CASINO STYLE VIDEO POKER 2.2 a computer simulation This program and the accompanying literature are part of a package that can teach you to play Video Poker with virtually no mistakes. The program, a computer simulation, allows you to play as you would at the casino; but it will alert you every time you make an incorrect play. If you desire it will show you what the correct play is... either before or after you have made your play. It offers other options which are described in the instructions. The literature explains which are the best cards to hold and how much better they are than other choices. It teaches you to recognize the various card combinations you need to consider when making your discard decisions. Used together they are a powerful teaching aid that will have you playing at an expert level in a short time. The best results will be obtained by following these guidelines... Press any key to continue 1. Read the book to learn how this system works. 2. When you play the computer simulation use the Merit tables to decide which cards to hold and discard. 3. Try to remember the Merits of the more common hands. One of your objectives is to play without needing the tables. Memorizing the most common Merits will help you reach this goal sooner. Press any key to continue Some Things you should know: 1. There are 4 separate Nevada style simulations on the computer disk included with this package. They are: VP22 is nonprogressive, nothing wild, no gimmicks, straight Video Poker with the following payoffs... Low Pair=0, High Pair=1, Two Pair=2, Three of a Kind=3, Straight=4, Flush=6, Full House=9, Four of a Kind=25, Straight Flush=50, and Royal Flush=800. VP22P simulates a progressive game with a jackpot of 5000 coins and Full House and Flush payoff odds of 8 and 5 respectively. VP22R teaches a variation of VP22 that increases the chances for a Royal Flush; but, on the average, will cost more to play. Press any key to continue VP22LCD is VP22 with the graphics modified to be compatible with the LCD screens used on notebook/laptop computers. We suggest you start with and learn to play VP22. This teaches the correct way to play the basic game. The basic game, with the payoffs as listed above, gives the casino a 0.6% advantage. That means, on the average, it will cost you only 60 cents to play $100 in coins (see page 3 in the book for a full discussion). This is the game we recommend playing and VP22 teaches the way to play it. All the following comments and instructions were written for VP22 but apply to the other simulations as well. Press any key to continue 3. After reading the instructions the best way to learn how to play the simulation is by playing it. To start, you should play exactly 100 hands. Play them the way you normally do and don't change your discard strategy because the computer has indicated it's a wrong play. When you have completed the 100 hands, record the number of mistakes you have made. You can use this number as a base line to judge your improvement. Also, time yourself. Do this while using the keyboard to play - not the joystick. Knowing how long it takes for you to play 100 hands is an important part of keeping your losing sessions under control. (See page 7 in the book.) After this you can experiment with the game and the options available on the options menu. Become acquainted with the X key. This allows you to immediately replay a hand. You'll find this a very useful feature. Press any key to continue 4. Using the Merit tables to determine the correct discard is a learning process in itself. It takes practice to quickly find the hands you are looking for. It's important that you learn to do this. First of all, the tables will teach you the Merits of the various hands. Knowing the Merits makes discard decisions much easier to make than by trying to remember which hand is better than which. Secondly, the pocket guides (Merit tables) were made to be used at the casinos. You will need them to refresh your memory or to play games with different payoffs. Press any key to continue Registered copies of our programs with the 32 page Video Poker booklet and the pocket guides are available for $30.00 (CA. Res. add tax). Please specify 5 1/4 or 3 1/2 inch disk. The book and pocket guides are available without the software for $12.00 (CA. Res. add tax) The Video Poker programs are available without the literature for $20.00 (CA. Res. add tax) Send check or money order to: WILLIAMSON PUBLISHING 6 Harborway, Suite 229P Santa Barbara, CA. 93109 Press any key to continue INSTRUCTIONS This software is not copy protected. We recommend that you make a duplicate working copy and place this disk in a safe place. The program does not write back to the disk so they can also remain WRITE protected. When the program has loaded you will be presented with the title screen showing the revision number of this software and our address. Please note our request for a self addressed stamped envelope for answering any questions you may have. Press Enter to proceed to the next screens. Enter once more and you will be presented with 3 numbered choices and the option of turning the game sound effects on or off. The sound is controlled by pressing the S key. Choice number 3 (review instructions) will display this document. Press any key to continue If you select 1 the computer will act as the player and play Video Poker. While it is playing it will keep a running account of the number of hands it has played and the number of coins it has won or lost. (Remember that it costs 5 coins to play each hand. So, although a "Three of a Kind" hand pays off 15 coins the accounting will only credit 10 coins.) You may interrupt the play to take advantage of various options by pressing the spacebar at any time. The computer will stop playing when it finishes the hand and then present you with the options menu. This menu is described later. Press any key to continue If you select 2 then you will be able to play Video Poker. If you're serious about learning this game then we suggest your first