Super Peek and Play Poker Insights for DDB Players

[alpax]

Super Peek and Play Poker is one of three games released on this website this month. This is technically not a new game/concept as it is essentially the same game as Super Look Ahead Poker developed by IGT in 2015. The biggest difference is the fact that Super Peek and Play Poker is in a multiline format compared to the single line format of Super Look Ahead poker.



I have included the quotes from credible forum members in which I learned about this information.

Super Look Ahead is a single line game also developed by IGT, which we do not have available. I'm not sure if it is actually present in casinos but I remember seeing it at the gaming show at some point in the past couple years.

My understanding is the mechanics were basically the same, but there may be differences in the interface/flow of the game. I don't know if there are any pay table differences between the two games, but both were an additional 3 credits/line for the bonus feature.



There are minor paytable changes from "Super Look Ahead". And the same thing happened between "Look Ahead" and "Peek and Play". The mechanics are exactly the same except it's a multiline format. The game idea probably was worked on initially by IGT, but the Action Gaming/videopoker.com team created the multiline VP patent, iirc. The single line version of this on the "Game Star" is virtually dead sadly. I had fun playing it in a single line format.



I got the impression that the game concept is somewhat positive by the gambling community from a few online gambling forums I’ve visited/lurked. However the biggest issue seems to be that the game is hard to find in most casinos across the nation. Hopefully the Action Gaming’s branded multi line product will be more widely available than IGT’s Game Star which Vman indicates is a dying product.

What is this game?

The game in a nutshell is an unique situation where you are dealt 5 cards initially and are allowed to peek at the top card (or the next) of the deck. The Player can essentially accept the top card or discard it from reaching the hand, but in the end the Player has to end up with 5 cards at the end of the draw. It costs 3 additional credits to play this Bonus feature which makes it 8 credits per line.

Screenshot of the Help Menu




Initially the description of the game may feel like the player gets one of 2.59 million 5 card draws, and then one of 47 cards to peek. While that might be exhaust close to 100 million possibilities, the simple way I look at this is, the Player is dealt 6 cards instead of the usual 5 in draw/video poker. The Player then eliminates the 1 card that is the least valuable to achieving a good poker hand before drawing new cards or sticking with the 5 cards. The extra card involved allows the Player to start with 6 different five card dealt hands.

For example

A ♥ 2 ♥ 4 ♦ 5 ♦ 6 ♦ 9 ♥

Will play out the same as

Draw: 2 ♥ 4 ♦ 5 ♦ 6 ♦ 9 ♥ Peek: A ♥
Draw: A ♥ 4 ♦ 5 ♦ 6 ♦ 9 ♥ Peek: 2 ♥
Draw: A ♥ 2 ♥ 5 ♦ 6 ♦ 9 ♥ Peek: 4 ♦
Draw: A ♥ 2 ♥ 4 ♦ 6 ♦ 9 ♥ Peek: 5 ♦
Draw: A ♥ 2 ♥ 4 ♦ 5 ♦ 9 ♥ Peek: 6 ♦
Draw: A ♥ 2 ♥ 4 ♦ 5 ♦ 6 ♦ Peek: 9 ♥

In all 6 of those scenarios, it is best to hold 4 ♦ 5 ♦ 6 ♦

I get a King pair dealt and the peek card is a 9 which also pairs up with a 9 which will make it two pairs.



I choose to keep the 9



The Wizard of Odds website has details about this game in the form of the single line Super Look Ahead Poker, along with the payout information for the various game variants that the Wizard received directly from his connections at IGT.

Super Look Ahead Poker at Wizard of Odds

However, near the end of the page it states under a Strategy section that “Sorry, you are on your own with that”.This is where I am inspired to take a crack at this game though it has been two years. It is a more complex game to master with potentially low reward, the casino mentioned on the page offers 97% returns for the $1 denomination, which can be very costly to play.

Another reason I do not blame the Wizard for ignoring the strategy is for the technical reasons, how he described that it takes three days of computing to come up with the paytable results. As I learned from my experiences with Super Draw 6 Card Poker, when a 6th card is involved, the complexities of the analysis gets exponentially tougher. This game was rather tough to handle as well, much trial and effort involved with the game until I found something effective. Still took many hours of computing efforts to get it done.

Standard Video Poker - 2,598,960 Deal Combinations with 32 Possible Hold Choices
Super Peek and Play - 20,358,520 Deal Combinations with 63 Possible Hold Choices

This Insight will look into the better two DDB paytables

Fror the potential casinos that will offer this game - 98.32% - 130 for 1 Straight Flush / 10 for 1 Full House / 5 for 1 Flush

For the potential videopoker.com contests - 99.42% - 100 for 1 Straight Flush / 10 for 1 Full House / 6 for 1 Flush

Strategy Part One - Training with Software

If you do find the game and wish to play it for the long haul, one drawback is that you will have invest many hours into mastering a pay schedule that is dedicated for this game and will not likely carry over to other themes.

