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Slot machine players are often told they get the best payback percentage by betting maximum coins. Video poker players, who find their game is a natural for online gaming, often ask if they should bet the max, too.
On the slots, especially three-reel games and progressives, betting the max no doubt is the best play. On poker games, the issue is a little more complex because of the higher payback percentages we see on video poker, and because the jump in the top jackpot for max-coins play is so extreme.
It’s possible to find video poker games that pay in excess of 100 percent with expert play, man, such as 9-6 Jacks or Better,9-7 Double Bonus and “Not So Ugly” Deuces Wild. return more than 99-percent-plus, ad 98-percent-plus games are pretty common.
On most video poker games, a royal flush pays 250 coins with one coin wagered, then multiplies to 500 for two, 750 for three and 1,000 for four. With the maximum five coins wagered, that jackpot soars to 4,000 coins.
Essentially, on each of the first four coins we wager, we get 250 coins back when we're lucky enough to fill in a royal, but on that fifth coin, we get another 3,000. That makes an enormous difference in our per-coin payback percentages.
Let's use 9-6 Jacks or Better as an example. On most hands, we're getting the same payback per coin wagered no many how many coins we bet --- 1-for-1 on a pair of Jacks or better, 2-for-1 on two pair, 3-for-1 on three of a kind, 4-for-1 on a straight, 6-for-1 on a flush, 9-for-1 on a full house, 25-for-1 on four of a kind and 50-for-1 on a straight flush. If we don't bet the max, we get only 250-for-1 on a royal.
With that pay table, our expected return with expert play is 98.4 percent, regardless of whether we bet one, two, three of four coins. To bring our overall payback percentage to the 99.5 we expect with expert play and max coins wagered, our return on just the fifth coin has to be considerably higher. And it is. Since a royal with four coins wagered brings us 1,000 coins, we can attribute 3,000 coins of our royal bonanza to the fifth coin wagered.
What do you think the payback percentage is for a 9-6 Jacks or Better pay table that is normal in every respect, except that the royal is worth 3,000 coins per coin wagered? Would you believe 106.2 percent? That's what turned up when I ran that pay table through the Bob Dancer Presents WinPoker software.
Most video poker games give back more than 100 percent of wagers on that final coin that takes you to the max. Yes, five-coin wagers still make money for the casino, but in the long run they give less to the house and leave more for you than four-coin wagers, or even three-coin wagers.
If you're short-bankrolled and need to bet one or two coins at a time, well, there a lot worse bets in the casino than single-coin video poker. But four-coin play, and even three-coin play, is something I can't recommend. At that level, you're taking on most of the risk while limiting your potential rewards. I can't tell you to always bet the max, but four-coin play at video poker makes you the most profitable player --- for the house.
Now. there are situations in which short-coin play can actually be better for a video poker player than betting the max --- but they require a change of coin denomination.
I was in an offline casino recently that had quarter games with 8-5 Jacks or Better, dropping full house paybacks to 8-for-1 and flushes to 5-for-1. With expert play, that pay table returns 97.3 percent. The casino also had 9-6 Jacks or Better for dollar players. As we've just seen, single-coin play returns 98.4 percent on that game, so the player gets more bang for a buck there than he'd get with a max coins buck-and-a-quarter on the 25-cent 8-5 machine.
But such short-coin “opportunities” depend on getting a better pay table at a higher denomination. If pay tables are equal, your best play is to bet the max. Bet one coin if that’s what your bankroll differs, but don’t pass up the best the game has the offer by betting four coins instead of five.
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