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PICK'EM POKER

 


Introduction

Pick'em Poker is a video poker variation, in which you choose between two cards. With a house edge of 0.05%, full pay Pick'em Poker is often the lowest house edge game in the casino. Unfortunately Pick'em Poker is only available at Real Time Gaming casinos.

 

Rules and Play

The player is dealt 4 cards from a single deck. The player must keep the first 2 cards, and must choose to hold either the 3rd card or the 4th card. After making the selection between the 3rd and 4th card, the player has a 3-card hand. The remaining two cards are dealt to form a 5 card hand, then the hand is scored according to the listed paytable.

 

Strategy

Strategy for Pick'em Poker is listed below. Select the lowest numbered choice that you can form with your initial hand. "High card" indicates 9 to Ace. Straights and straight flushes are ranked according to "High Cards - Gaps". High Cards is the number of cards ranked 9 to A. Gaps is the number of breaks in the straight. For example, the hand 9TJ has a "High Cards - Gaps" ranking of 3 since there are 3 high cards and no gaps. While the hand 468 has a ranking of -2 since there are no high cards and two gaps. If you have choice between two ways to form 3 to a straight or straight flush, choose the one with the higher value of "High Cards - Gaps".

Pick'em Poker (both paytables)

1 3 of a Kind
2 3 to a Royal Flush, no Ace
3 High Pair (99 to AA)
4 3 to a Royal Flush, with Ace
5 3 to a Straight Flush, High Cards - Gaps is >= -1
6 Unsuited 9TJ, TJQ
7 3 to a Flush, 2 High Cards
8 Low Pair (22 to 88)
9 3 to a Straight Flush, High Cards - Gaps = -2
10 3 to a Straight, High Cards - Gaps is = 2
11 3 to a Flush, 1 High Card
12 3 to a Straight, High Cards - Gaps is = 1
13 3 to a Flush, No High Cards
14 3 to a Straight, High Cards - Gaps is = 0
15 Two High Cards
16 3 to a Straight, High Cards - Gaps is = -1
17 One High Card
18 3 to a Straight, High Cards - Gaps is = -2
19 Anything Else

 

Expected Return

I have only seen the two paytables below at RTG casinos. Note that you must play with 5 coins to achieve this payout. The payouts for Royal Flush, Straight Flush, and 4 of a Kind all are reduced for less than 5 coins.

Hand Increased RTG Reduced RTG
Royal Flush 1200 1200
Straight Flush 239.8 239.8
4 of a Kind 120 120
Full House 18 18
Flush 15 15
Straight 11 10
3 of a Kind 5 5
Two Pairs 3 3
9s or Better 2 2
Nothing 0 0
Payout 99.95% 99.45%

 

Variance and Bet Size

The standard deviation per hand of full-pay Pick'em Poker 3.87, lower than other single-hand video poker variations, but higher than most table games and multi-hand video poker. The standard deviation per hand of other video poker variations is listed below for comparison.

Video Poker Standard Deviation
Hands Jacks or Better Joker Poker (MG) Joker Poker (RTG) Deuces Wild Tens or Better All American Double Bonus Bonus Poker Aces & Faces Double Joker Deuces & Joker Double Double All Aces Pick'em Poker
1 4.42 5.99 5.13 5.92 4.42 5.14 5.34 4.58 4.58 4.65 6.75 6.48 8.08 3.87
4 2.52 3.50 3.00 3.46 2.52 2.97 3.10 2.60 2.60 2.72 3.95 3.76 4.64 --
10 1.93 2.74 2.35 2.71 1.93 2.33 2.42 1.99 1.99 2.13 3.09 2.94 3.58 --
25 1.63 2.37 2.03 2.34 1.63 2.01 2.10 1.68 1.68 1.84 2.67 2.55 3.05 --
50 1.52 2.23 1.91 2.21 1.52 1.90 1.97 1.56 1.56 1.73 2.52 2.39 2.86 --
100 1.46 2.16 1.85 2.14 1.46 1.84 1.91 1.50 1.50 1.68 2.44 2.32 2.75 --
500 1.42 2.10 1.80 2.08 1.42 1.78 1.86 1.46 1.46 1.63 2.38 2.26 2.69 --

 

 

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