Video Poker Bankroll Tips The first rule any casino player should follow is 'Never overbet your bankroll.' If short-bankrolled players need to bet less than maximum coins and get less than optimal paybacks on video poker and some slot games, then that's the way it has to be. A good rule of thumb for a long term video poker bankroll is three to four times the pay for a royal flush. A good rule of thumb for a trip bankroll is 10 percent to 16.67 percent of the total amount run through the game for a low or middle variance game respectively.
Let's say that I've determined that I can play $1 single line JoB and with the players club and other benefits I've determined that a good bankroll is exactly $20,000. Alternately, I can play JoB with 50-lines, 100-lines, or 9-line Spin Poker and get exactly the same $5 bet in per hand with the same benefits. Does my bankroll requirement change for these variants, and if it does change what would be a good ballpark figure for each variant? Moreover, how can I calculate the requisite bankroll an arbitrary multi-line game if I know the return and variance?
I'm trying to think about this from many angles and I get conflicting answers. For example, it seems to me that by playing many smaller lines my bankroll could be smaller because I am rarely getting absolutely nothing back on each play. Additionally, in an individual session it is quite easy to bust $100 playing $1 single line, but I typically get a lot of play out of the same amount on 50 or 100-line with the same $5 total bet. However, it seems to me that the bankroll requirement could go up because the only time you 'truly' hit a royal is when you get one dealt to you before the draw, and this makes your cycle go from 40k to 650k. This also makes sense to me considering the published variance numbers on the WoO site.
I'll also note at the bottom of the page here: http://wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/appendix/1/ it says go to appendix 6 for risk of ruin in multi-play VP but the link just goes to a page about deuces wild.
Assuming two games have the same return, would you choose to play a standard 5-coin 1-line VP for a $X total bet per hand, or would you choose to play 5-coin 50-line VP for a $X total bet per hand -- mainly to reduce variance? I feel pretty clearly that the 50-line variant is the better choice, even though the true 'cycle' hits only on a dealt natural royal.
Secondly, assuming that the 50-line VP is the better choice, would it make sense that due to the lower overall variance that the bankroll requirement of the 50-line game is half that of the single line game? That is to say, we could play $2X total per hand on the same bankroll?
Assuming two games have the same return, would you choose to play a standard 5-coin 1-line VP for a $X total bet per hand, or would you choose to play 5-coin 50-line VP for a $X total bet per hand -- mainly to reduce variance? I feel pretty clearly that the 50-line variant is the better choice, even though the true 'cycle' hits only on a dealt natural royal.
Yes, if your goal is to reduce variance, then you would pick the 50-line at 1/50 the denom.
Secondly, assuming that the 50-line VP is the better choice, would it make sense that due to the lower overall variance that the bankroll requirement of the 50-line game is half that of the single line game? That is to say, we could play $2X total per hand on the same bankroll?
I am really not sure how those numbers work out. It would probably depend somewhat on the game (although probably not much).
I just recently finished writing a simulator to answer this exact question so if you'd like I can run some numbers for you and give you an exact answer.
But, if you are playing a negative expectation game, it doesn't really make sense to ask how much bankroll you need without more details. What's your goal here? Long-term you will lose everything playing a -EV game. If your goal is just to give the casino a certain amount of play (ie, $N in coin-in for some N) then this question can be answered.
Multi-line has a very strange skew to it -- variance does not tell the whole story. In short-medium length sessions, You have a few massive wins (from dealt royals) and lot of small-medium sized losses. You will lose more often than you do at single-line, but they will tend to be smaller losses.
Yes, if your goal is to reduce variance, then you would pick the 50-line at 1/50 the denom.
Exactly. Note the 1/50th per hand. Do not bet the same X per hand or your swings will be crazy the total bet being the same for both is probably what you want.
I will play $5 single line games for a total bet of $25 or I will play the same game in 50 play at the 10 cent level for a total bet of $25.
I am really not sure how those numbers work out. It would probably depend somewhat on the game (although probably not much).
I just recently finished writing a simulator to answer this exact question so if you'd like I can run some numbers for you and give you an exact answer.
But, if you are playing a negative expectation game, it doesn't really make sense to ask how much bankroll you need without more details. What's your goal here? Long-term you will lose everything playing a -EV game. If your goal is just to give the casino a certain amount of play (ie, $N in coin-in for some N) then this question can be answered.
Multi-line has a very strange skew to it -- variance does not tell the whole story. In short-medium length sessions, You have a few massive wins (from dealt royals) and lot of small-medium sized losses. You will lose more often than you do at single-line, but they will tend to be smaller losses.
