Page 8 - Jackpot Magazine South ~ June, 2025

PLAY TO WIN
Sage advice on video poker play for Father’s Day
“Happy Father’s Day! Here’s a little bit of change to start your day off right. Remember, Dad, every coin counts!”
~ Sage advice to go with Father’s Day gift
Father’s Day is coming up — Sunday, June 15, to be exact. I don’t know if you remember the “good old days” when you could give your father a roll or two of quarters for his gift. It wasn’t that you were giving him $10 or $20. It was that you were giving him quarters, which, at the time, translated into video poker play and the chance to win big with a royal flush or even four aces.
Those were the days when you actually put the coins into the video machine, carefully counting out five for a full deal. Then, in went the next five quarters, followed by more coins, until the roll was gone. A quick check of
the machine’s counter to see
how you were doing would determine if you were going to
crack open the second roll and
start adding those quarters.
I fully remember giving
rolls of quarters to my dad
for Father’s Day. As regular
readers of this column may remember, my father loved to
play video poker. Giving him
a 20-dollar bill just wasn’t the same. I mean, that could easily be used to pay for lunch or given to someone for a purchase at the store.
No, it had to be a roll of quarters for his gift. And, back in the day, it was easy to get such rolls, either at the casino or even from banks. It’s a little tougher these days, and well, even almost pointless to bring a roll of quarters into the casino as the machines do not even take coins.
My father valued himself as a skilled
gambler, and video
poker is a game that
gives smart casino
players a good gamble
for the money. And
video poker is a good gamble, when you take the right approach. Don’t just walk up and start playing the first video poker machine you see. Gaming author Henry Tamburin wrote in a column for Jackpot! his three important steps to become a skilled video poker play.
Tamburin started by saying that unlike with slot machines, players can determine a video poker machine’s overall return by looking at its payback schedule displayed on the front of the machine. In fact, he said, it is possible to get returns close to, or slightly over, 100%.
Tamburin shared the three important
easy. “It involves looking at the pay schedule on the front of the machine to select only the highest
paying machines to play,” he explained. “For example, the most prevalent video poker game is Jacks-or-Better. But not all Jacks-or-Better games have the same payoff. In order to locate the highest paying machine, you need to check what the machine pays off for the full house and flush per coin play.
“On most machines it pays 8 coins for a full house and 5 for the flush per coin (or even less). That’s not good enough (the overall return for an 8/5 machine is 97.3%). What you want is a machine that pays 9 coins for the full house and 6 coins for the flush. These 9/6 machines return 99.6% for perfect play.”
Tamburin said a few casinos also have types of video poker machines that offer the skillful player as good, and in some cases, even better returns. They include 10/7 Double Bonus and Deuces Wild that pays 5 coins for four-of-a-kind.
The third step to become a successful video poker player, Tamburin continued, is to learn the correct playing strategy for whichever game you want to play. This strategy will tell you which cards to hold and which to discard. You can practice the playing strategy at home using video poker software.
Tamburin added another important tip: Schedule your playing to take advantage of casino promotions, especially multiple points. By doing this you can boost your overall return from playing video poker to often greater than 100%.
Do you have a question on the best way to play to win? Email us at jackpotmagazine@gmail.com.
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8 JACKPOT! MAGAZINE • June 2025
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steps to become a skilled video poker player: “First and foremost, you need to join the casino’s slot players club. It costs you nothing and every time you play video poker be sure to insert the players card into the machine’s card reader. This way, the casino can keep track of how much you play and how long you play. Based on your playing habits you will get comps, and maybe even cash back from some casinos. This will help increase your overall return.”
Step No. 2 from Tamburin is also