|
|  |
 |
Casino consultant |
|
 |
|
Thursday, August 28th 2008 |
|
A savvy player should not think of nickel video poker machines the same way that they do nickel slots, since the payouts on a VP machine can be determined by the payout schedule, which is never the case with slot machines, regardless of their denomination.
It is profitable to play nickel VP machines whenever the posted payback is at 100% or more, and always on full pay. Most of these will be progressives. The average 8/5 Jacks or Better machine has a royal at least $475. While such circumstances are rare, they do occur in the more competitive markets like Vegas.
On a Deuces Wild machine, since the game pays only for trips or better, players shouldn't bothering holding two pairs dealt by the machine, unless the payoff on a Full House is 20:5 or more. Which pair the player holds or discards is completely up to them, as it doesn't matter if they're low or high cards.
Although the RNG (Random Number Generator) inside the VP machine chooses the combination of cards the moment the first coin goes in, the extra coins played will multiply the win should a winning hand be selected, which is why its always important to play 5 coins at all times, if possible.
The payoff on slots is far less reliable. The percentage payoff on a slot machine is set up over a series of one million spins. That means that over the course of 1,000,000 spins, the payback will total 85% of all the money put in. However, within that series of spins could be several sizable 'wins'. These wins could be one after the other, or they could occur once every 50,000 spins. Who knows? The only thing certain is that the casino will keep 15% of all the money put into the machine, and the casino knows that in the course of 1000 spins, nearly anything can happen. The casino accepts that risk as part of the game.
In summation, those players who favor nickel slots would be much better off switching over to nickel video poker because, on the whole, payouts are higher and far more predictable, since there are far fewer combinations.
|
|
|