Sure, please do run a simulation. As for the game, assume it does not matter. The situation I'm talking about would include things like freeplay and such. For example NSUD returns 99.73% but this can be a +EV game when you factor in players club points (say +0.3% in freeplay), offers, drawing entries, etc.
So the scenario I envision is something like this. Let's say the game is 9/6 JoB with a 1% cashback. According to WoO's numbers, for a 1% ROR the bankroll needs to be 7256 bets. At the $1 single-line level for a total bet of $5 this would be a bankroll of $36280. Now if we choose to play 50-line 2c for a total bet of $5 the variance is reduced so the bankroll requirement should also be reduced. By how much I am curious.
Sure, please do run a simulation. As for the game, assume it does not matter. The situation I'm talking about would include things like freeplay and such. For example NSUD returns 99.73% but this can be a +EV game when you factor in players club points (say +0.3% in freeplay), offers, drawing entries, etc.
So the scenario I envision is something like this. Let's say the game is 9/6 JoB with a 1% cashback. According to WoO's numbers, for a 1% ROR the bankroll needs to be 7256 bets. At the $1 single-line level for a total bet of $5 this would be a bankroll of $36280. Now if we choose to play 50-line 2c for a total bet of $5 the variance is reduced so the bankroll requirement should also be reduced. By how much I am curious.
I will run some numbers tonight. I've been looking to exercise my new program anyway.
I will run some numbers tonight. I've been looking to exercise my new program anyway.
Thanks!
Bad news: This data tells me that I have a bug. I'm only returning 99.47% on 9/6 JoB. I knew I should have written the rest of those unit tests.
Video Poker Bankroll
By Henry Tamburin
When I first started teaching video poker a few years ago, astudent asked me this question: 'How muchbankroll do I need?' I suggested that a lifetime bankroll equal to 3 to 4 times the amount of the royal flush shouldsuffice. But he wasn't interested in a long-term bankroll that would last himforever. He wanted to know how much he needed for a short-term, 2-hour session sohe wouldn't run out of money and have his session come to a screeching halt. Itwas a good question and to come up with an answer I had to do some research.
It turns out there are ways to estimate session bankroll forvideo poker using mathematical equations and customized computer simulations.But I decided to use a commercial software program instead because, a) it wasmore fun to do, and b) it was something I could show students during class tohelp them understand session bankroll requirements (and also volatility).
I used the Frugal Video Poker (FVP) software to conduct mystudy because it draws a graph showing the peaks and valleys of your bankrollduring a playing session and more importantly it calculates the player's lowpoint. The latter is the greatest amount of money that you were down during asession. It's an important number because if you don't have at least that muchmoney, you will tap out and not be able to complete the session.
Video Poker Bankroll Requirements
To conduct the study I assumed that the average player plays500 hands per hour over 2 hours or a total of 1,000 hands. The game I decidedto simulate was 9/6 Jacks-or-Better because it is readily available in mostgaming jurisdictions and it has a relatively low volatility compared to othervideo poker games (more about volatility in a moment).
Using the FVP software's 'computer play' function, I set thecomputer to play a short session of 1000 hands on a 9/6 Jacks-or-Better machineusing the Strategy Play mode with the maximum of five coins bet per hand. Within a second the computer plays the 1,000hands and shows the results of the session. Although I was mainly interested inthe low point, I also recorded the high pointand how much money was won or lost after the 1000 hands were played. To getenough data for my study, I simulated 30 two-hour playing sessions, or about ayears worth of play for a typical quarter video poker player that plays 2 to 3times per month. I recorded the results of each 2 hour session in sequence (seeTable 1 below).
The results of the study were dramatic. Take a look at the first row in Table 1representing the first 2 hour session. Overall the player won $150 (lastcolumn) after playing 1,000 hands. Not a bad start. But notice that at onepoint the player was down $48.75, his low point during the session. At anotherpoint he was up $156.25, his high point,which is a swing in bankroll of $205. The player ended the 2 hour session ahead$150.00. But the key figure for estimating bankroll requirements is the lowpoint. If the player didn't have at least a $48.75 bankroll he would havetapped out and not been able to complete this 2 hour session.
If you glance at the figures in Table 1 you'll get anappreciation at what we mean by video poker volatility. Your bankroll willoften take a wild ride because so many of the big payouts occur with hands thatdon't appear very frequently. The result is that we need a big bankroll orcushion to sustain us between those rare jackpot hands otherwise our sessionwill be cut short.
So what's an acceptable cushion? Let's suppose you broughtalong $100 to play a 2-hr session. The data in Table 2 are the low points foreach of the 30 computer generated sessions (listed in Table 1) that I sortedfrom lowest to highest. With a $100 session bankroll, Table 2 shows that youwould have run out of money in 9 of the 30 sessions.However, if you would have brought at least$170, you would have had enough money to survive all 30 sessions.
