The Progressive Winner exposes a video poker machines actual payout and shows you how to beat those machines.  In just a few seconds you can determine precisely how much a video poker machine pays, including its basic payback and the exact affect progressive jackpots and sequential royal flushes have on that payback, and the playing strategy needed to beat that machine.

To use The Progressive Winner

	1)  Compare a video poker machine's posted payback schedule with the table in the book.  This will show you exactly what the machine pays.
	2)  Compare the machine's progressive jackpots and sequential royal flush jackpots with those listed in the book.  This will show you precisely how much those jackpots add to the machine's overall payback.
	3)  Select the machine that has the highest overall payback.
	4)  If the selected machine's payback is too low you may wish to wait until the progressive jackpot climbs or go to another machine or another casino.
	5)  When playing, use the color coded guide on the back cover of the book.  The guide is designed to easily and precisely show you the basic hold and discard decisions for any hand and how to modify your play as progressive jackpots change.  With this guide you will always be maximizing your profit regardless of how much the jackpots change.

 

Examples:

Choosing which video poker machine to play:

If you want to know which of 2 Jacks or Better machines is better to play.

Lookup the payback table in the book for the first machine.  You find that it has a 99.5% payback.  This machine has no progressive jackpots.

Lookup the payback table for the 2nd machine.  You find that it has a 98.4% payback%.  The 2nd machine also has a sequential royal flush jackpot of $16,000 and a progressive royal flush jackpot of $1,210.

The book also shows that the $16,000 sequential royal flush on the 2nd machine adds 0.5% to its payback and the $1,210 royal flush jackpot adds 0.4%.  You add the 2nd machine's basic payback of 98.4% to its sequential royal flush payback and its progressive royal flush jackpot payback and find that it has a total payback of 99.3% (98.4% + 0.5% + 0.4%).  The first machine with the 99.5% payback is therefore the better machine to play.

The book also shows that once the Royal Flush jackpot on the 2nd machine reaches $1,328 it will have a payback of 99.6% which is higher than the 1st machine's payback.

If you want to wait until the 2nd machine has a positive payback the book shows that when the royal flush jackpot exceeds $1,530 the 2nd machine will have a payback of  over 100%.

Deciding which cards to hold:

If you were playing a Double Bonus $1 machine and received the following hand:

Ace of clubs, Ace of hearts, 4 of Diamonds, 4 of Hearts, and 7 of Spades.

You could either hold 2 pair (Aces and 4's) or you could hold just the 2 Aces.  The Progressive Winner guide shows 2 pair should be selected over a pair of Aces so you would normally hold the 2 pair.  However, the guide also clearly shows that if the machine has a progressive jackpot for 4 Aces that is greater than $805 you should hold just the 2 Aces.  You quickly glance to see that this machine has a progressive jackpot for 4 Aces and it's currently at $955.  You therefore decide to hold just the 2 Aces.  The actual calculations for this situation reveal that the average amount you would win if you held the 2 pair is $8.83, but the average amount you would win if you held just the 2 Aces with this progressive jackpot is $9.25.  Changing your draw to just the 2 Aces would, on average, increase your profit by 42 cents for just this 1 adjustment.

Modifying play based on Sequential Royal Flush jackpots:

If you were playing a Double Bonus machine requiring a $5 bet to win the jackpots and the machine had a $50,000 sequential royal flush jackpot; and

You were dealt the Ten of Clubs, Jack of Clubs, Queen of Clubs, King of Clubs, and 9 of Clubs in that order what should you do?

If you held all 5 cards you would be guaranteed $250 for a Sequential Flush.  But what does The Progressive Winner strategy guide say to do?

The guide shows that a 5 card straight flush is better than 4 cards to a Royal Flush, but it also shows that 4 cards to a Sequential Royal Flush is better than a 5 card straight flush.  So the guide says your best play is to hold the 4 cards to the Sequential Royal Flush and discard the 9 of Clubs.

Just how much better is this play?  The 5 card straight flush is a guaranteed $250 winner.  Discarding the 9 of clubs will frequently result in a payback of zero or a very small payback for a flush or high pair; however, 1 time out of 47 it will pay $50,000.  Throwing away the 9 of clubs on average will pay $1,078 instead of the $250 you would get for holding the dealt 5 cards.  This one correction, on average, would increase your profit by $738.