Whether
you’re new to video
poker or a long time
player, you’ve
probably heard lots of
unusual names for the
games. As its popularity
continues to increase,
manufacturers are
creating even more
varieties of video
poker for players to
choose from, which can
cause confusion.
Sometimes it’s
difficult to find the
game you’re looking
for—that’s the
one with the best
payback table available
within a casino. One
important step is to
sort out the game names
before you even step
into the casino.
What’s the Difference
Between a 9/6 and an 8/5
Video Poker Game?
Experienced video poker
players will often refer
to a 9/6 Jacks or
Better game or an 8/5
Jacks or Better game. Of
course you can even
have a 7/5 or another
set of two numbers to
name the specific Jacks
or Better game. What do
these numbers mean?
The first number in the
9/6 designation
indicates that for each
coin bet you will
receive 9 coins back for
a Full House. The second
number indicates
that for each coin bet,
you will receive 6 coins
back if you have a
Flush. What do you think
an 8/5 Jacks or Better
game means? If you
said that you would
receive 8 coins back for
every coin bet on
a Full House and 5 coins
back for every coin bet
on a Flush, then
you were right. In other
words these numbers
signify the return
you will receive on your
money for the Full House
and the Flush
hands, in that order.
How Important are these
Differences?
You might wonder just
how important these
differences are in terms
of dollars and cents. To
make it easy to
understand I’ll use
approximations that are
close to the actual
value. If you change the
9 on the 9/6 game to an
8, then your return will
be decreased by
approximately 1.1%. If
you change the 6 to a 5,
then you will lose
approximately another
1.1%. All in all you
will lose about 2.2% of
your theoretical
expected return by
choosing an 8/5 Jacks or
Better game over a
9/6 Jacks or Better
version. Approximately
how much do you
think you’d lose
choosing a 6/5 Jacks or
Better game —there are
many of these around —
over a 9/6 Jacks or
Better? If you said
4.4%, then you
were right. If the game
is Jacks or Better, then
you simply
subtract 1.1% for every
coin shortage in either
the Full House or the
Flush from the 9/6
version. The 9/6
version has an expected
return of 99.54%
with accurate
play—this means the
8/5 version has an
expected return of
97.34%
(99.54%-2.2%=97.34 %).
Let’s look at the cost
in terms of actual
money. We’ll compare
the cost per hour
of choosing an 8/5
version of Jacks or
Better over a 9/6
version of the game. Say
you’re playing a
dollar machine—it will
cost you $5 for a
maximum bet for each
hand you play. (One
dollar times five,
the usual maximum
bet—you need to make
the maximum bet to
get the full return on a
Royal Flush.) From the
discussion above you
can see the cost in
theoretical payback
percentage is 2.2%. Your
theoretical loss will be
11¢ per hand — .0022
x $5 — which may not
seem like much. However,
if you play just 600
hands per hour, a
relatively slow pace,
then you will
theoretically receive
$66 less per hour
by choosing 8/5 Jacks or
Better instead of 9/6
Jacks or Better.
So how important is it
to find the 9/6 version
rather than a lesser
paytable? Major
importance, if you want
to hang on to your
bankroll. Also,
the higher the
denomination you choose
the more significant it
is to find the full-pay
version of the game.
How are Deuces Wild
Games Named?
Coyote Ugly Deuces.
Not-So-Ugly Deuces.
Full-Pay Deuces.
Downtown Deuces.
Illinois Deuces. These
are all names for
different versions
of the popular game that
won’t appear on the
machine. Why? It’s
because these colorful
names weren’t given to
the games by the
casinos or the
manufacturers, but by
the players themselves.
While this may seem
confusing, you can learn
a lot about a game from
the name bestowed on it
from fellow players.
What, for instance, do
you think players are
saying when they choose
a name like Coyote
Ugly? If you guessed
that this isn’t a
player advantage game,
then you’re
right.
With the exception of
Coyote Ugly
Deuces—this can refer
to any deuces game
with a bad paytable—if
players assign a game
name there must be
an exact match for it to
be the right game. For
example, if
anything is different on
the paytable, then the
game isn’t Full Pay
Deuces Wild. Even with a
single change on the
paytable it’s not the
right game—there’s
no such thing as several
“versions” of Full
Pay Deuces Wild or
Illinois Deuces Wild.
Sometimes, however,
Deuces Wild games are
named by the
manufacturer and
you will see that name
on the glass of the
machine or on the game
menu offered. Examples
are Loose Deuces, Bonus
Deuces, Barbaric
Deuces, Double Deuces
and several others. In
this case you can’t
rely on the name
because the paytable may
be different for games
with the same
game. In other words
there are several
versions of Loose
Deuces, due to
differences on the
paytable. If the game is
named by the
manufacturer, then, you
might find several
“versions” of the
same game with a
variety of paytables.
Now that you know there
are many different
deuces wild games and
even many different
versions of the same
game, you’ll
understand the
need to consider your
game choice beforehand.
Some of these games
are player advantage
games, meaning the
player has the edge over
the casino, and
they’re usually named
by the players. Others
are house
advantage games, meaning
the casino has the edge
over the player, and
they’re usually named
by the manufacturer. The
important thing for
you is finding the best
deuces game available in
the casino.
Final Thoughts
There are many different
names for video poker
games; sometimes the
name is the same but the
games are different. The
best way to be sure
you’ve found the game
you’re looking for is
to bring paytables to
the casino and
match them with the one
on the machine.
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