HITTING A ROYAL THE HARD WAY

By Henry Tamburin

There is nothing more exciting than hitting a royal flush when you play video poker. The payout is big ... $1000 if you are a quarter player, or $4000 for a dollar player. But royal flushes aren’t so easy to hit even when you hold four to the royal and you need just one card on the draw to fill the royal. My mother- and father-in-law, however, have each hit a royal the hard way. Let me explain.

Both of my in-laws were slot players when I decided to teach them how to play video poker. They learned by playing jacks-or-better on my computer using a video poker training software. It didn’t take them long before they were achieving 99% playing accuracy plus they really enjoyed playing. I also gave them video poker strategy cards so they could take them to the casino when they played, and refer to them if they were unsure on how to play any hand. At age 90 and 84, their minds are sharp as a tack and they enjoy the challenge of playing video poker. In only three years since I taught them video poker, they have tripled their bankroll, plus they enjoy receiving all the casino perks just for playing: free meals, free gifts, and free rooms. Not a bad life for two seniors with four grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Last week I took my father-in-law to Island View Casino in Gulfport to play, what else, some video poker. Of course we went on a Tuesday because they had a promotion that multiplies your points giving us more free play and more bounce back coupons in the mail. It’s been a while since my father-in-law had a royal (11 months), even though he had been dealt four to the royal on numerous occasions. But just couldn’t get the fifth card that he needed for the royal. He knew the odds of drawing the card he needed for the royal was 1 in 47, but it had eluded him for nearly a year.

Now many players get frustrated when they don’t get a royal but not my father-in-law. He knows that on average a royal will hit about once every 40,000 hands. Sometimes it takes a little longer to get that royal, while other times you might get lucky and hit 2 or 3 royals in 40,000 hands (hey, once he hit two royals the same night on the same machine). So when my father-in-law gets into a royal flush dry spell, like he was in this past year, he just keeps playing skillfully knowing that sooner or later it will come.

I was playing next to him at Island View casino along with my brother-in-law when it happened. He hit the deal button and bingo... up popped a dealt royal flush. He didn’t have to draw for a royal ’cause the machine dealt him one. When it happened, the machine automatically locked up and the credit meter starting spinning away until it gave him the $1150 that he won (it was a progressive video poker machine).

Now you might be wondering what the odds are of hitting a royal flush on the deal. I certainly was curious, so when I came home I did the math and discovered it was a whopping 650,000 to 1. Those are pretty long odds, but as my father-in-law proved, they are not impossible odds.

Now you might be thinking that’s the end to this story, but there is more. Way back in 2005 when I first taught my mother-in-law how to play video poker, I took her to the Fiesta Henderson casino just south of Las Vegas. I stood behind her to mentor her as she started to play video poker for the first time. Then it happened.

She hit the deal button and up popped a five card royal flush on her screen. Back in those days, the machine didn’t lock up if you hit a royal on the deal. I knew instantly that she had just hit a royal flush, but my mother-in-law thought that she had just hit a flush. I showed her that she not only had a flush, but a royal flush, and then I hit the hold button on all five cards followed by the draw button. The credit meter started spinning and soon she was $1000 richer.

Now that’s quite a story. I don’t believe there is another husband and wife couple on this planet that has accomplished this near impossible feat ... both getting a dealt royal flush playing video poker.

So what’s the moral to this story? Don’t give up when you are in a royal flush dry spell because you never know when it will hit. It could happen when you least expect it ... including on the initial deal ... just ask my in-laws.