Video Poker tournament

[SystemsTrader]

I'm going to be playing in a video poker tournament using a Jacks or Better machine. I admit I have zero experience at video poker and was wondering what my best strategy might be. Should I learn the correct strategy or should I use a more aggressive approach and go for more royals?

 

[HockeXpert]

That is an interesting question.

My intuition tells me to go for the royals and straight flushes (to a lesser degree) more aggressively since they would be the only way to beat someone who had the same good fortune.

Since you would likely need a significant win to win the tournament and it doesn't matter how much you lose, it makes sense to go for every royal you can and sacrifice some of the smaller payouts with better odds.

I am curious to see what other responses you get.

I've never heard of a VP tourney. Details?

HockeXpert

 

[Thunder]

I wouldn't go out on a limb for royals. The odds of getting one are far more unlikely than the odds of you winning playing normally.

 

[Brock Windsor]

I'm going to be playing in a video poker tournament using a Jacks or Better machine. I admit I have zero experience at video poker and was wondering what my best strategy might be. Should I learn the correct strategy or should I use a more aggressive approach and go for more royals?

You need the format. How many entrants, speed tournament or set number of hands, how many people finish in the money. Basically you have to figure out how many combined hands are likely to be played by all entrants and this should tell you if you will need a royal flush to finish in the money (royals hit about every 40000 hands playing basic strategy). If you do need a royal to finish in the money you are better to play super aggressive and only keep cards that will make a royal, throw everything else away. If the tournament is some kind of elimination format it would be much different.