliment!

I certainly do not blame you or others if they do not wish to play this game at a live casino setting with real money wagers. I am fully understanding that the bankroll requirement is very high, feels like TDB variance wise, and the unique strategy requires much effort and might not carry over to other games.

Because of all the time I spent as a learning experience, I'll actually play some if I ever come across this game, but not a whole lot.

I am currently working on the 2nd half of the two-part summer project on a game I feel that more people would have more actual interest in playing both here on this website and at a live casino. It takes much more processing work on the computer to get it done. Stay tuned!

Thanks again for exploring this strategy guide!

[Sea Lion]

Awesome work, Alpax! I too try to stay away from games where you have to double your bet, but this one I might have to give it a shot after I replace my slippers for my flippers My work schedule has taken from my time here, but as soon as I adjust better, I'll be able to get some R&R on that coveted pier in the dock and play "King of the Hill... err Pier" once again with my fellow pinnipeds!!! Then I can train them to play Video Poker!!!

[alpax]

Awesome work, Alpax! I too try to stay away from games where you have to double your bet, but this one I might have to give it a shot after I replace my slippers for my flippers My work schedule has taken from my time here, but as soon as I adjust better, I'll be able to get some R&R on that coveted pier in the dock and play "King of the Hill... err Pier" once again with my fellow pinnipeds!!! Then I can train them to play Video Poker!!!

I appreciate the compliment Sea Lion! No matter how rough it gets, work comes first as that is the reliable resource that pays the bills. I hope things turn out better in the end and you'll do well in training folks on playing VP.

I've noticed the Weekly contest for this week is indeed Color Match Royals Poker! It is an opportunity for non-GOLD members (if you are not) to get a glimpse at the game.

I anticipate that I will post up a sneak peek of the 2nd project I was doing later today.