Video poker isn't a teaching tool

QUESTION: Do you feel that video poker is a good place to start learning poker skills for the table game? I figure it's about the cheapest way to learn. -- Gary A.

ANSWER: Video poker is based on the classic game Five Card Stud, which challenges players to compose the best possible five-card hand. The player is dealt five cards with the option of discarding any or all of them for replacement with newly dealt cards. Although video poker and Five Card Stud are kissing cousins, good video poker players don't necessarily make for good poker players -- and vice versa.

There are many important differences. For starters, video poker payoffs are based on a scale, paying players for hands as low as a pair of tens or jacks all the way up to a royal flush. In video poker, a machine -- not a dealer -- represents the house. There are no opponents to bluff and no 21-year-old whippersnappers who, on every other hand, go all in. If you have jacks or better, you win. But in table poker, you could have two pairs and lose to another player who has three of a kind.

A good decision in jacks-or-better can be a bad one on a table game. For instance, a kicker -- a high card with a pair -- can be at times advantageous to hold in table poker, but should always be discarded on a video poker machine.

A better way of acquiring poker skills is via computer. A decent poker software program can be far superior for both training and drilling. The benefit of computer training is its ability to test different strategies at no financial risk, even with simulated high-speed play. Whether at high speeds or at a live game pace, the software accumulates plenty of data for later review. This will enable you to spot costly trends that you could have been making on a live poker game. The key here is that any knowledge obtained without a casino outlay will make you more dough down the road.

And then there's the lazy way, with a good book on poker -- Doyle Brunson's "Super System 2" is a good start -- or just watching the game on TV.

MARK PILARSKI survived 18 years in the casino trenches. He's a university lecturer, reviewer and contributing editor for numerous gaming periodicals and is the creator of the audiocassette series on casino gambling "Hooked on Winning." E-mail him questions at pilarski@markpilarski.com; for more Q&A, see www.freep.com/pilarski.

News Added: 29 November, 2007

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