For royal flush only progressives:
1. The only hands that a strategy change can occur are hands where an attempt for the RF is a reasonable play.
2. All major vp software* will show you the value of each possible hold.
3. You should use such software to see the value in coins of the best play and the possible royal play at 4,000 coins.
4. Get the difference in coins between the two plays.
5. Multiply that difference by 47 if the RF is a 4 card hold, 1081 for a 3 card hold, 16215 for a 2 card hold and 178,365 for a one card hold.
6. Add that total to 4,000 and if the progressive is that value or higher go for the royal.
Sounds more difficult than it is. Here is an example:
Playing 9-6 jacks you are dealt kc, qc, jc, jh, 2d
jc, jh has an ev of 7.6827
kc, qc, jc has an ev of 7.6272
difference is 0.0555
This is a 3RF hold so multiply by 1081
product is 60
4000 + 60 = 4060 so at 4060 or more coins this would be played for the royal.
You should determine the break point for all two and three card RFs before you go to the casino. (For DB stiff A should also be looked at.) We used to have 10-7 DB in the Chicago Area and I did just this so I was ready for the game. (Actually 10-7 DB was easier with the progressive because the RF play often resolved penalty card issues.) Actually, I did that analyses on Stanford Wong VP using a 486/66 about 13 years ago. Today's software is much more user friendly.
For most non wild games the breakpoint between a 4RF and a SF is almost 11,000 coins.
Another interesting number is that in deuces wild games you can throw away the deuce from a made wild royal to draw to a 4 card natural royal at about 5,400 coins.
*Note: If you know what the progressive is before you go out to play, some of the modern VP software will let you generate a complete strategy chart. Some people just generate these charts in 1000 coin increments. Since these charts often have the values I talked about above you can do the same thing but that would be time consumming in a casino. Software that allows the generation of strategy charts are: Video Poker for Winners, Frugal Video Poker, Video Poker Strategy Master. The last of these only generates charts, the other two are full featured play programs. You will here all of these discussed often on this site.
ยทยทยท
----- Original Message -----
From: leftagaincarlson
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 8/22/2007 5:10:46 PM
Subject: [vpFREE] Progressive VP Strategy
Hi, new to this board. Having some difficulty navigating around for
information. My question is: What kind of strategy do you need to play
for Progressive games? I see them all over but remember from somewhere
that there is a different strategy for playing. I want to learn it
before jumping in.
I would appreciate any help.
CC
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