Hi, Frank,
My name is Elliot Frome, and I assume by now, you know
who I am (Lenny Frome's son).
I saw the letter on this site about
Four Card Poker. From what I know there are actually
a few different varieties of the game out there by at
least two different companies. The one written about
sounds a lot like the one from Shuffle Master.
I spent some time a couple of months ago analyzing the
game and recently wrote about it in Gaming Today. If
you follow the strategy that Shuffle suggests, you can
achieve about 98.41% on the Ante/Play and about 95.76%
on the Aces Up. There are actually several possible
pay tables for Aces Up. I don't know which one is in
use in Detroit.
My analysis has shown that you can vary Shuffle's
suggested strategy slightly and push the payback to
about 98.5% on Ante/Play. The analysis is still in
process, so I'm not sure exactly where the number will
wind up, but not much different from this.
While this is a far cry from 100+% Video Poker, I'll
admit VP isn't everyone's game. 98.5% is pretty
respectable for a table game. The 95.76% on Aces Up
does leave a little to desire, but Detroit may be
using a better paytable than the one being used in Las
Vegas. Not likely, but maybe.
As I always intended to write about more than VP on
this site, I'll probably post a version of my Gaming
Today article on Four Card Poker in the next few
weeks. The game seems to be catching on, and whether
it's a playable game or not, the readers are best
serviced with the information to help them make an
informed decision.
Respectfully,
Elliot Frome
Compu-Flyers
Thanks Elliot. I have not yet seen the game in my travels so your analysis
will be much welcomed. A good basic strategy will help out those people who
are playing the game already. Also, if you could tell us the speed of the
game, how many decisions per hour, that will help us decide how much money a
player can expect to lose.