For the most part for more than 98% of the hands dealt, knowledge of the strategy will be sufficient enough.

Step 1 - Create a custom DDB paytable on Video Poker for Winners to set up for practicing purposes

The Payout Changes for 98.32% pay schedule compared to the standard 9/5 DDB

Straight Flush - 50 to 130 (or 100 for the 99.42% pay schedule)
4 Aces - 160 to 200
4 2s, 3s, 4s with Any Ace, 2, 3, 4 - 160 to 200
4 2s, 3s, 4s - 80 to 100
4 5s thru Kings - 50 to 70
Full House - 9 to 10

Step 2 - Study the Strategy Chart Diligently

The player will have to traverse through 63 different combinations of possible holds, and make the decision based on the highest entry on the list. Some of the gaps in the strategy hierarchy can be very wide.

The biggest notable difference for this game is the increase in Straight Flush and 5s thru King Quad payouts will cause the Player to adjust his/her hold decisions.

I have included the basic strategy for this paytable from the Wizard of Odds Video Poker Strategy Maker with all inputs considered.



Here is the direct link to the 98.32% payout if you need it

Here is the direct link to the 99.42% payout if you need it

The biggest 3 adjustments that avid standard DDB Players have to make

1. 3 Cards to the Straight Flush has value and with 2 gaps, it is held over a single high Jack/Queen/King card.
2. 4 to an Outside Straight Flush is preferred over a Straight or a Flush by at least 9 credits
3. Low Pairs is held over 4 to Outside Straight

EDITED TO ADD FOR STARTERS:

When you start out playing, start from the top of the strategy chart from Wizard Of Odds to see if it is present within the 6 dealt cards. If not, move on the next highest, then the next highest until you find a set of cards that match the described rank on the hierarchy. As soon as you find the first match, hold the cards and draw new cards. As you get more accustomed to the game, this process is more faster.

Strategy Part Two - Handling Hold Scenarios Seen in 6 Card Deals

This part will cover as many deal scenarios not normally seen in a typical 5 Card deal setting. It may be incomplete. Please let me know of such scenarios. Based on 130/10/5 DDB pay schedule.

Scenario 1 - Four to Inside Straight Flush vs Three of a Kind

Dealt Cards: 2 ♥ 2 ♦ A ♥ 3 ♥ 5 ♥
Peek Card: 2 ♣
Normal Hold: A ♥ 2 ♥ 3 ♥ 5 ♥
Super Peek and Play Hold: 2 ♥ 2 ♦ 2 ♣
EV Difference: 23.37

Scenario 2 - Two Three of a Kinds with one set Aces (Keep the Aces, otherwise hold the Full House)

Dealt Cards:A ♥ A ♦ 5 ♥ 5 ♦ 5 ♣
Peek Card: A ♣
Normal Hold: A ♥ A ♦ 5 ♥ 5 ♦ 5 ♣
Super Peek and Play Hold: A ♥ A ♦ A ♣
EV Difference: 21.65

Scenario 3A - 4 to Outside Straight Flush is better than 5 Card Straight and Flush
Dealt Cards: A ♦ 10 ♥ J ♥ Q ♥ K ♦
Peek Card: 9 ♥
Normal Hold: A ♦ 10 ♥ J ♥ Q ♥ K ♦
Super Peek and Play Hold: 9 ♥ 10 ♥ J ♥ Q ♥
EV Difference: 14.89

Scenario 3B - 4 to Outside Straight Flush is better than 5 Card Straight and Flush
Dealt Cards: A ♥ 2 ♥ 8 ♥ 9 ♥ 10 ♥
Peek Card: J ♥
Normal Hold: A ♥ 2 ♥ 8 ♥ 9 ♥ 10 ♥
Super Peek and Play Hold: 8 ♥ 9 ♥ 10 ♥ J ♥
EV Difference: 8.91

Scenario 4 -Three of a Kind 5s thru Kings vs Four to Outside Straight Flush

Dealt Cards: 5 ♥ 5 ♦ 5 ♣ 2 ♥ 3 ♥
Peek Card: 4 ♥
Normal Hold: 5 ♥ 5 ♦ 5 ♣
Super Peek and Play Hold: 2 ♥ 3 ♥ 4 ♥ 5 ♥
EV Difference: 3.28

Scenario 5A - Two Suited High Cards vs 4 Card Flush
Dealt Cards: A ♥ 2 ♥ 3 ♥ J ♦ Q ♦
Peek Card: 6 ♥
Normal Hold: J ♦ Q ♦
Super Peek and Play Hold: A ♥ 2 ♥ 3 ♥ 6 ♥
EV Difference: 2.33

