I saw a game called Random Rewards multi-line video poker at Red Rock. You pay an extra coin per line, and everything from flush and higher is increased a random amount that changes with every spin. How can you calculate the EV of a game like this? It must vary greatly from the basic pay table. Do the random rewards for an extra coin help or hurt in the long run? If so, how much?
Thanks in advance for any help,
John
Happy John wrote:
I saw a game called Random Rewards multi-line video poker at Red
Rock. You pay an extra coin per line, and everything from flush
and higher is increased a random amount that changes with every
spin.
How can you calculate the EV of a game like this? It must vary
greatly from the basic pay table. Do the random rewards for an
extra coin help or hurt in the long run? If so, how much?
I don't think I've seen Dancer or Michael Shackleford ("Wizard of Odds" website) discuss this game yet.
Generally speaking, to calculate EV, you would need to know something about the distribution of improved payouts and make an assumption about appropriate strategy changes to optimize EV.
What can be relied upon to be true is that the extra coin wager isn't a "bad bet". Various state gaming laws stipulate that as additional coins are wagered on a game, the EV with optimal play can't diminish. (This was a factor that played strongly in the design of MultiStrike and the implementation of Free Ride frequencies, for example.)
Of course, "optimal play" presumes that the player correctly discerns appropriate strategy changes (e.g. what improvement in flush payouts call for 3 card flush holds, etc.) A player reasonably well-versed in multiple game strategies might be expected to wing such calls on the fly reasonably well, without sacrifice of too much EV. On the other hand, precision play will all for some hefty upfront homework and fancy footwork during play to accurately play the various paytable variations. (Not for the faint-hearted.)
While I'm not prepared to make a call on exact EV, IGT has a track record of designing games similar to this such that the 6th coin wager typically improves EV by around .1% -- again, assuming correct strategy changes are played.