vp simulator

[asteroid]

Are there any vp simulators out there that allow for bet variations during an n-hand simulation ? I'd hate to reinvent the wheel if there were.thanks.

[FloridaPhil]

I'm not sure what you are asking.  If you mean being able to simulate playing VP  for money and changing your denomination between bets, Dancer's Video Poker for Winners allows this. 

[asteroid]

Hi Phil, what I mean is the bet size remains constant until a particular hand is observed (or changes after a certain # of hands are played):So, for example, you set a vp simulator to play 500 hands at 1 coin in unless you hit a full house at which time the simulator changes the bet to 2 coins for the remainder of the 500 hands. It sounds like vpw does this from what you wrote.thanks.

[FloridaPhil]

It does not  change the bet automatically.  You would have to manually play the game and change it as you play.  One of the advantages of VPW is that you can play with money denominations not just credits.  My strategy involves changing the denomination when certain parameters occur.  As far as I know VPW is the only VP software that allows you to do this. 

[asteroid]

Thanks Phil. FYI Wolf video poker also allows the player to manually change the denomination (up to $usd1000 coin sizes) or bet size (up to a maximum of 5 coins) as they play. It sounds like neither of the two software packages allow changes during simulation.

[Vman96]

Yeah, unfortunately I'm not aware of anything like that.

[asteroid]

Thanks guys. Maybe I'll try something in Excel.

[FloridaPhil]

I'm pretty familiar with Excel and don't think that's going to do the job.  Pulling cards randomly from a 52 card deck is no easy programming task.  I've been a computer programmer all my life and have thought about the routine it would take a number of times.  The problem is simulating true randomness.   Anything less wouldn't be accurate.  I'm pretty sure VPW and the games on this website are not random in the true sense of the word.   It would be fun to discuss this issue with the person or persons wrote the code.

[asteroid]

Fair enough Phil. I was thinking of using MSquery which is an Excel add-on. Then make 5 db tables which are each a copy of a 52 card deck (and thus an exact copy of one another). then do a 5-way join of the tables with the constraint that only those rows where none of the individual cards are equal to one another are pulled - the result is a table of all possible draws. From there I would apply some visual basic to randomly pull a row from this draw table such that it represents the draw for hand. From there the work begins since the EV would need to be calculated for the best hold followed by a new sql query to pull the replacement cards etc.  So a db table with the payoff lines for a given hold and deal result would also need to be saved off.In any case it is quite surprising that bet and denomination changes are not features offered by the most popular vp software packages. De-compiling the commercial vp software and adding this functionality is not an option since it is illegal to do so.As you know, a given sequence of hand results with the same # of hands is only equal if each outcome is equal:so TTTH has the same probability as HHTT since heads and tails have the same probability of occurrence.However let F=prob of two pair in full pay bonus poker and N= any other hand for full pay bonus poker:the probability of observing the 16 hand sequence NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN (no two-pairs in 16 hands) is not equal to observing 1 or more two-pairs in 16 hands, therefore if one observes the 15 hand sequence NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN , the sequence created by the 16th hand being F (two pair ) is greater than the sequence created by observing a non-two pair (N). therefore increasing the bet a little after the 15th had is a good idea since the probability of the creation of a sequence where the 16th hand is a full house is greater than the sequence where the 16th card is not two pair. it would be nice to simulate this to figure out the optimal bet increment. Obviously each hand and each sequence are independent of one another, but it is also true that if we think in terms of sequences, once sequence has a greater chance of occurring than another since different hand outcomes have different probabilities of occurrence (two pair=12.9% with optimal holding in full pay bonus poker).I'm pretty familiar with Excel and don't think that's going to do the job.  Pulling cards randomly from a 52 card deck is no easy programming task.  I've been a computer programmer all my life and have thought about the routine it would take a number of times.  The problem is simulating true randomness.   Anything less wouldn't be accurate.  I'm pretty sure VPW and the games on this website are not random in the true sense of the word.   It would be fun to discuss this issue with the person or persons wrote the code.

[FloridaPhil]

I developed a similar strategy that works well for me.   Over a two year period, I posted over $18,000 worth of jackpots on this website playing 90% single coin VP.   I was severely criticized because it went against traditional advantage play strategy promoted by professional video poker players.  After a long and nasty battle, I agreed to move the discussion of alternative strategies to the Recreational Forum.   Many forum members are of the opinion that there is only one way to win at VP, play positive games perfectly and wait for math to work in your favor.   Unfortunately, most VP games are not positive and these opportunities are quickly disappearing.  There is a need to discuss alternative strategies when playing negative VP games.   These strategies do not conflict in any way with traditional strategies that have been well proven on positive games.  If you would like to discuss any alternative strategy, please start a thread on the Recreational Forum and I will be happy to respond.