Pala Casino Video Poker Tournament

[Curtis_Rich]

I just got back from Pala Casino. They held their first video poker
tournament yesterday. It was pretty bad.

It was two ten-minute sessions with no limit on number of hands dealt. The
faster you hit the deal/draw button, the more hands you could play in the
ten minutes. The game was DDB and top prize was $25,000.

Someone at Pala decided that it was a good idea to turn on the Auto Hold
feature for this tournament. That was a huge mistake.

This tournament turned out to be good for slot players - who are used to
slamming the 'spin' button without any thought process. It was not so good
for video poker players who usually change their strategies for tournament
play.

The video poker players were forced to make a decision: Either continuously
hit the deal/draw button and accept the machine's hold choices, without
regard to any strategy at all ~ or ~ unhold and hold cards, depending on
what the machine selects for each hand. One of the most annoying machine
auto holds was holding four to a flush over three to a royal. It was very
annoying to unhold the fourth card each time.

This was not an easy choice for me because reviewing each hand and then
unholding/reholding cards meant that I would get fewer hands dealt....and
fewer chances at the royal flush.

It turned out that I sat next to the second place winner ($10,000) at the
awards banquet. He is a regular video poker player, so I asked him how he
played in the tournament. He said that he chose to just slam the deal/draw
button as fast as possible and get as many hands played as possible. It
turns out that he got a royal, but never actually saw it. He was playing so
fast that the only way he knew he got a royal was when he noticed his score
was over 5,000.

So, my question to you is: What would you do in this situation? Would you
attempt to use some kind of strategy or would you just try to get lucky?

Curtis

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[tralfamidorgooglycra]

I've found that in any VP "speed tourney", it's much more important
to get the maximum number of hands dealt than to play those hands
correctly.

In fact, in a speed tourney, I rarely hold four to a flush or a
straight because in the time I take to hold four cards, I can get
dealt almost another entire hand. The EV of a 5 credit hand is about
+4.8 credits if I play "moron strategy". So, if from J1098x I just
hold the J, I come out ahead by losing about 2 credits' EV but
getting back 4+ from the additional hand. Of course, you can't extend
this to dumping pairs and such, but you get the idea. Another thing
you DON'T do is fix errors--if you have JJ77x, hold the JJ, and stop
at the last moment to hold the second pair--this would only be worth
it if the 2 pair pays 2/1. Otherwise (like on a DDB game), it isn't
worth the time spent to stop, hold the second pair, and redraw.

In fact, on DDB or DB tournament speed games, I don't hold single
face cards other than aces, preferring to draw five. I also don't
hold four to an inside straight, or three to a flush (I do hold four
to a flush if the flush pays 7 credits, or if the flush contains a
high card).

FWIW, this strategy lets me play maniacally fast, and I find when the
dust settles that I've been able to play 4-6 more hands/minute than
the competition, which gives me a HUGE advantage even if I've been
playing those hands incorrectly.

[gamblinggrandma]

I was surprised to see you post here not on the California site but I
will agree with everything you said. It was a glorified slot
tournament. Not a VP tournament. It was horrible. At least in
tournament mode it was 10/6 DDB. Wish they would leave them set with
that pay schedule and turn that stupid, atuo hold off. I saw a woman
in my husband session actually choose her cards and it slowed her
down alot but she got a pretty good score. But you had those "slot"
people walking around telling you to go as fast as you could hitting
that button. YUCK.

I just got back from Pala Casino. They held their first video poker
tournament yesterday. It was pretty bad.

It was two ten-minute sessions with no limit on number of hands

dealt. The

faster you hit the deal/draw button, the more hands you could play

in the

ten minutes. The game was DDB and top prize was $25,000.

Someone at Pala decided that it was a good idea to turn on the Auto

Hold

feature for this tournament. That was a huge mistake.

This tournament turned out to be good for slot players - who are

used to

slamming the 'spin' button without any thought process. It was not

so good

for video poker players who usually change their strategies for

tournament

play.

The video poker players were forced to make a decision: Either

continuously

hit the deal/draw button and accept the machine's hold choices,

without

regard to any strategy at all ~ or ~ unhold and hold cards,

depending on

what the machine selects for each hand. One of the most annoying

machine

auto holds was holding four to a flush over three to a royal. It

was very

annoying to unhold the fourth card each time.

This was not an easy choice for me because reviewing each hand and

then

unholding/reholding cards meant that I would get fewer hands

dealt....and

fewer chances at the royal flush.

It turned out that I sat next to the second place winner ($10,000)

at the

awards banquet. He is a regular video poker player, so I asked him

how he

played in the tournament. He said that he chose to just slam the

deal/draw

button as fast as possible and get as many hands played as

possible. It

turns out that he got a royal, but never actually saw it. He was

playing so

fast that the only way he knew he got a royal was when he noticed

his score

was over 5,000.

So, my question to you is: What would you do in this situation?

Would you

attempt to use some kind of strategy or would you just try to get

lucky?

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Curtis Rich" <LGTVegas@...> wrote:

Curtis

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]