Old Doc is no math genius–far from it, but I would use those quarters for a full pay Video poker machine–a 9/6 Jacks or Better machine or a 8/5 Bonus poker for example. These machines pay right at 100% (but not quite) with perfect play. Look what Rose did on a full pay Deuces Wild in AC—our AC report.

Just a little thought from the peanut gallery.

Doc

Thanks, Doc,
You answered question (4).
After the anticipated inputs for the other questions,
I have a surprise revelation.
7×7

Sorry. You will gather I don’t play Keno.
I stated:
"The Keno video machine randomly flags 10 winners among the 80 numbers."
Shouldn’t that have read .."20 winners". .. ?
Right?

"SevenTimesSeven" wrote:

Question:
(1) What is the optimum number of spots to play for the best returns?
(2) What number of spots would be fruitless to select?
(3) Is this payscale unusual, more player friendly than normal?
(4) Any other insights or questions?

The payscale:

……………… S P O T S selected ……………..
……….1….2…..3…..4…..5……6……7…….8…..9…….10
1 hit ….3
2 hits …….15…..2…..2
3 hits ………….48…..5…..3…..3……1
4 hits ………………100 …13…..4……2…….2…….1
5 hits …………………… 838… 75….22……13…… 6…… 5
6 hits ………………………..1,660..422…..100….. 44….. 24
7 hits ……………………………..7,000..1,670…..362….146
8 hits ……………………………………10,000..4,700..1,000
9 hits …………………………………………..10,000..4,500
10 hits …………………………………………………10,000

[pre]Number
of Spots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Expected 75.0 90.2 94.4 94.8 94.9 95.0 94.9 94.9 91.6 93.2
Return %[/pre]

Answers:
(1) What is the optimum number of spots to play for the best returns?

Playing 6 spots provides the best return, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are not bad. (But see my response to question 4 below)

(2) What number of spots would be fruitless to select?

Playing 1 is horrible, 2, 9 and 10 are bad but not as poor as 1.

(3) Is this payscale unusual, more player friendly than normal?

It is much better than the paper game. But the pace is a lot faster so unless you pace it like the paper game you will lose more in the long run because of the speed with which you are losing.

(4) Any other insights or questions?

Follow Doc’s advice regarding video poker. The HA on this game is much worse than on VP. You can not get an advantage at this game. If you know someone who must play this game make sure it is for small stakes. Set loss limits and win limits. Use gambling money management techniques (which are significantly different from an advantage player in craps).

In question 1 you asked about what provides the best return and that is 6 spots. But the variance is much lower when playing 3 or 4 spots by a factor of 10 over playing 6 spots. I think it would be better to play 4 spots to keep the fluctuation in your money lower even though you are giving up 0.1% in expected return.

Skinny,
Thanks for your input.
The surprise revelation I promised was this:
Since my craps practice was showing my SRR as being that of a Randy,
I backed off playing craps and tried the Jacks-or-Better Video Poker.
But then during the course of so many visits at the same VP machine
I came to know the regular Keno player sitting next to me.
In trying to win him over to the GTC way I found that he was,
thank you, doing so well at his Keno that I eventually called his machine
his piggy bank. You know what that means.
One day even while I was playing my Jack-or-Better, within a few hopurs
he hit two hand-payout jackpots!
And I confidently expect at least one hand-payout at his every session at VK.

The "returns" often stated for Keno (or for any other game?) may be assumed
easily by most to indicate which game is worth playing.
But this is disputed by David Stratton writing on the website "CasinoCanter.com".
He argues that video Keno is a better bet than video Poker, comparing
payback returns vs the odds of achieving those returns.
Very interesting, since I was wondering how come my Keno friend is doing so well
vs my VP efforts. Up to this point I was thinking there was and is some electronic
or machanical fault in his machine and I advised him to milk his piggy bank while
it lasted, before the guys upstairs find out.

7×7

Where is this keno game at.

"brothelman" wrote: Where is this keno game at.

BM,
Cannot say, on this site.
I was interested to know whether this machine was more user-friendly than others.
Do you know? Is the payscale very liberal?
7×7