whitejeeps wrote:
>Is there a strategy for playing vp tournaments? I would think it
>would be better to change play looking for more chances at a
royal.
>My thinking is one royal might put you in winners seat.
Yes, tournament play is different, and several articles have been
published on it in Video Poker Times. They have been combined into
a
chapter in "All The Best of Video Poker Times." See the special
offer
for this book on my web site.
Without going into too much detail, the strategies for VP
tournaments vary according to the format and prize structure.
There are basically three kinds of formats:
1. Fixed number of hands
2. Time limit-unlimited number of hands
3. Time limit w/fixed number of credits
Of the current crop, #3 is the most popular. Usually the amount of
time given ia ample to play off all the credits given at the start.
Should you find yourself in a #2 ("speed") tournament, the strategy
is simple: play as fast as humanly possible! In fact, I've found
that it's better to make close EV plays that involve pushing the
least amount of buttons, for example 23577, a fourflush: keep the
7's. Maxing out the number of hands you get is far more important
than playing properly.
In the more common #1/#3 formats, you have to define your objective.
Usually there is a preliminary round or rounds, with the top scores
getting into the final. Most of the time, there isn't any difference
between the highest and the lowest qualifying score; the point is to
get into the finals. (Sometimes there's a nominal prize for being
first in the quakifying round/s.) What you need to do is estimate
the number of players who will be in the preliminary rounds vs. the
number of slots in the finals. This will give you a rough idea of
what it should take to get into the finals. A royal will hit every
40,000 hands or so (in tournament play), so you can figure that one
place in the finals will be "gone" for every 40,000 hands played by
the field. Similarly, in a DB/DDB game format, assign one place for
every 5,000 hands played for players who get four Aces.
Here's an example: The game is DDB. and there are qualifying rounds
at 12/1/2/3/4/5/6 PM, each with 20 players. Everybody gets 1000
credits and 15 minutes to play, which is ample time. So figure
everyone gets 200 hands x 20 players= 4,000 hands/session. 7
sessions means 32,000 hands. Therefore you expect on the average,
SIX people to hit Aces, and about 80% of the time, one person to hit
a royal. This will lock up the six places, so no matter how well you
play, if you don't hit Aces or a royal, you likely won't qualify.
(It's not to be expected that you hit more than one quad in 200
hands.) Therefore: keep all Aces, discarding pairs, flush draws,
stright draws, etc. Keep 3RFs, discarding trips/flush/straight/etc.
In other words, "all or nothing". If you DO hit Aces or a royal,
then play proper VP strategy with the remaining credits.
Now let's say that the top twenty players qualify. You can expect
that scores like 1950 and 2100 will get in. To shoot at this, you
should play your normal game, with generally optimal strategy.
HOWEVER, you should keep track of your credits, and if you are far
behind the pace for 1900 (or whatever you've determined as
your "target") with only a few credits left, you should gradually
get more and more "desperate" with your strategy (keeping singleton
Aces instead of pairs, bonus pairs instead of straight or flush
draws, etc.) Only experience and observation will tell you what
your "target" is, although if there's a leader board, you can get a
good idea (sometimes an EXACT idea) of what you need to get "in the
money". In fact, that's a reason to play in the later rather than
earlier prliminary rounds; if you look on the leader board and see a
bunch of 4,000+ scores, you know that you will likely need a royal
to qualify (if all the qualifying slots are filled by those 4000's).
On the other hand, if you're playing in the last session, and the
highest score is something like 2,300, you should play "normal"
strategy as a couple of quads will probably let you sneak in even if
you DON'T hit Aces or a royal.
After a while, you start to get a "feel" for what it will take to
advance to the finals. Like most endeavors, keeping your eyes open
and being prepared to be flexible helps greatly.
Should you reach the finals, use the proper strategy for the game in
question without variations, since it is likely that no one will hit
a royal in the limited time frame allowed. If you are doing badly,
you should be prepared to switch into "desperation mode" at the
approriate time; just when you do this would be a function of the
prize structure and your personal goals. Obviously you would play
differently if you had 20 hands left and you judged (or could see)
that you were in fifth place and the prize structure was:
1st 1000
2nd 500
3rd 250
4th 100
5th-10th 50
than if the prize structure was:
1st 600
2nd 500
3rd 400
4th 350
5th 300
6th-10th zippo
There are many variations on the theme, but as you can see, the best
answer to your question is, "it depends". Anyway, i hope this info
helps.
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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Dan Paymar <Dan@O...> wrote: