vpFREE2 Forums

Shockwave in Tunica

#1

After you run the "shockwave" strategy, you may want to note the frequency
of the 4 of a kind bonus in that mode (via Winpoker or Frugal VP) and use
it to adjust the value when generating a strategy for the regular portion
of the game. EG: If in shockwave mode the quad occurs slightly more often
than once in 400 hands you have about one chance in 40 of getting it in ten
tries so add 100 to the value of the regular quad. I think the normal
paytable is 4000/500/125/60/40/25/15/5/5 (Not sure on the SF.) I do not
know the paytable in Tunica but if it is less the 60/40/25 for the FH, FL
and ST (about 99.6% total EV) then find a different game. Common bad
versions pay 50/40/30 and 50/40/25. all three of these paytables exist in
the Chicago area where I am from.

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[Original Message]
From: Pat McM <pmcmillan_2002@yahoo.com>
To: <vpFREE@Yahoogroups.com>
Date: 9/28/2004 12:32:39 PM
Subject: Re: [vpFREE] Shockwave in Tunica

Stuart wrote:

> I'm preparing to leave for Tunica on Thurs, & I'd love some info on
> the "Shockwave" game now available at the Gold Strike. I don't
> understand how the shockwave feature works, & don't know if I can get
> a strategy from VPSM. Can anyone help? Thanks.

The shockwave gimmick is that anytime you get a quad,
another quad in the next 10 hands pays 4000 credits.

I've never played shockwave and don't know what
strategy changes are appropriate, but you could
manufacture a SW phase strategy by setting up quads
for 4000 credits in VPSM.

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#2

Howard Stern wrote:

After you run the "shockwave" strategy, you may want to note the frequency
of the 4 of a kind bonus in that mode (via Winpoker or Frugal VP) and use
it to adjust the value when generating a strategy for the regular portion
of the game.

snip

Respectfully, I disagree. You should use regular strategy -- unaffected by the shockwave feature -- at all times except for the 10 games immediately following quads; during those 10 games, you should use modified strategy.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

#3

Bill Velek <billvelek@a...> wrote:

Respectfully, I disagree. You should use regular strategy --
unaffected by the shockwave feature -- at all times except for
the 10 games immediately following quads; during those 10 games,
you should use modified strategy.

That's what I was planning to do, since it's as far as my simple mind
can grasp. But theoretically, since the shockwave-mode return is much
greater than the regular-mode return, mightn't perfect play include
some changes in regular-mode strategy in order to increase the
frequency of the shockwave mode (i.e., increase the frequency of the
*first* quad hits so you'll have additional chances for the *second*
quad hit)?

Stuart (RandomStu)

#4

Stu: I believe that you are absolutely correct. You should take the value of the Shockwave quads into consideration when forming a strategy for the regular game.
I haven't done this so I don't know what the result would be (gut feeling says don't change strategy), but it is the best approach.

Regards
A.P.

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----- Original Message -----
  From: Stuart
  To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
  Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 3:18 PM
  Subject: [vpFREE] Re: Shockwave in Tunica

  Bill Velek <billvelek@a...> wrote:
  > Respectfully, I disagree. You should use regular strategy --
  > unaffected by the shockwave feature -- at all times except for
  > the 10 games immediately following quads; during those 10 games,
  > you should use modified strategy.

  That's what I was planning to do, since it's as far as my simple mind
  can grasp. But theoretically, since the shockwave-mode return is much
  greater than the regular-mode return, mightn't perfect play include
  some changes in regular-mode strategy in order to increase the
  frequency of the shockwave mode (i.e., increase the frequency of the
  *first* quad hits so you'll have additional chances for the *second*
  quad hit)?

  Stuart (RandomStu)

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

#5

First Howard Stern wrote:
"After you run the "shockwave" strategy, you may want to note the
frequency of the 4 of a kind bonus in that mode (via Winpoker or
Frugal VP) and use it to adjust the value when generating a strategy
for the regular portion of the game."

