A few months ago, I wrote a column that discussed the value (or lack there of?) of a Suited Hand.  It started by discussing the relative value of a suited pocket hand in Texas Hold'em vs. an unsuited hand.  It then touched on the topics of 3-Card Flush and 2-Card Royals in video poker.  The former is quite unplayable and the latter is just barely playable due to the 800 for 1 payout of the Royal and the added value of the High Cards you would be holding.  It also glanced over the 3-Card Straight Flush.  The black sheep of video poker hands.

          This week's column comes courtesy of a letter I received this past week.  A Gaming Today reader ordered a copy of Winning Strategies for Video Poker to help him identify full-pay machines as he and his wife had no clue how to go about finding them.  Winning Strategies is actually an excellent choice for this.  It really isn't a beginner's book on video poker.  For that, I would recommend Expert Video Poker for Las Vegas (or Atlantic City version if you are on the East Coast).  These two books will explain everything there is to know about video poker.   It will go through the process of explaining why we play the hands the way we do, what expected value is and help with finding some of the right machines.  Winning Strategies on the other hand, simply lists out 60+ different paytables, let you know what the payback of those paytables are and provide you with the strategy table for each.  If you don't know what a strategy table is or how do use one, you'd do better with one of the other books.

            There was an article a few months ago in some of the industry newsletters about how the Wynn in Macau had 'tweaked' their gaming floor to increase margins.  The headline piqued my interest so I decided to read about what they did.  There were two main components.  The first was that they rearranged the table games on the floor.  It didn't go into much detail, but it seemed like they put the more profitable games in more prominent places and put some of the lower margin, slower games more off to the side.  This seems reasonable enough.  It is up to the Player to find the games he wants to and should (for his bankroll's sake) be playing.

            Last week's column was all about how to beat Video Poker.  As I discussed last week, and numerous other times, this is not about 'taking down the house'.  You're not going to bankrupt the casino.  You're not going to walk out with wheelbarrows full of money.  Beating the house simply means winning instead of losing.  For many of you, it might simply mean losing a little instead of losing a lot.  I don't peddle schemes for how to beat the house.  I offer strategy on how to maximize the payback of each game.  If you do this, you give yourself the best chance to win in the short run.  There are also some games that give you a chance to eke out a small gain over the long haul.

            In our book, Expert Video Poker for Las Vegas, Chapter 11 is entitled "Beating Video Poker."  Is this really possible?  Can you beat video poker?  I think this really depends on your definition of 'beat' is.  Can you win money in the short term?  I believe you can.  Can you break even, or lose minimally over the long term?  Most definitely.  Can you make a living from playing video poker?  Not so easily would be the fairest answer.

           I'm wiped out.  No, not financially!  I think I logged about 15 miles of walking the last three days at the Global Gaming Expo.  Can't they put all the table games into one area for me?  As is no surprise, the largest display of table games belonged to Scientific Games.  I previewed some of their games last week and will continue that process this week, now that I had a chance to see the remaining games live.  AGS also had a sizeable number of table games (about 6 or 8), including some new ones.  After that, the pickings got a bit slimmer.  Score Gaming had 3 games on display and a few others each had a couple.  In the coming weeks, I'll review their entries as well.  What I did not find much of, were the scrappy independents.  I did see one or two who did not have booths working on making connections.