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The ABCs of Video Poker
How I Learned to Play Smart

by Henry Tamburin

Four years ago, I couldn’t have written this article. I was a 30-year winning blackjack card counter, and frankly, I didn’t see any value in playing video poker. Even the late Lenny Frome, a pioneer in developing winning strategies for video poker whom I’d met many times over the years in Las Vegas, couldn’t convince me to play the game.

Then I met Jean Scott. Jean used to be a blackjack player, but now played video poker exclusively. “Why did you switch?” I asked her. The answer: “Cashback and comps.” Now that got my attention.

Whenever my wife and I had dinner with Jean and her husband, Brad, they would give us tips about juicy casino promotions where they were getting up to 1 percent cashback on top of the 0.5-1 percent edge they had on the game. “If Jean and Brad could do it,” I began to think, “why not Linda and Henry?”

So after we purchased a house in Henderson, NV (a stone’s throw from Las Vegas, the video poker capital of the world), we decided to give video poker a try. But first we had to learn how to play smartly. This took some time, but in the end it was worth it.

Today, Linda plays mostly video poker and only plays games when she has the edge over the house (mostly deuces wild). I split my time between blackjack and video poker. In the past two years that we’ve played video poker regularly, we’ve had a profit in both years (yes, we keep records—more about that in a minute); and this doesn’t include the cashback, bounce-back, free meals and gifts, and other goodies that have flooded our mailbox.

What follows is the process we used to become smart video poker players. Perhaps you

can benefit from our experience.

Learning how to play video poker skillfully requires mastering three ABC skills.

The first one is easily learned. You simply have to know what the highest paytable is for the video poker game that you want to play, and then go find that paytable in a casino. When I started the process of learning what the best, or “full-pay schedules” were, for Jacks-or-Better, Deuces Wild and Double Bonus machines (the three games that I concentrated on initially), I consulted books by Lenny Frome (Winning Strategies for Video Poker) and Jean Scott (Frugal Gambler), articles and reports by Bob Dancer, and Internet sites that cater to video poker players (I recommend Skip Hughes’ www.vphomepage.com and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VPfree/). Those sites also provided valuable information about where I could find these full-pay machines in Las Vegas (doing this alone is no easy task when you think about the number of casinos and video poker machines there are in Las Vegas).

Next I tackled the B skill, learning the correct playing strategy for each game. This wasn’t as difficult as you might think. The playing strategies were readily available in books, reports, strategy cards, and on the Internet. I also choose to use the WinPoker software by Dancer/Zamzow to practice the playing strategies and perfect my accuracy. In short order, I was playing with 99 percent-plus accuracy. Linda also used the software to master Deuces Wild, a game she felt had an easy-to-learn playing strategy (I agree). Even today, after playing thousands of hours of video poker in the casinos, we still test our accuracy using a software program before we head out to play, or before I switch from playing one video poker game to another. My advice is to learn the playing strategy for one game well before you try to learn another one.

We also did two things in the beginning to ensure that we’d be playing accurately. First, we played as a team on the same machine. We figured two heads were better than one, and this turned out to be the case. Sometimes Linda would not hold the right cards, and I would catch it before she hit the draw button or vice versa (yes, even I made some playing mistakes in the beginning). Secondly, we’d always bring the Dancer/Daily strategy cards with us when we played and consulted them on those rare hands when we weren’t 100 percent sure of the correct play. By using this team approach with the strategy cards close at hand, we were able to build up our confidence—knowing that we were playing accurately at all times.

Jean also gave us another tip when we got started playing video poker. “Bring along a record book and keep track of your playing sessions,” she would admonish us, “because you’ll need the information when you file your tax returns.” We heeded her advice. Linda always brings the logbook, strategy cards, and players club cards when we play.

Speaking of player cards, we got ’em and we use ’em… but more importantly, we disciplined ourselves to play video poker only in casinos that offer a decent cashback or comp rate, and only during multiple-point promotions—the very important C skill. Finding information about these promotions turned out to be easy. We just let our fingers do the walking and consulted these resources: “Player’s Edge” column by Jeff Compton and Bob Dancer (it appears every Friday in the Neon section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (you can also read the column at www.lvrj.com, click on Neon); the list of Vegas Values by Scot Kraus at www.americancasinoguide.com (click on Casino Promotions), the Bonus Slot Club Points at www.lasvegasadvisor.com (maintained by Scot Krause and Jean Scott), and Charles Lund’s Las Vegas Slot Clubs and Promotion Guide on the Viva Las Vegas page at www.advantageplayer.com. The latter two sites also give the percent cashback and/or comps each casino is willing to give video poker (and slot) players.

Linda and I review these resources weekly, decide which promotions and casinos are worth playing, and then write the information in our planner. By scheduling our playing time, we maximize the amount of cashback, bounce-back and comps that we receive.

Since we started playing video poker on a regular basis, there have been several other (mostly new) products that I’ve used and recommend. They include the comprehensive Winner’s Guides by Bob Dancer and Liam Daily, Frugal Video Poker software by Jim Wolf and Jean Scott, Frugal Video Poker strategy cards by Skip Hughes, More Frugal Gambling by Jean Scott, and the video poker cue cards by Dan Paymar. Trust me, you won’t go wrong with any of these products.

Do we win every time we play video poker? No, but we also learned to expect fluctuations in our bankroll because that’s just the nature of the game. I strongly encourage you to read about bankroll fluctuations and risk of ruin in Dan Paymar’s book, Video Poker: Optimum Play, and his newsletter (Video Poker Times). Jean Scott also does a good job explaining variance, volatility and video poker bankrolls in her new book More Frugal Gambling.

A big part of our success has been our good fortune with royal flushes; we’ve hit three. The big one was a $2,000 royal that Linda hit on a quarter, 10-coin, full-pay Deuces Wild machine at Fiesta Henderson casino. She was thrilled when they took her picture; you can see it on the Winners wall located at the top of the escalator.

Hopefully, you’ve picked up a few pointers that will help you take the plunge and learn how to play video poker the smart way. It’s definitely worth it, and that’s coming from a diehard blackjack player.

Dr. Henry Tamburin is a casino gambling expert and teacher of “smart playing” to gamblers everywhere. For details on his two-day Golden Touch Blackjack course featuring Speed Count call 866/WIN-BJ21. To order copies of his books and tapes at a 30 percent discount, visit www.smartgaming.com. To receive a free subscription to his Blackjack Insider e-newsletter, visit www.bjinsider.com. For a free copy of his Casino Gambling catalog call toll-free 888/353-3234.

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