Bill Velek replied:
"Respectfully, I disagree. You should use regular strategy --
unaffected by the shockwave feature -- at all times except for the
10 games immediately following quads; during those 10 games, you
should use modified strategy."

My two cents:
It's a bimodal machine so the correct strategy would depend on the
objective and constraints. If someone wants to use a "play-all" or
basic strategy, then Howard Stern's advice is correct. If someone
want to play use a strategy to design to minimize the cost of
triggering the 800 for 1 quads mode, then Bill Velek's advice makes
sense.

The optimal strategy is one that maximimes the ev of the cost of non-
quad mode and quad mode. I understand this concept but can't put
into precise mathemathical terms. There is a trade-off between the
non-quad mode and the quad mode, e.g. should one use an overly-
aggressive stragety in ordet to trigger the quad mode more quickly,
etc, and if so how do we assign the correct value value for the
quads?? In a play-all approach, one is using the "blended-average"
of the quad values between on and off-mode.

I play a lot of bimodal games and tend to use Bill's approach IF the
bonus mode is short (say 5 to 10 hands) and I tend to use Howard'
strategy if there is number of hand constraint (the bonus is paid
whenever the next special hand is hit). I've played a lot of Sigma
Game's The Max, Rock'a Housing(?), Flush Attack using a play-all
approach (now if I happen to find the flush attack on the ON mode,
then I am using Bill's approach).

Hope this helps.

PS The correct strategy for Shockwave is to find the game on the On
mode and everything else becomes moot.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Bill Velek <billvelek@a...> wrote:

#6

Albert Pearson wrote:

Stu: I believe that you are absolutely correct. You should take the value of the Shockwave quads into consideration when forming a strategy for the regular game.
I haven't done this so I don't know what the result would be (gut feeling says don't change strategy), but it is the best approach.

snip

Technically, that is absolutely correct. I think it is similar to developing the MultiStrike strategies, and should be easy enough to do using either WinPoker or FrugalVP if you have the inclination to do so. However -- and I might be mistaken because I've already deleted the earlier posts in this thread -- I seem to recall that the basic game was substantially negative (I don't recall whether the 'bonus' segment turned positive or not). Because, on average, you will be playing in the 'bonus' setting only about 1/40th of the time, I didn't consider it worthwhile enough to adjust the figures in the basic strategy because I thought that the impact on strategy -- if in fact it does cause any shifts -- would be of fairly minimal value and not sufficient to justify learning yet another strategy. In other words, if I already know perfect strategy for JoB-9/6, for instance, I can see continuing to use that identical strategy until I hit a quad, at which point I would pull my modified strategy card out and use it for the next ten games, and then revert to the strategy I know. Basically, my gut instinct tells me that on average, the additional value of a bonus round will be so minimal as to not create any strategy shifts in normal perfect play strategy, or any shifts will be of such an extremely small difference in EV that they would be equivalent to ignoring penalty card situations. Anyway, if this games turns up available in a paytable that is as good as others, then I'll certainly look into refining strategy.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

#7

I have never played or evaluated this game but when Shockwave came out
someone on the Winpoker board asked about the EV. Dean Zamzow evaluated the
game. I wrote myself this note with Dean's evaluation.

Shockwave
1-1-3-5-8-12-25-100-800=99.511%
1-1-3-5-8-11-25-100-800=98.394%
1-1-3-5-8-10-25-100-800=97.277%

5-card

#8

Hey There,

I don't ever hear any correspondence from Colorado gamblers concerning things going on in Blackhawk/Central City Colorado.

I go up there a few times a month, and more often than not, come out ahead. In fact, I think their comps and services are much more generous than Nevada. Even tho it is limited stakes, I have talked to folks in Nevada that would rather gamble in Colorado than Nevada. BTW, I play VP almost exclusively.

Would love to hear from you.

Big Joe

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