Ask the Slot Expert: Ranking video poker gimmicks

Nevada has a contentious ballot question this election. I can't escape the ads for and against the measure on TV. Each week I get a couple of mailers on either side in the mail.

The measure has two aspects. One is an open primary. The argument for the measure is that Independents cannot vote in a closed primary. Most voters in Nevada are registered Independent (Unaffiliated).

"We're denying our veterans their right to vote." Not really. There's a simple solution to this problem. Voters can change their party affiliation when they vote. Then they can change it back to Independent after the election.

The against argument focuses on the second aspect, which is Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). They say it is too confusing and will cause delays in declaring winners.

Even though I like RCV -- I even studied different RCV systems in a college course -- I was going to vote against it because Independents already have a mechanism to vote in our primary.

Then I read a column by one of the opinion columnists in the Las Vegas Review Journal. Even though he was against the measure and RCV in particular, he gave a compelling example of how RCV led to more voters being satisfied with the outcome of an election. His argument was that the multiple iterations of eliminating low-ranking candidates is complicated, ergo bad, even though RCV in his example satisfied more voters.

I bring this up because I've been struggling to find a way to rank characteristics of video poker gimmicks to find the highest-ranked one for me. I want to rank these characteristics:

• Cost of gimmick
• Frequency of receiving gimmick

I like gimmicks that cost only a coin or two extra per hand over ones that require a double bet. And I like gimmicks that you benefit from on each hand over ones that are triggered randomly. The dilemma for me is whether every-hand triggering outweighs a double bet or whether a lower bet makes up for a random trigger.

I thought I found the gimmick that ranked the highest for me, Super Draw 6. On this gimmick, you have to double your bet, but you get a sixth card on every hand.

After playing it for a while, I realized that there were many hands in which I wasn't sure whether following the standard strategy was the right thing to do. You see, the extra card can not only be used to complete the standard paying hands, it can also be used to make new six-card paying hands. I thought that I should analyze some of the hands I wasn't sure how to play.

One of the new six-card hands is the six-card royal flush, a regular royal flush and a suited 9. I was dealt a 4-card royal and the suited 9.

Is it better to hold all five cards and get one more shot to get the six-card royal? Or is it better to just hold the 4-card royal and get two tries at completing it? I didn't know. (And I still don't know. I haven't analyzed it yet.)

There's another characteristic I have to add to my list:

• Strategy changes

There's only one multi-hand Super Draw 6 machine near me. When it was busy, I decided to try a new Powerhouse poker machine, Powerhouse Plus. This gimmick requires a double bet, too. (Gimmick designers just love to make you double your bet!) It gives you extra hands when you're dealt a paying hand. It's kind of like playing multi-hand video poker with a varying number of hands.

I like this for Deuces Wild because you can get a paying hand with two or three deuces; hold just the deuces because that is the best play, and get extra tries at getting 4 deuces.

So, double bet -- not desirable. Random trigger -- also not desirable. No strategy changes -- very desirable.

I played both of these gimmicks over the past few weeks and I've decided that not having to learn (and usually also calculate) strategy variations is more valuable than having a gimmick that is triggered on every hand.

Most video poker gimmick machines have middling to worse paytables. Who knows how much one is giving up by not knowing the strategy to get the most from the gimmick?

If you would like to see more non-smoking areas on slot floors in Las Vegas, please sign my petition on change.org.

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com.

Copyright © John Robison. Slot Expert and Ask the Slot Expert are trademarks of John Robison.

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question.

Copyright © John Robison. Slot Expert and Ask the Slot Expert are trademarks of John Robison.