The 14 Most Common Video Poker Mistakes to Avoid
Video poker is often considered as one of the lowest house edges at the casino, but taking advantage of it requires both patience and persistence. Unfortunately, beginning and intermediate gamblers often make the task even more difficult by committing one or more mistakes. This has a major impact on their long-term potential return, and it can mean the difference between winning and losing during a period of play (whether weekly, monthly, or yearly). Here are 14 Most Common Video Poker Mistakes.
To help you combat these annoying video poker errors, here I have rounded up a list of the most frequent blunders and also the solutions how to avoid them. Even if you’re guilty of an embarrassing number of these mistakes, keep your chin up and remember that you’re now taking steps to improve your play.
14 Video Poker Mistakes
1. Not Joining the Poker Club
Whether you’re playing in Las Vegas, Macau, or one of the numerous other casinos around the globe, it’s likely that a player’s club card will be made available to you. All you have to do is sign up, get your free card, and then insert it into the machine just before playing. This is one of the 14 Most Common Video Poker Mistakes.
This helps the casino to track your wins and losses, as well as your overall playing habits. It also gives them an opportunity to decide who might be a valuable long-term customer, which often results in coupons and comps being delivered through the mail.
Video poker players often experience lengthy dry spells while waiting for the next royal flush payout, so promos and freebies have a major impact on their overall success. In fact, some of the biggest names in the VP world have pointed to slots club cards as the single most important item for advantage players to possess.
2. Not Looking the Pay Table
The pay table tells the player exactly what to expect from the game in terms of potential prizes, and it’s the most vital piece of available information. It also happens to be free, assuming, of course, that you bother to look at it. This is one of the 14 Most Common Video Poker Mistakes.
Often many players put money into a machine without examining the information staring them in the face. Casinos often put seemingly identical machines in a bank, although their pay tables can differ a great deal from one game to the next.
When you’re playing a specific game, you always want to choose the machine that offers the largest possible winnings. You can’t do this without examining the pay table, so always make this your first order of business before sitting down.
3. An Aversion to Grinding
If you’re serious about winning at video poker, you’ve got to be willing to play thousands upon thousands of hands. Sure, any fool can get lucky on occasion, but it’s the grinders who are going to stand the strongest chance of making a profit. This is one of the 14 Most Common Video Poker Mistakes.
Just keep this fact in mind: a royal flush usually turns up about every 40,000 hands. Are you willing to play through the other 39,999 in order to get it? If the answer is “no,” then perhaps video poker isn’t the game for you. In fact, you might want to quit the casinos entirely and just start buying lottery tickets.
4. Drinking at the Casino
Although casinos are more than happy to offer free alcoholic beverages to their patrons, it is not good to drink. Because when players start drinking, they make more errors than usual. Even if you’re not feeling the effects of the alcohol, you can rest assured that it’s working internally to slowly dull the effectiveness of your brain. Stick with sodas, coffee, and water; your bankroll will thank you in the long run.
If you do decide to partake in a few mixed drinks, always wait several hours before getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. I know this isn’t really about gambling, but it’s hard to enjoy video poker if you are not in your senses.
5. Not Playing the Most Lucrative Machines
Before you visit a casino, you should do some serious online research and locate the most potentially profitable video poker machine on the premises. Once you’ve located the game, learn about the rules and find the corresponding strategy for perfect play.
Once you’ve done it all, either make yourself a strategy card or set about memorizing the proper plays for every possible hand. When you arrive at the casino, this combination of preparation and scouting should place you in the best possible position for success.
6. Failure to Practice
Once you’ve started committing the proper plays for a game to memory, you’ll need to give your expertise some help through the time-honored tradition of practice. The cheaper option is to make a series of flashcards. Put a certain hand on one side of the card, then list the proper play on the back. Consult these cards whenever you have some free time, always striving to commit their details to memory.
The second option requires a modest investment, but it is fruitful in the long run. It is better to buy yourself a video poker trainer, which is a product that allows you to play through an unlimited number of VP hands. If you make an incorrect play, the software alerts you to the mistake and shows the correct play. You’ll also be graded on your overall accuracy, and it’s advisable to stay away from the real thing until this number has surpassed 95%.
7. Failure to Risk Maximum Coins
The ultimate goal in most video poker games is the royal flush, and you’ll usually need to risk the highest possible number of coins in order to be eligible for the bonus payout. There are many gambler who might have missed out on thousands of dollars’ payout because they decided to play four coins instead of five. Don’t be like that guy.