Scenario 5B - Two Suited High Cards vs 4 Card Outside Straight
Dealt Cards: A ♥ 7 ♦ 8 ♥ 10 ♦ Q ♥
Peek Card: 9 ♦
Normal Hold: A ♥ Q ♥
Super Peek and Play Hold: 8 ♥ 7 ♦ 9 ♦ 10 ♦
EV Difference: 0.82

Scenario 6 - Three to the Royal vs Two Pairs

Dealt Cards: 8 ♥ 8 ♦ 10 ♣ J ♣ Q ♣
Peek Card: 10 ♥
Normal Hold:10 ♣ J ♣ Q ♣
Super Peek and Play Hold: 8 ♥ 10 ♥ 8 ♦ 10 ♣
EV Difference: 0.99

Scenario 7 - Four to Inside Straight Flush vs Two Pairs

Dealt Cards: 8 ♥ 8 ♦ 9 ♥ 9 ♣ J ♥
Peek Card: Q ♥
Normal Hold:8 ♥ 8 ♦ 9 ♥ 9 ♣
Super Peek and Play Hold: 8 ♥ 9 ♥ J ♥ Q ♥
EV Difference: 11.60

Scenario 8 - Four to Flush vs Two Pairs

Dealt Cards: 2 ♥ 2 ♦ 3 ♥ 4 ♥ 7 ♥
Peek Card: 3 ♦
Normal Hold:2 ♥ 3 ♥ 4 ♥ 7 ♥
Super Peek and Play Hold: 2 ♥ 3 ♥ 2 ♦ 3 ♦
EV Difference: 4.126

Strategy Part Three- Handling Difficult Penalty Situations [More to be Added]

Here are some of the difficult scenarios that will require pure memorization of the Strategy Exception table of the Wizard of Odds Video Poker Strategy generator. It will not hurt the Player too much for neglecting these scenarios. Based on 130/10/5 DDB pay schedule.

Scenario 1 - The Toughest Hand in the Game - Ace VS Jack+Ten Scenario

Dealt Cards: A ♥ 2 ♦ 3 ♥ 7 ♥ 10 ♦
Peek Card: J ♦
Normal Hold:A ♥
Super Peek and Play Hold: J ♦ 10 ♦
EV Difference: 0.0085

Scenario 2 - Ace VS Queen+Jack Unsuited

Dealt Cards: A ♦ 5 ♦ 6 ♥ 8 ♥ J ♥
Peek Card: Q ♣
Normal Hold: A ♦
Super Peek and Play Hold: J ♥ Q ♣
EV Difference: 0.0099

Scenario 3A - King Ten Suited with Flush Penalty

Dealt Cards: 2 ♥ 5 ♦ 6 ♥ 7 ♥ K ♦
Peek Card: K ♦
Normal Hold: 10 ♦
Super Peek and Play Hold: 10 ♦ K ♦
EV Difference: 0.012

Scenario 3B - King Ten Suited with Flush Penalty and 9 Penalty

Dealt Cards: 2 ♥ 3 ♥ 9 ♥ 10 ♦ K ♦
Peek Card: 4 ♦
Normal Hold: 10 ♦ K ♦
Super Peek and Play Hold: K ♦
EV Difference: 0.0136

Scenario 4 - High Card greater than 3 to Straight Flush with 2 Gaps when inside Straight Penalty exists

Dealt Cards: 2 ♦ 6 ♥ 7 ♥ 10 ♥ J ♣
Peek Card: 8 ♦
Normal Hold: 6 ♥ 7 ♥ 10 ♥
Super Peek and Play Hold: J ♣
EV Difference: 0.0508

Scenario 5 - Two equal sets of 3 to Straight Flush with 1 gap. Prefer the one with higher rank.

Dealt Cards: 2 ♥ 3 ♥ 5 ♥ 7 ♦ 9 ♦
Peek Card: 6 ♦
Normal Hold: 2 ♥ 3 ♥ 5 ♥
Super Peek and Play Hold: 6 ♦ 7 ♦ 9 ♦
EV Difference: 0.061

Scenario 6 - If a pair exists along with 3 to a Straight Flush with 2 High Cards, and the peek card is a Straight Penalty.

Dealt Cards: 9 ♥ 9 ♦ J ♥ Q ♥ K ♦
Peek Card: 8 ♦
Normal Hold: 9 ♥ J ♥ Q ♥
Super Peek and Play Hold: 9 ♥ 9 ♦
EV Difference: 0.077

Scenario 7 - If a pair exists along with 3 to a Straight Flush with No Gaps and No High Cards, and the peek card is not a Straight Penalty.

