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Text File | 1993-02-24 | 22KB | 575 lines

.TOPIC: CONTENTS STRATEGY POKER Copyright (c) 1993 Bob Stech All Rights Reserved Strategy Poker is a 5 card poker game similiar to the video poker games found in Las Vegas. This is a 9-6 game (see DRAW POKER ODDS). The player bets from 1 to 5 coins and get five cards. 0 to 5 of these cards can be discarded and new cards received. The object is to get the highest possible poker hand, thereby receiving more points for your bet. The games features strategies for perfect play, meaning that for every possible hand, there is only one correct play, based on the mathematical outcome for every possible combination for that hand. See STRATEGY for a discussion on this subject. Other features of the game include: AUTOPLAY, where the computer will automatically play an unlimited number of hands according to the strategies contained in this program. TRACK MODE, where your errors based on the startegy will be recorded for later review. SHOW MODE, where the computer will show you which cards to keep. LEARN MODE, there the computer will not let you discard the wrong cards. BEEP MODE, where the computer will beep if your play is incorrect but will allow you to continue. Players sign in by initials to play the game and a variety of STATISTICS are kept to let you analyze your play. High hands are kept by initials with number of hands between them to give you an average number of times these hands appear for you. CONTROLS are available to control speed and sound. Other topics available: GENERAL OPERATION TECHNICAL INFORMATION, includes backing up data files and installing new releases. NEW RELEASE INFORMATION REGISTRATION DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY THE AUTHOR MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THIS SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION, INCLUDING THEIR QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABLIBITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE, DOCUMENTATION, OR INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION. STRATEGY POKER is the copyrighted property of Bob Stech You are granted a limited license to use STRATEGY POKER, to copy and distribute it, provided the following conditions are met: 1. No fee may be charged for such copying and distribution other than actual costs incurred, plus any small distribution fee. 2. STRATEGY POKER may ONLY be distributed in its original, unmodified state, complete with data files and this documentation. 3. STRATEGY POKER may not be distributed as part of a package or group of programs. 4. The paid registered version may NOT be distributed. NOTICE If you paid a shareware distributor, bulletin board fee, etc. for this program, you paid for the service of copying and distributing the program, and not for the program itself. Nothing ever gets to the author of this product from such a sale. You may evaluate this product, but if you make use of it, you should register your copy. The ShareWare Concept The ShareWare concept is an attempt to provide software at low cost. The cost of offering a new product by conventional chan- nels is staggering, and hence dissuades many independent au- thors and small companies from developing and promoting their ideas. ShareWare is an attempt to develop a marketing channel where products can be introduced at low cost. If the ShareWare concept works, then everyone benefits. The user will benefit by receiving quality products at low cost, and by being able to try the software before purchasing it. The author benefits by being able to enter the commercial software arena without first needing large sources of venture capital. But it can only work with your support. .TOPIC: REGISTRATION REGISTRATION FOR STRATEGY POKER To register your software, print the file ORDER.TXT or just write the information on a piece of paper and send with a check or money order for $10.00 to: Bob Stech 5454 Kellogg Ct. Willoughby, Ohio 44094 You will receive a special code which will allow you to register your software on the ABOUT screen. This code will be valid for all future releases of this software. Also, all statistics generated to date will be preserved from the shareware version into all future releases. .TOPIC: STRATEGY STRATEGY The strategy found in this game is based on mathematical odds. Every hand (there are over 2 million combinations) will fall into a ranking category from 1 to 28. You should keep the lowest number ranking hand because this offers the best odds to improve your hand based on all possible outcomes. It is important to remember that for any given hand, a different strategy might produce better results. It is based solely on the shuffle of the cards. Remember, it is common to get a hand that has multiple rankings. Always play the lowest ranking hand. THIS STRATEGY APPLIES ONLY TO A 9-6 POKER GAME WITH A JACKPOT OF 4000 POINTS FOR A ROYAL STRAIGHT FLUSH WITH MAX POINTS BET. see DRAW POKER ODDS After your cards are dealt, use F10 to review the rankings if you are not sure which hand you have. The rank you have