Video poker going south [newbie questions]

[GibletHead2000]

Hello,

Been playing with a few casino bonuses after doing okay at matched betting for a few months.

So far I've worked through 4 BJ bonuses (Will Hill Vegas & Live, both Coral BJ bonuses) and come out with a profit on each. Although the Coral bonus with the high WR was a close call, was down at one point but ended up £7 in the black after the bonus.

Been trying the Coral Video Poker bonus, and it's not going too well. I'm halfway through the WR, and I've already pumped £100 in. (For those unfamiliar, it's a 100% £50 bonus with a £1250 wr.) I'm almost bang on half way though the WR, and I'm currently looking at a £50 loss even if I manage to finish it for no further losses.

My question is: is this unusual, or just par for the course? I'm questioning whether my strategy is correct...

Basically, I'm playing on 4-hand Jacks or Better, stake value of 0.05, max bet. (So, works out at £1 per 'game', or 0.25 per 'hand')

I've never played video poker (or any kind of poker) before, so I've been quite careful with the strategy. I started off putting every hand into the analyser at http://www.vpgenius.com/video-poker/...or-better.aspx - although as I got the hang of it I've started doing the obvious ones without. (Yes, it's taken a long time, but I wanted to be sure I understood what I was doing)

At one point I raised the stake to 0.25, which I think was a mistake as I lost £30 quite quickly, before deciding to reduce the stake back down again.

Basically, I'm just posting to get a sanity check on what I'm doing. I don't want to redeposit if my strategy is all wrong or I'm playing on the wrong game. I'm also feeling a bit reluctant to redeposit in case I lose another £100 before the end of the wr, but I do understand the logic that it's probably best to do so, because if I'm going to write off the £100 I've already deposited anyway, I've got a much better offer of a £50 bonus for just a £600 wr from now.

Anyway, pointers would be appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Edit: Might be worth pointing out that I'm *not* using the "double" option after winning, just collecting straight away. I didn't see anything about using it in the guides.

[Diamondgeezer]

It sounds like you are doing everything fine. The fact of the matter is that VP is a game of big variance. Whenever you are not hitting a royal you are often losing. The royal has about 1.5% of the total return I think.

I find a bad VP session will involve a loss rate of 10 - 15% of the WR as a rule of thumb. So you could quite easily lose another £100 on this. While you may feel like quitting you are being offered £50 for only 625 WR now so it is a good opportunity for sure. However if you can't risk losing £100 or more then you might want to leave it if there are better uses for your bankroll.

When you are losing on VP it often feels like you are playing the game wrong but I am sure you aren't. As long as you are doing the basics you will be in good shape. The main ones I can think of are 1) don't miss pairs 2) don't miss 4 to a RF when a pair is automatically held and 3) don't miss those 3 to a Royal. They at least are the major errors. If you print out the VP Genius strategy sheet and look at the $ returns on each situation you can get a feel for what's important eg pairs. If you are missing a good 3 to a SF and holding JK u/s say it won't cost you much but if you are failing to hold a pair it will cost a lot more.


Obviously there are other situations like 4 to a flush and 4 to a str8 and if you get these hands right you will be OK.
You can have losing runs on VP for months and still be playing perfect, that's just the way VP is.

[GibletHead2000]

Thanks, that was a really helpful post.

Thinking on it, I think I'm going to abandon this adventure for now and chalk it up to experience. I have 28 days or so to finish the WR I think, so I might come back to it later... But I don't really like the variance -- basically expecting to lose money unless I get a RF. Coming from a nice & safe MBing background, BJ sits somewhat better with me as at least it's easier to tell if you're ahead of the curve or not.

Probably with a pre-wager bonus I might think differently... But if I bust out now I'm still going to be up on my first few casinos, which in my mind is a good thing. I think I might just get put off doing them if I end up back on zero or below from the whole escapade.