Video Poker Video Poker Invitational Tournament Strategy

Would some of the VP pros weigh in on the following scenario(s)?
No buy in tourney-invitational event. Double double 9/5/4. Huge money for 1st-10th. No re-entry. Two day event.


do you keep both pair or just the 4s?

do you keep both pair? the 4s? the 4s w the A?

Would you mind if I post other tourney questions?

 

In both cases, keeping both pairs is best by a wide margin in single play. In a tournament I think the difference is wide enough that it's still best to hold the two pairs. You never really know for sure in a tourney because you don't know if you must have a big payoff to be in the winner's circle.

In any well designed game, it takes a combination of strategy and luck to be a winner. In a tournament, luck becomes a much bigger factor. You have no control over the luck portion, but you're doing the right thing by thinking about decisions such as this before the play.

 

P.S.: I don't play in tournaments, but I'll try to answer your questions. Better yet, though, you should get Optimum Video Poker which makes it very easy to answer such questions for yourself. To enter the first hand select Enter Hand in the Edit menu, then type "4c4dtsth7d", press Return, then press the "a" key to analyze it. Then select Change Card 5 and type "ad" to change that one card, and press the "a" key to analyze that variation. Of course there are keyboard shortcuts for everything.

 

I have another program from Mike Shackleford, Dan, I'm sorry. What I am wondering was is there a difference in strategy because its a tournament? Thanks for your help and suggestions!

 

The difference in tournament strategy is that it's mostly luck since it is very short term. It usually takes a couple of big payoffs to win, so your strategy must be quite heavily skewed toward such hands; e.g., drawing to 2-card royals and all the large secondary jackpots. In your question above, it might even be good to draw to the pair of 4's with the ace kicker; I don't know since I'm not a tournament player, and I don't know the details of your situation.

Since tournament play is mostly luck it defies strict mathematical analysis. I'm sure there are others who will disagree with me on that last, and I hope they will post their advice. I think one would need to know the statistics of previous results in the same type of event.

If you have a good VP analysis program then why didn't you analyze the hands yourself? Perhaps the difference is in how easy it is to do with OpVP?

 

I didn't do so because computer programs don't come with opinions. I wanted the experts's opinions. I'm grateful for both your opinions and your support. You're very nice. Thank you.

 

OpVP gives advice by training you per a strategy chart of your choice. No other program actually relates your play to the chart. If I were practicing to play in a tournament, I would modify the game to greatly exaggerate the payoffs for a royal and any secondary big payoffs, then generate a strategy with those skewed payoffs, and practice with that strategy.

If desired, you can evaluate the strategy and compare the Expected Return with the normal game to see how much the bias is costing in the short term, but that's not really relevant since you're not playing for money in the short term. You win only if you get the highest score.

 

Is this sold at Gambler's General Store or only via direct mail?

 

By direct mail on my website, on Amazon, from RGE Publishing, from PiYee Press. You can also contact me by direct email at [email protected] and meet me at Sam's Town LV. I would be grateful if you would ask Gambler's General Store why they don't carry it.

 

I emailed you directly

 

A question like this came up years ago in real life. The Ramada Express in Laughlin held a VP tournament and it was obvious by the number of session that the only way to place in the BIG Money was to hit a royal during your session. We adopted a strategy where we held "ONLY CARDS THAT WOULD HIT A ROYAL". My partner Steve threw away a pat full house to hold a single Ten and hit a Royal. We placed 4th for $10,000...

 

A good tactic for such a tournament, but I have seen people playing almost that way in single game play, which of course is absolutely terrible with an expected return under 50%. I once held a single ten by accident
in a JoB type game (dealt a pair of tens, punched the buttons too fast, and only one held) and got a royal.

 

Yes it's not a good strategy for general purpose tournaments. Only for situations where ONLY the top award gets y ou into the money. And of course the instant you have hit your ONE RF, you revert to standard strategy...