A.P. wrote: <<I was tempted to buy Jean Scotts new book on pay
schedules until I realized that it was not nearly
comprehensive enough to be worth my while. The ideal
book would have many more entries and would issue
supplements on a quarterly basis by subscription. >>
There are almost 200 paytables in "The Frugal VP Scouting Guide." No, that doesn't include every single paytable you might find in a casino, but most people will find it very useful. In fact, I have as many skilled players telling me they wouldn't be without it as newbie or just casual players. (In fact, I carry and consult it frequently myself - I don't have all this information in my head!)
When I decided to do this guide, I consulted with many players, including 5-Card, who has a very extensive paytable list on his Web site and was very helpful. We discussed at length which paytables were the most common, which were no longer available, etc. Viktor and I then decided that we needed to keep the guide small enough so that it would be easy to carry into and consult in a casino. So we decided to list a range of paytables within each basic game, from the best you might find to the worse. For example, we put 9 different paytable for Jacks or Better. We listed 9 under Deuces Wild, plus 3 for Double Deuces, 3 for Triple Pay Deuces, and 4 for Loose Deuces.
Most of the new paytables that are introduced these days are very low-paying, but you can get a rough idea of their EV by finding the one in the Guide that is the closest to the new one and seeing what parts have been adjusted up or down.
Some people might ask why we would put in a schedule with an EV of 86.31%, which we did in the Bonus Poker chart. This Guide will be as valuable for keeping you from choosing bad schedules as for helping you choose good ones. And it will help you avoid some "tricks" that the casino might play on you. In the 86.31% schedule, we have shown in red that your pay on two pair is only a return of your bet, rather than 2 coins as is usual on Bonus Poker. Throughout the charts you will find marked in red the danger areas of change you might miss,plus we have used yellow highlighting to show where the usual changes come, like on the full house and flush lines of the JoB chart.
Some players may use this guide most for specialized information it contains:
1. The return for every Multi-Strike or Super Times Pay schedule you will presently find in an IGT machine.
2. The progressive break-even point for every schedule (almost 200) we list (if it ever comes with a progressive) - for both quarter and dollar machines.
3. The general volatility rating of each game.
That is a good idea, A.P., to provide some way to update the Guide in the future. We will think about this. Perhaps eventually we might put updates online. But for right now, I think the Guide provides most of the help that VP students will need.
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________________
Jean $�ott
The new " FRUGAL VIDEO POKER
SCOUTING GUIDE" and other frugal
products are available at my Web site,
http://queenofcomps.com/.