Joe-
Tom has encouraged me to provide the information that you request.
My company developed Multi-Strike Poker with IGT.
I will leave it for the people that live in Las Vegas to report where
the best paytables are. As you can see from the Casino Player
article, Multi-Strike Poker uses that same paytable values to give
approximately the same optimal return. The Free Ride values (which
can be read from the "See Pays" screen of the game) have been set
such that the optimal return is always a little higher than the
standard 1-line game with the same paytable. For example, 9-6 Jacks
or better has the same paytable as the standard version, however in
Multi-Strike, it returns 99.79% when played optimally vs. 99.54% for
the standard 1-line game.
To get the optimal return you have to make a few strategy changes.
To summarize, there is value to staying alive and this must be taken
into account when deciding the optimal hold. In the Casino Player
article, Bob Dancer gives a list of the strategy modifications for 9-
6 Jacks or Better. Surprisingly there are not many changes to make
to reach the optimal return. A user has posted this section as the
bottom message at the following link:
http://www.travel2vegas.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?
ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=000280
Now for the magic 2-4-6 numbers:
To evaluate strategy and practice, you use the following analysis.
On any of the first 3 stages, each hand pays its standard paytable
value. In addition, however, there is a value in staying alive.
That is, you can put a value on the opportunity to play more hands
because you connected with a win on a lower stage.
I will leave the mathematical explanation for Harry, but the value of
staying alive on the first stage when 4 stages have been wagered at
max-coin is 5.94 per coin bet (or very close to 6). This means that
a pair of Jacks on the first stage is worth 7 coins per coin bet (1
coin for the pair of Jacks and 6 coins for staying alive). This is
35 coins for 5 coins bet. To practice or printout the strategy for
the first stage of this game, simply enter a paytable adding 6 for
each pay categery (you can use the 5.94 number in VPSM which will
take fractional paytable values). In WinPoker, enter 7 for Pair of
Jacks, 8 for 2 Pair, 9 for 3-of-a-kind, up to 806 for a Royal Flush.
To practice or printout the strategy for the 2nd stage, add 4 to each
paytable value (Jacks = 5, Royal = 804).
To practice or printout the strategy for the 3rd stage, add 2 to each
paytable value (Jacks = 3, Royal = 802).
On the 4th stage, use your standard strategy for the game.
Also, use standard strategy for the game on any hand that has
received a free ride (since you will automatically advance thus you
only need to worry about maximizing the paytable return).
These 2-4-6 numbers are great approximations for paytables in the
vicinity of full pay and are good approximations for the rest. They
are so close that it is not expected that there would be any strategy
differences between using these numbers and the actual numbers (which
are 1.99, 3.96, 5.94 on 9-6 Jacks or Better and 2.02, 4.03 and 6.03
for Full Pay Deuces Wild for example).
Finally, for those that want to know more about the game including a
demonstration program that you can play in your web browser, you
should check out our web site at:
http://www.ledgaming.com
I hope this helps you to better understand the game, and Good Luck!
-Larry DeMar
Leading Edge Design
http://www.ledgaming.com
http://www.multistrikepoker.com
···
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, vpFREE <vpfreevp@y...> wrote:
Here's a message that came to me, rather than to the group:
*************
"Joe Pucek" <joepucek@y...> writes:
I read a Bob Dancer column on multi-strike that was
a bit over my head. Can anyone tell me where to find
more information? And where the best pay schedules are
in LV?
In particular, I did not understand the part about
adding 2 or 4 or 6 to the pay tables.
This is my first post to the group, bear with me:-)
=====
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