Since I'm getting carried away with my posts, I'll expand on a comment I made last month. Several people emailed me with questions and one lady asked me about it in one of the casinos. I said something about the reduction in paytable being the same as charging a fee to play video poker compared to full paytables.
For this discussion, I'll use Bonus Poker as the video poker game as it is generally available in most casinos.
For those new to video poker, the best paytable for bonus poker shows (at the 1 coin level): 250 for royal, 50 for strt flush, 80 for 4 aces, 40 for 4 2s 3s or 4s, 25 for 4 5-Ks, 8 FOR FULL HOUSE, 5 for flush, 4 for strt, 3 for 3x, 2 for 2 pair, 1 for pair of jacks or better. (Some casinos get sneaky and call some other games bonus poker, but the above is the traditional bonus poker game). This full pay version is called 8/5 Bonus Poker for the one-coin payouts for full houses (8) and flushes (5).
OK -- getting into the main discussion ...
You can play bonus poker at Casino A or play the IDENTICAL bonus poker game (same paytable) at Casino B ... with the exception that Casino B will charge you to play ... $40 per hour if you are a $1 player, $20 per hour if you play at the fifty-cent level, or $10 per hour if you are a quarter player. Not many people would choose Casino B if things were openly stated like this!!!
Well, Casino B can "hide" this per-hour charge by reducing one or more of the winning hand payouts. Often for Bonus Poker, they reduce the payout for a full house from 8 to 7 (thus, for the normal five-coin play, the total payout for a full house goes from 40 to 35 coins).
Going back to a Casino A vs Casino B question ... You can play full pay (8/5) bonus poker at Casino A or 7/5 bonus poker (payout of 7 for full house) at Casino B (no upfront "playing fee" in either casino) . Many people don't realize this is the SAME CHOICE AS STATED ABOVE. Casino B has simply "hidden" the $40/$20/$10 per hour "playing fee" from above by reducing the payout for full houses from 8 to 7.
The lady who questioned me in the casino asked how the change from 8 to 7 relates to the $40 etc per hour. Fast video players can, on a fast machine, play 1000 to 1400 hands per hour. An average player often doesn't realize they can easily be playing at the 700 hands per hour rate. In bonus poker, full houses come up once every 86 hands on average. So a player who averages 680 or so hands per hour, will average 8 full houses per hour.
If you average 8 full houses per hour, at the 5-coin per hand level that most people play, that is 320 coins per hour payback for 8/5 full pay bonus poker (8 coin payback per coin times 5 coins times 8 full houses per hour) but only 280 coins per hour payback for 7/5 bonus poker (7 coin payback per coin times 5 coins times 8 full houses per hour). So there is a 40 coin per hour difference between 8/5 and 7/5 bonus poker ... thus $40 at the $1 level, $20 at the fifty cent level, $10 at the quarter level.
Tom from Indy