Keep in mind that the $170 is a rough estimate of sessionbankroll because I only ran 30 computer sessions (which is a relatively smallsampling of data) and most players don't play as accurately as a computer does.So I throw in a fudge factor and advise students to bring $200 with them. This shouldprovide them with a comfortable cushion to sustain them during a 2 hoursession. Of course this assumes that they are not making any major playingstrategy mistakes (if they are, they'll need an even larger bankroll).
The $200 seems like a lot of money to play a full pay,quarter, 9/6 Jacks-or-Better machine for 2 hours. But that's the reality ofvideo poker. It's a volatile game and if you have less bankroll, you run a greaterrisk of tapping out in the middle of your session.
The results of my study agree closely with a similar studydone by Viktor Nacht that appears in Jean Scott's upcoming book, 'The Frugal Video Poker Handbook.' Jean'sbook goes into much more detail on how to use the FVP software to estimatesession bankroll for all the popular video poker games, and also includescharts with exact session bankrolls for many popular games.
You might be wondering about the big win in session #28(Figure #1). Fortunately, the player hit a royal flush in that computergenerated session for a $1,000 payoff. This is not a frequent event and thefact it occurred during one of my 30 computer generated trials was just luck(you can expect a royal flush about once in every 40,000 hands, a major reasonfor the volatility in Jacks-or-Better).
Keep in mind that your session bankroll will depend upon thegame you play, the number of hands played, and of course the denomination thatyou are playing. For example the volatility and bankroll requirement for DeucesWild are greater than Jacks-or-Better. Likewise playing multi-lines (3/5/10 play) vs. a single line for thesame length of time also requires more bankroll (which you can test out withFVP). And if you play dollar machines, your session bankroll requirements willbe much greater.
The bottom line is that if you want to avoid thedemoralizing experience of prematurely running out of money in the middle ofyour session, figure out beforehand how much cash to bring for the game youintend you play. That's the smart way to play video poker.
(see next two pages for tables)
Poker Bankroll Requirements
Table 1
Results of 30 2-hr Computer GeneratedPlaying Sessions
25 cents 9/6Jacks-or-Better at Max Coins
Session # | Low Point ($) | High Point ($) | Session W/L($) |
1 | -48.75 | +156.25 | +150.00 |
2 | -168.75 | 0 | -163.75 |
3 | -82.50 | +2.50 | -51.25 |
4 | -127.50 | 0 | -125.00 |
5 | -38.75 | +53.70 | -20.00 |
6 | -16.25 | +103.70 | +35.00 |
7 | -10.00 | +77.50 | +25.00 |
8 | -7.50 | +125.00 | +40.00 |
9 | -88.00 | +11.25 | -96.25 |
10 | -103.75 | +46.25 | +11.25 |
11 | -97.50 | +73.75 | -87.50 |
12 | -55.00 | +43.75 | -76.25 |
13 | -28.75 | +42.50 | +42.50 |
14 | -95.00 | +20.00 | -90.00 |
15 | -35.00 | +108.75 | +100.00 |
16 | -26.50 | Casino arkansas oklahoma border. +33.75 | -16.25 |
17 | -113.75 | +17.50 | -100.00 |
18 | -141.25 | +5.00 | -122.50 |
19 | -27.50 Santa claus juegos. | +65.00 | +38.75 |
20 | -41.25 | +132.50 | +116.25 |
21 | -61.25 | +26.25 | +3.75 |
22 | -140.00 | +36.25 | -157.50 |
-6.25 | +118.75 | +60.00 | |
24 | -90.00 | 0 | -113.75 |
25 | -150.00 | 0 | -140.00 |
26 | -133.75 | +42.50 | -132.50 |
27 | -162.50 | +43.75 | -115.00 |
28 | -8.75 | +1048.75 | +987.50 |
29 | -75.00 | +30.00 | -71.25 |
30 | -92.50 | +1.25 | -50.00 |
Table 2
If you glance at the figures in Table 1 you'll get anappreciation at what we mean by video poker volatility. Your bankroll willoften take a wild ride because so many of the big payouts occur with hands thatdon't appear very frequently. The result is that we need a big bankroll orcushion to sustain us between those rare jackpot hands otherwise our sessionwill be cut short.
So what's an acceptable cushion? Let's suppose you broughtalong $100 to play a 2-hr session. The data in Table 2 are the low points foreach of the 30 computer generated sessions (listed in Table 1) that I sortedfrom lowest to highest. With a $100 session bankroll, Table 2 shows that youwould have run out of money in 9 of the 30 sessions.However, if you would have brought at least$170, you would have had enough money to survive all 30 sessions.
