I've been trying to figure out why the 4-5 game (only 4 cards are
dealt) can have such a great pay table, but a return lower than
100%. As noted previously, there is no software to calculate the
return. I did not see the magazine article mentioned, which may have
had a better explanation, but these may be some of the reasons for
the negative return:
20% of the time, a hand with a winning high pair with 5 cards
dealt, won't have that high pair playing 4-5. That includes two
dealt Aces, which pays 2 to 1.
20% of the time, a hand with a low pair with 5 cards dealt, won't
have that low pair playing 4-5. So you may hold the high cards
instead and miss quad/3K opportunities.
20% of the time, a hand with two pairs with 5 cards dealt,
won't have those two pairs playing 4-5. If one of those two pairs is
two Aces, you won't know it.
20% of the time, a 4 card flush with 5 cards dealt, won't be
a 4 card flush playing 4-5.
20% of the time, a 4 card flush plus a high card, with 5
cards dealt, won't have that high card with 4-5.
Many hands with 1-4 high cards with 4-5 would be a winning
high pair with 5 cards dealt, but you won't know it, so you have to
guess which high cards to hold (all of them I suppose).
You'll never get a dealt FH, Straight, Flush, SF, or RF.
Bottom line, this game must have a very high variance, because you'll
miss many chances for lower paying wins.
I haven't played this game yet, but today I was sitting next to
someone who was. When he finished, I asked him his opinion. He said
he liked it, but the wins are few and far between, but big when they
happened. Then he added the way to win is to hold deuces. I
said, "you mean, for deuces wild?" No, he said, for any game,
because the game deals lots of deuces. So, as you can see, it's easy
to be confused by this game.