Strictly Slots December 2022

PLAYER’S EDGE BY JERRY “STICKMAN” STITCH

DON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN “Identical” video poker machines might have very important differences

After about 30 minutes,he came rushing over to me, very excited.“I won $2,000!” he exclaimed. “That’s great,” I said.“Congratulations. So you cashed out $2,000 after building to that amount?” “No,”he explained.“I hit four aces for 2,000 credits!”That didn’t sound right to me. Four aces on Jacks or Better pays only 125 credits. I was ready to color up at craps anyway, so I did, and then asked him to show me the machine he played. He walked me over to the bar area and pointed to it. Sure enough, the front glass proclaimed“Jacks or Better”and the pay table showed 9-for-1 for a full house and 6-for-1 for a flush. But what my friend had failed to observe was that this was a multi-game machine, and the game that was selected was Double-Double Bonus Poker—not Jacks or Better.He had hit four aces with a“kicker”of 2 to snag the second-highest jackpot it offered. My friend got very lucky.The game he chose to play had a long term payback that was more than one-half percent less than Jacks or Better.This amounts to an additional loss of 56 cents per $100 played through the machine—20 hands at the $1 level he had been playing. Also, the variance for Double-Double Bonus Poker is about 42, com pared to 19.5 for Jacks or Better.He was just as likely to burn through several hundred dollars without any significant wins.But in this case, failure to observe caused a windfall to land in his lap. Sometimes it is indeed better to be lucky than good. The moral of this story is to be observant. Just because the glass says“Jacks or Better” is no guarantee the game you play will be Jacks or Better.Also, even though it is common to refer to full-pay Jacks or Better as 9/6 Jacks or Better, the entire pay table should be studied to make sure it is truly a full-pay Jacks or Better pay table.While my friend had been extremely fortunate, he would have normally paid dearly for his lack of observation. To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. —Marilyn vos Savant ” “

J ust because two video poker machines have the same name, and the pay tables look the same,does not necessarily mean they are exactly the same game. I was reminded of this recently when I visited a casino with a good friend of mine, who also enjoys playing video poker. He usually relies on me to point out the best machines to play. At this particular casino, I suggested he stick with the dollar 9/6 Jacks or Better game near the bar. I was in the mood to play craps, so I left him there and went to go shoot some dice.

28 DECEMBER 2022 ■ STRICTLY SLOTS ■ www.casinocenter.com