| Over the course of the discussion, one answer came from Bob Dancer, a video poker pro and author whose strategy cards do include special plays for hands with penalty cards. Dancer is not a member of the group, but he relayed a response through Hughes. Playing video poker well takes a lot of time practicing on the computer, he says, and the best video poker software available, Bob Dancer Presents WinPoker by Dean Zamzow, does take penalty cards into account when it warns players that they are misplaying a hand. It is easier, he says, for players to learn the penalty card rules as they practice than to learn when NOT to take the computer's advice. What to do? It depends. If you're trying to learn by rote off strategy sheets, it's easier to learn a strategy without penalty cards. In jurisdictions that allow you to use strategy cards while you play, most players will be quicker and more accurate with a streamlined strategy. But if you're learning by practicing on WinPoker, you may be just as well off to learn the penalty card rules, small though the gain may be. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So a good game for a card counter isn't necessarily a good game for everyone else, and vice versa." Right. Sometimes players' interests are at odds. A counter wants a fast game, but it's better for the large majority of players to have a slow one. A machine-shuffled game--but not a game with a continuous shuffler that makes it impossible to count--suits counters, but most players are better off with a hand-shuffled game. Playing head-to-head with the dealer, or with few other players, speeds the game up for a counter, but playing at a full table reduces exposure to the house edge for the masses. "Should I go out of my way to look for a slower game?" House rules are more important. If other rules are equal, the house edge is lower with fewer decks. It's better if the dealer stands on all 17s instead of hitting soft 17. We want to be able to split and resplit pairs. Often, the house won't let us resplit Aces--it's a plus if we can. We want to be allowed to double down on any first two cards--it's a negative if the house restricts double downs to two-card totals of 9, 10 or 11, or even just 10 or 11, as some do. We'd prefer to be permitted to double down after splitting pairs--if we split a pair of 8s, then draw a 3 for an 11 on one hand, we usually want to double. And if surrender is offered, that helps, too. "You're saying an ideal game uses one deck, the dealer stands on all 17s, we can resplit pairs, double on any first two cards, double after splits and surrender if we want to?" What about jumping on the streak and betting the hot numbers? Let's say we wagered $1 a spin on single-number bets on these numbers. We'd risk a total of $3,800. Single-number bets pay 35-1 odds, so on each of our 102 winners, we'd get $35 in winnings plus the return of our $1 wager, giving us a total of $3672. |
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