8. Avoiding Progressives
Some players play nothing but progressive machines, while others avoid them like the plague. The smartest approach, however, lies somewhere in the middle of these two schools of thought.
In most cases, progressives do tend to pay out at a lower rate than other video poker or slot machines. However, if you encounter two otherwise identical machines and one of them offers a progressive jackpot, you’d be wise to give it a try. Just remember to wager the maximum number of coins per hand.
9. Improper Bankroll Management
Noted video poker expert Bob Dancer once remarked that anyone who’s relying on a royal flush to save their bankroll is playing at a denomination that’s too high. Bankroll management is an important skill for the serious gambler, and failure to guard your money can result in devastating losses and a quick exit from the casino.
Before you play, always determine how much money you’re willing to lose. If you reach that dubious milestone during the session, stop playing immediately. The worst thing you can do is continue, especially if it means dipping into money that’s earmarked for essentials like rent and insurance.
You should also be careful to play at a level you can afford. Video poker players often have to endure long stretches without significant wins, so anyone who’s not properly prepared is going to go broke while waiting for a big payout.
10. Believing in Gambling Superstitions
Players often fall prey to common superstitions about gambling, and some conjure up with nonsensical ideas all on their own. Here’s an example of the latter: I have a friend who always stands on three-of-a-kind, regardless of the game, pay table, or other cards. He’s sure that this is the proper tactic, even if he passes up a potentially larger payout in the process.
As far as superstitions and myths go, the world of gambling is full of them. A lot of players used to be certain that warm coins resulted in a greater chance of winning, so they would breathe on them or rub the coin between their fingers before inserting it into the machine. Sure, this kind of silliness sounds harmless, but anything that takes the player’s mind off the cards should always be avoided.
Some beliefs are more detrimental, though, such as always drinking a certain alcoholic beverage at the casino, playing a “lucky” machine, or choosing a game because it’s “due” to pay out. This sort of behavior can result in losses at an accelerated rate, so learn to think for yourself as soon as possible.
11. Failure to Learn Proper Strategy
Proper strategy is the cornerstone of long-term success at video poker. By making the best possible moves based on your initial draw, you put yourself in the strongest position to wind up with a winning hand. It doesn’t matter if this is done with memorization or a strategy card, just as long as you do it.
It should also be noted that each game requires a different strategy. What works for Jacks or better won’t be effective during a hand of Double Double Bonus Poker. Always know your chosen game and plan any strategies accordingly.
12. Lack of Dedication
Focus is important when playing video poker, whether you’re sitting in a crowded casino or enjoying the virtual equivalent in your living room. While it’s impossible to totally shut out the world around you, every effort should be made to concentrate more on the cards than what your waitress is wearing or what’s on television. This might sound like a minor detail, but a lack focus can easily lead a gambler to make an incorrect play and blow an otherwise winnable hand.
13. Leaving Your Strategy Card at Home
A strategy card informs gamblers of the strongest play for every possible hand on a specific video poker machine. The best cards are both unobtrusive and laminated, and most casinos have no restrictions regarding their usage.
Despite this fact, a large number of players don’t bother to bring their strategy cards to the casino. This can result in improper play, which, in turn, can result in an unnecessary loss of money.
Unless you want to commit every possible option to memory, a strategy card is essential for success. Nobody is going to think less of you for using one, especially when it helps you win more than everyone seated around you. That being said, this is one item that should be packed even before your toothbrush and comb.
14. Playing on a Problematic Machine
At brick-and-mortar casinos, the average pokie or video poker machine undergoes a significant amount of wear and tear. Cigarette smoke is constantly trying to penetrate the outer shell, beverages are spilled on the control panel, and irate customers have been known to punch or kick a less-than-generous game.
Machines on the casino floor generally weather this abuse without much issue. There are times, however, when the video poker controls can succumb, which results in a not-so-scientific term known as “sticky buttons.” This means that one or more buttons can hang, causing the player to wind up with a card that’s something other than what they wanted.
If you find yourself at such a machine, don’t continue to play like nothing’s wrong. A button that’s sticking is bound to cost you money in the long term, so either locate another machine to play or inform the casino staff and wait until it’s been fixed.
Synopsis
Tuning a consistent profit at the casino is hard enough, but most gamblers unwittingly make things more difficult for themselves. Fortunately, the most common video poker mistakes can usually be corrected without too much anguish on the part of the player.
Even if you’ve been committing the same video poker errors for years, it’s never too late to make a change for the better. Once you take the initial steps towards improving your overall game, you should experience more wins and a greater sense of enjoyment. And, ultimately, isn’t that what a trip to the casino is all about?