Keep in mind that the $170 is a rough estimate of sessionbankroll because I only ran 30 computer sessions (which is a relatively smallsampling of data) and most players don't play as accurately as a computer does.So I throw in a fudge factor and advise students to bring $200 with them. This shouldprovide them with a comfortable cushion to sustain them during a 2 hoursession. Of course this assumes that they are not making any major playingstrategy mistakes (if they are, they'll need an even larger bankroll).
The $200 seems like a lot of money to play a full pay,quarter, 9/6 Jacks-or-Better machine for 2 hours. But that's the reality ofvideo poker. It's a volatile game and if you have less bankroll, you run a greaterrisk of tapping out in the middle of your session.
The results of my study agree closely with a similar studydone by Viktor Nacht that appears in Jean Scott's upcoming book, 'The Frugal Video Poker Handbook.' Jean'sbook goes into much more detail on how to use the FVP software to estimatesession bankroll for all the popular video poker games, and also includescharts with exact session bankrolls for many popular games.
You might be wondering about the big win in session #28(Figure #1). Fortunately, the player hit a royal flush in that computergenerated session for a $1,000 payoff. This is not a frequent event and thefact it occurred during one of my 30 computer generated trials was just luck(you can expect a royal flush about once in every 40,000 hands, a major reasonfor the volatility in Jacks-or-Better).
Keep in mind that your session bankroll will depend upon thegame you play, the number of hands played, and of course the denomination thatyou are playing. For example the volatility and bankroll requirement for DeucesWild are greater than Jacks-or-Better. Likewise playing multi-lines (3/5/10 play) vs. a single line for thesame length of time also requires more bankroll (which you can test out withFVP). And if you play dollar machines, your session bankroll requirements willbe much greater.
The bottom line is that if you want to avoid thedemoralizing experience of prematurely running out of money in the middle ofyour session, figure out beforehand how much cash to bring for the game youintend you play. That's the smart way to play video poker.
(see next two pages for tables)
Poker Bankroll Requirements
Table 1
Results of 30 2-hr Computer GeneratedPlaying Sessions
25 cents 9/6Jacks-or-Better at Max Coins
Session # | Low Point ($) | High Point ($) | Session W/L($) |
1 | -48.75 | +156.25 | +150.00 |
2 | -168.75 | 0 | -163.75 |
3 | -82.50 | +2.50 | -51.25 |
4 | -127.50 | 0 | -125.00 |
5 | -38.75 | +53.70 | -20.00 |
6 | -16.25 | +103.70 | +35.00 |
7 | -10.00 | +77.50 | +25.00 |
8 | -7.50 | +125.00 | +40.00 |
9 | -88.00 | +11.25 | -96.25 |
10 | -103.75 | +46.25 | +11.25 |
11 | -97.50 | +73.75 | -87.50 |
12 | -55.00 | +43.75 | -76.25 |
13 | -28.75 | +42.50 | +42.50 |
14 | -95.00 | +20.00 | -90.00 |
15 | -35.00 | +108.75 | +100.00 |
16 | -26.50 | Casino arkansas oklahoma border. +33.75 | -16.25 |
17 | -113.75 | +17.50 | -100.00 |
18 | -141.25 | +5.00 | -122.50 |
19 | -27.50 Santa claus juegos. | +65.00 | +38.75 |
20 | -41.25 | +132.50 | +116.25 |
21 | -61.25 | +26.25 | +3.75 |
22 | -140.00 | +36.25 | -157.50 |
-6.25 | +118.75 | +60.00 | |
24 | -90.00 | 0 | -113.75 |
25 | -150.00 | 0 | -140.00 |
26 | -133.75 | +42.50 | -132.50 |
27 | -162.50 | +43.75 | -115.00 |
28 | -8.75 | +1048.75 | +987.50 |
29 | -75.00 | +30.00 | -71.25 |
30 | -92.50 | +1.25 | -50.00 |
Table 2
Video Poker 10 Play
Low Points Sorted ($)
Free Video Poker Trainer
Is there a casino in oklahoma city. (negativesign omitted)
6.25 | 82.50 |
7.50 | 88.00 |
8.75 | 90.00 |
10.00 | 92.50 |
16.25 | 95.00 |
26.50 | 97.50 |
27.50 | 103.75 |
28.75 | 113.75 |
35.00 | 127.50 |
38.75 | 133.75 |
41.25 | 140.00 |
48.75 | 141.25 |
55.00 | 150.00 |
61.25 | 162.50 |
75.00 | 168.75 |