objective should be to play 100 hands, using the Merit tables, without making a single mistake. Your second objective should be to play with no mistakes and without using the tables. The biggest surprise you may get is how fast you will be able to reach both these objectives! The program will shuffle, deal, and display 5 cards. At the bottom of the screen three game statistics are displayed. They are the number of hands played, coins won or lost, and number of mistakes made. If you wish to hold a card then you must push a corresponding key. The word "HOLD" will appear below that card. The corresponding keys are C for the first card, V for the second card, and continue to M for the fifth card. If, after you have elected to hold a card, you change your mind - then just push the corresponding key again. The "HOLD" condition will toggle on and off with each key press. Press any key to continue If you have a joystick connected to game port #1 the program will detect it and give you the joystick instructions. When you press the space bar all the cards that are not on "HOLD" will be discarded and you will receive new cards in their place. At this time the program will determine what you have as a Poker hand and will print that on the screen. It will also do the necessary accounting and update the Coins Won number. If you are losing it will display the losses as a negative number. For example, a -50 means you have lost 50 coins. If you normally play the quarter machines then this means you have lost the equivalent of 50 quarters or $12.50. Keep in mind that it cost you 5 coins to play each hand. If you should receive a "Three of a Kind" hand you will receive a payoff of 15 coins. However, you must pay 5 coins for playing the hand so your net winnings will only be 10 coins. At the same time the number of Games Played will be increased by 1. Press any key to continue If the choices you have made for discards are not the choices that offer the best probability of winning the most money (read the book for a full discussion of this.) then the program will declare your play a "wrong play" and credit you with a mistake. A sound will occur along with a notice on the screen. The mistakes number will be increased by 1. An additional notice on the screen will inform you to press the X key if you want to replay the hand. You may press "X" before you go to the next hand or after the next hand has been dealt. You can also replay the last hand from the Options menu. It will just take longer that way. Regardless of how you replay any hand it will not alter the game statistics. The number of hands played will not increase nor will the amount won or lost change. If you replay a hand after you have been dealt a new hand then you will get that same new hand back when you return to normal play. In other words... replaying a hand has no effect on the outcome or the statistics of a playing session. Press any key to continue During replay, or normal play, you can press the P key and the computer will make the hold/discard selections for you. The cards being held will be labeled with "HOLD" and the cards to be discarded will be labeled with an "X". You may change the cards if you want to. Of course we recommend you use the Merit tables to find the correct move. The machines at the casinos do not have this P key feature; but, you will have a Merit table on your pocket guide! When a new hand is on the screen you have the option of selecting automatic dealing or manual dealing of new hands. This option is toggled by pressing the "D" key. Try this both ways to see which you prefer. Press any key to continue Pressing the W key will take you to the Options menu which has a total of 9 options to choose from. Option 1 presents you with a history of your present playing session. It includes the amount won/lost, hands played, mistakes made, and the total number of each different hand you received. Option 2 lets you replay the previously played hand. Option 3 simulates changing machines. This is accomplished by the program and results in you receiving completely different hands than if you had not made the request. The program does not provide a way for you to return to a previous machine. Option 4 lets you restart your game. It resets "games played", "coins won", and "mistakes" to 0. Press any key to continue Option 5 allows you to change the speed of play. This is most apparent when the computer is playing itself. However, try playing at different speeds. You will, hopefully, find a speed that best suits your playing style. Options 6 toggles between you or the computer playing. Option 7 lets you select any hand you wish. The computer will tell you which are the best cards to keep. Option 8 gives you three choices for sound effects: OFF/SOME/ALL. Option 9 returns you to the main menu and resets everything within the program. Pressing Enter will return you to the game. Pressing Esc from any menu will page you back to the operating system of your computer. Press any key to continue We have tried to make this simulation a good representation of actual play at Nevada casinos. The features we have added are designed not to interfere with normal play even if you make an error. However, try to remember that the real challenge with this game is not to win coins... the challenge is to play with no wrong plays. Using this program without the benefit of reading the book or having a copy of the proper Merit table to guide you can be a confusing experience. Be assured that the program is consistent in its responses to the various hands. Make sure you understand the often minor differences between possible "held" hands. We suggest you read page 9 with respect to "held hands". One last feature we haven't mentioned is the clock in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This we included because we thought it would be a handy thing for timing your play or just getting the time of day. This clock is a readout of your system clock and is set by typing TIME at your computers \>DOS prompt. Good Luck ! Press any key to continue