Dealt Cards: 5 ♥ 5 ♦ 2 ♦ 6 ♥ 7 ♥
Peek Card: 10 ♦
Normal Hold: 5 ♥ 5 ♦
Super Peek and Play Hold: 5 ♥ 6 ♥ 7 ♥
EV Difference: 0.093

Scenario 8 - Penalty scenario between holding two unsuited high cards or suited Queen-Ten or Jack-Ten

Dealt Cards: 2 ♥ 3 ♥ 5 ♦ 10 ♣ K ♦
Peek Card: Q ♣
Normal Hold: K ♦
Super Peek and Play Hold: 10 ♣ Q ♣
EV Difference: 0.1484

Scenario 9 - High Straight Flush Worth makes Jack Ten suited more valuable than King Jack unsuited

Dealt Cards: 5 ♦ 6 ♥ 8 ♥ 10 ♦ K ♥
Peek Card: J ♦
Normal Hold: K ♥
Super Peek and Play Hold: 10 ♦ J ♦
EV Difference: 0.1484

Scenario 10 - Straight vs 4 to Inside Straight Flush with 2 High cards

Dealt Cards: A ♦ 10 ♥ J ♥ Q ♥ K ♦
Peek Card: 8 ♥
Normal Hold: A ♦ 10 ♥ J ♥ Q ♥ K ♦
Super Peek and Play Hold: 8 ♥ 10 ♥ J ♥ Q ♥
EV Difference: 0.435

Odds / Payout Breakdown

I am thankful that the Wizard did run through the combinations for a select few variants of the game. It required the use of a different Least Common Multiplier normalization (LCM) since it has to take into respect for 6 cards as well as 46 possible cards to draw instead of 47. I was not able to match the returns that IGT provided without this knowledge..

There are

1 way to discard the entire hand, 5 to replace (6 choose 6)
6 ways to discard 5 Cards, 1 to keep and 4 to replace (6 choose 5)
15 ways to discard 4 Cards, 2 to keep and 3 to replace (6 choose 4)
20 ways to dsicard 3 Cards, 3 to keep and 2 to replace (6 choose 3)
15 ways to discard 2 Cards, 4 to keep and 1 to replace (6 choose 2)
6 ways to discard 1 Card, 5 to keep (6 choose 1)

The LCM of 1, 6, 15, 20 is 60

So the normalization will be 60 x (52 choose 6) x (46 choose 5) for a value of 1674391363444800

130/10/5 DDB (9/5 DDB if no Bonus is played)



100/10/6 DDB (9/6 DDB if no Bonus is played)



This game does return slightly higher (about 0.4%) than its standard DDB counterpart if the Player is willing to play 3 extra credits per hand. The odds show it is easier to form the Royal Flush and 4 Aces with Kicker, at about twice the frequency. This Bonus game also reduces the high variance nature of standard DDB slightly (41.9 Variance).

The intrigue is there. I also believe this game will produce competitive contests.

I may be missing some unique 6 card hand scenarios, if you are unsure how to play a set of 6 cards, post the cards that was dealt along with the DDB or TDB pay schedule, I’ll retrieve the optimal hold decision from the massive data I’ve collected.

[Vman96]

So except for these exceptions you pointed out that have two close holds thanks to the 6 card deal, you basically just use the Wizard's strategy calculator and pick the best on the list available from your 6 cards correct?

[alpax]

So except for these exceptions you pointed out that have two close holds thanks to the 6 card deal, you basically just use the Wizard's strategy calculator and pick the best on the list available from your 6 cards correct?

That is essentially correct based on the end report I got from the output of 7 hours of computation efforts going through 20 million six card deals. Not nearly 3 days like Wizard mentioned, it was worth the effort to figure that out. The game is not intimidating as it looks. The exceptions that are listed out are not worth it when you are getting 0.4% more return over the regular game.

One key information to take into account:

4 to Outside Straight Flush has an average return of 34 credits. A straight and flush are 20 and 25 respectively so that is the reason 4 to Outside Straight is favored. But when flush is worth 30 and straight flush is worth 500, 4 to Outside Straight does not beat a Flush since it is lowered to 27 credits.

Edit: I had to recalculate the variance since I did the following incorrectly.

5 Card Variance / 2 squared. This is true when it is a 10 coin per line game.

Since it is 8 coin per line, it is 1.6 squared.

Made the readjustment and reposted the return table. The variance is now much closer to standard DDB.

[alpax]

As one last update

I included 4 more scenarios that may uniquely appear on a 6 card setting.

The response I left for Vman is vital for beginner players for this game, the most effective way to play will be to move down the Wizard of Odds strategy charts and see if you can find the hold within the six cards.

I also included a visual explanation the reason this game should be treated as if you start with 6 cards rather than being able to see the top card of the deck.

Other than that, time to let this game go to the abyss.