Dear Mark,
In poker, what are your thoughts about a player requesting that the dealer to
show the next card, even if the hand is officially dead? The group of a dozen
or so I normally play with has three players who want to see the next card or
cards that could have made their hand. I, on the other hand, believe once the
hand is over, it’s over, and if a player really wants to see the next card
then that player should have bet. We’ll go by your ruling. Melvin G.
I’m with you, Mel. “What if” players should shove their chips
in the middle if they want to see whether they would have hit their straight,
flush, four-of-a-kind, etc.
In gamblese, it’s called rabbit hunting, where you ask a dealer to show
you the next card(s), even though a player has already won the pot without a
showdown, and the hand is over.
Most card clubs, casinos and poker tournaments prohibit rabbit hunting, although
I have played in a few games where rabbit hunting is permitted, once all live
hands have been surrendered to the dealer.
I have found that when you permit a look-see at the “next” card(s)
of an unmatched wager, the privilege is always abused. Solution for your kitchen
table game: allow it, but, if a player really wants to know whether he/she could
have won by staying in the hand longer, a contribution is called for –
one, possibly two additional betting units to the next pot. That should keep
those curious sorts from having a dealer deal the flop, turn or river cards
to see what would have, should have, could have been.
Dear Mark,
Normally I play Jacks-or-better video poker. I am always on the hunt for 9/6
machines, which by the way are getting very tough to find, or those with an
8/5 paytable. The casino where I play also has 7/5 and 6/5 machines. How much
is the player giving up if they play on machines that pay less for a full house
and a flush than 9/6? Barb D.
With video poker, Barb, you can actually see the price and financial return
you can expect when playing the game. That’s why I've used more than my
share of ink writing about shopping for value and playing on video poker machines
with the best paytables.
Paytables, or pay schedules, which are always posted somewhere on the machine,
tell you what each winning hand will pay for the number of coins played. Casinos
can "loosen" or "tighten" the return of a game by manipulating
the number of coins won on certain pay categories. For Jacks-or-better, it’s
the full house/flush numbers that are the primary indicator of a machine's payback
percentage.
A 9/6 machine makes the payback, or return of 9 units or a full house and 6
units for a flush, with one coin inserted. A 9/6 Jacks-or-better paytable should
look like this:
Royal Flush 250
Straight Flush 50
Four of a Kind 25
Full House 9
Flush 6
Straight 4
Three of a Kind 3
Two Pair 2
Jacks or Better 1
One caveat though, Barb: the payback percentages listed below are based on
thousands of hands of video poker, and include hitting an elusive royal flush.
They are not based on your personal gambling timeline such as downing two Bloody
Mary’s or burning through a roll of quarters.
A 6/5 machine (six for a full house, five for a flush) returns 95.00%; a 7/5
machine 96.15%; an 8/5, 97.30%; an 8/6, 98.39%; a 9/5, 98.45%; and that phantom
9/6 machine 99.54%.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Limit poker is a science, but no-limit
is an art. In limit you are shooting at a target. In no-limit, the target comes
alive and shoots back at you.” --Crandall Addington, Texas oil millionaire
