How to view one's dealt hand

[Alliewallie]

Thanks again for your help Phil.

[FloridaPhil]

Glad to help.  Please keep in mind that I am not a gambling expert.  I am a Recreational Player who may view things much differently than a professional.  When I make a statement, it's from my own personal experience.  My VP experience is evolving.  I have played VP for over 10 years and am still learning.  

[Alliewallie]

Yes Phil, I understand.

[MT1716]

On the original question: Forgive me if someone mentioned this and I overlooked it. Most VP machines will alert you when you have a winning/paying hand. It is done with sound sometimes and with writing on the screen telling you what the hand is. It will usually be highlighted on the "payoff lines" above the hand. When you see/hear this STOP and be very careful. 99%+ of the time you will hold this paying combination (see FP's first post in this thread for an exception). Don't be so fast or careless to see the high pair but miss the fact that you have a two pair hand--same caution for trips and FH type paying hands.

The next thing that should flash into your mind is color. If 4 or 5 of your cards are the same color, check for possible flush/sf type draws. If you have a mix of cards, low pairs and open ended straights are the next thing to examine.

After this you are trying to make the best of a bad deal. Looking for high cards and 3 card sf combos. Or maybe tossing all 5 cards and a redraw.

Often the most time is taken on the best hands (RF, sf draws) and on the worst hands. As everyone says, accuracy first and speed will come with experience.

[Alliewallie]

Great post. Thanks MT1716

[Alliewallie]

Been playing and training VP now for about 5000 hands and losing my shirt while playing 99% correctly, so I must assume that in order to get your proper return of say 98.2% return on an 8/5 JOB you've got to play dozens of hours, waiting for the royal, SF or 4 of a kind?

The comps at my casino seem pretty good so there is that, and we do like the food and freebies at this place, but I wonder if the comps at VP are a lot less than any other 'slot'? We play at Immokalee.

[Alliewallie]

BTW, I am only playing for free online and training online. No money risked yet. I don't think I made that clear on my prior post.

[Alliewallie]

So am I correct in saying that while playing 8/5 non-progressive JOB I an going to lose, on average, $25/hour playing the $.25 machine at max. coins,@ 200 HPH, until I hit a Royal? At least that what I was reading, but it makes no sense when one considers a Royal about every 40,000 hands or so. From my Rookie calculations we would need to lose continuously for at least 3 or 4 months before we even come close to breaking even. That can't be right since the VP machines are always crowded.

[DaBurglar]

So am I correct in saying that while playing 8/5 non-progressive JOB I an going to lose, on average, $25/hour playing the $.25 machine at max. coins,@ 200 HPH, until I hit a Royal? At least that what I was reading, but it makes no sense when one considers a Royal about every 40,000 hands or so. From my Rookie calculations we would need to lose continuously for at least 3 or 4 months before we even come close to breaking even. That can't be right since the VP machines are always crowded.


Welcome to the real of casino gambling, lol. People line up everyday for lottery tickets knowing the infinitesimal odds against them...video poker is easygoing compared to that!   But there's more to it that you're overlooking....

What gives knowledgeable, advanced players ( like B. dancer and others here) the ability and motivation to play is things like comps, promotions (short or long term) gifts, and other things beyond straightforward winnings and losing's.

Your post above looked at an "average", sorta worse case scenario... many people do better than that, some win lots and win often, some break even monetarily but come out slightly ahead when factoring in other forms of compensation...hence, that's why you observe crowds seemingly waiting in line to lose money, lol


Edited to add:. In one of your other posts previous to the one I quoted, you asked if the comps for VP were better or worse than other forms of slots....the answer for almost all casinos is VP comps are definitely HARDER to earn because it generally requires twice as much money, or "coin in" to earn a comp playing typical VP versus typical slots ( in some cases, more than twice as much!).

If you really have never played in a casino before, before you do, share some more info and insight on yourself and your situation, where you live and where you plan to play/gamble, so the knowledgeable people here can give you advice and guidance.

[FAA]

That's apples and oranges. Lottery is an occasional $4-$8 expense. VP is $150 per trip. I'd rather be the lottery aficionado.