will be blinking. Each rank has a specific expected return percentage associated with it, based on all possible draws. The higher your hand in the rank, the higher the expected return percentage. A positive expected return does not mean you will win money on that hand, but that if you played that hand for every draw combination possible, you would have won more points than you lost. Also, a negative expected percentage does not mean that you cannot win on that hand, but that if you played enough of this hand to draw every possible draw, you would lose more points that you win. You can develop some interesting statistics from this data. For example, a low pair, rank 15 is the cutoff for an a positive versus a negative expected return. Everything above has a positive expected return percentage and everthing below has a negative expected return percentage. Co-incidentally, this hand is also the most common hand dealt. I will leave it to your investigation to determine just how common this hand is compared to the others and if it falls into the positive or negative expected return category. The Draw History option shows a summary by initials of the rank off all your hands, the outcome, and the percentage return that you experienced. The last page for each initials show the total hands and the overall won/loss percent. With autoplay, you could generate a lot of statistics. You might be able to use this data to get some idea of the casino advantage for a game of this type. The following table is the rank table. Some examples are given in cases where there might be confusion. A high card is a JACK, QUEEN, KING OR ACE. RANK HAND 1. Royal Flush 2. Straight Flush 3. 4 of a Kind 4. 4-card Royal Flush 5. Full House 6. Flush 7. 3 of a Kind 8. Straight 9. 4-card Straight Flush 10. Two Pair 11. High Pair 12. 3-card Royal Flush (10,Q,K hearts) (Q,K,A hearts) 13. 4-card Flush 14. Open straight 10-J-Q-K only (mixed suits) 15. Low Pair 16. 4-card Straight open at both ends 17. 3-card Straight Flush - Type 1 a. No high card & none missing (4,5,6 clubs) b. one high card & 0 or 1 missing (8,9,J clubs) (9,10,J clubs) c. two high cards (eg 8,J,Q clubs) 18. 2 high cards same suit-no ACE 19. Four high cards 20. 2 high cards same suit one is ACE 21. 3-card Straight Flush - Type 2 no high card & 1 missing (6,7,9 clubs) one high card & 2 missing (7,8,J clubs) ace is one of cards (A,4,5 or A,2,4) 22. 4-card inside straight (9,J,Q,K mixed suits) with 3 high cards 23. 3 high cards, but discards ACE if one of the cards and play rank #18 24. 2 high cards (J,Q) 25. Jack-10 or Queen-10 or King-10 of the same suit 26. 1 high card 27. 3-card Straight Flush - Type 3 no high card & 2 missing (5,6,9 clubs) 28. None of the Above .TOPIC: GENERAL OPERATION GENERAL OPERATION PLAY - Select to begin play. Your initials will be requested before you can start. Statistics are kept by initials so each player should use different initials. After your initials are entered, the poker screen will appear. You start with 40 points, which happens to be the same amount of quarters in a roll (Sorry, no free drinks). Bet from 1 to 5 points: Hit "B" to bet one at a time (or click on B=BET). Hit "M" to bet max points (or click on M=MAX BET). or Click right mouse button to bet max points. If you bet max points, your hand will be dealt, otherwise you must hit the "D" button to draw (or click on the D=DRAW). After your hand is dealt, you have the following options: 1-Discard cards by pressing 1,2,3,4,5 or clicking on the card with your mouse. Pressing the number or clicking again on the card will bring it back. After discarding, Hit D to draw or click on D=DRAW. 2-Press S to stand (or click on S=STAND) 3-Press F10 or click on F10=STRATEGY to see the rank of your hand in the strategy charts. Hit any key to return to your hand. Note: You can only use the F10 option when all 5 cards are showing. After the hand is over, you will be win points according to the payback schedule on the bottom of the screen. After the hand is over, you have the following option: 1-Play another hand. 2-Hit ESC key or click on ESC=MENU to return to menu. ***** SECRET FOR FAST PLAY: ***** The NUM LOCK key is turned on and the numeric keyboard can be used to control play. Use "*" to bet 5 points and use the 1-5 keys to discard. After discarding, use the "-" key to draw. With some practice, you can play without looking at the keys. If you get a pat hand, you will have to hit the "S" key. HELP - This is where you are now. CONTROLS - Control the speed the cards are dealt and a sound option when points are bet and won. See CONTROLS for more information. STATISTICS - A variety of statistics are kept to record your play. Select this option to view them. See STATISTICS for more information. STRATEGY - Lets you select any learning strategies based on the strategies in this game. Any or all of the modes may be turned on at any time. Double click on the mode to select to highlite with arrow keys and hit enter. Select the mode to learn more about it: TRACK MODE, where your errors based on the startegy will be recorded for later review. SHOW MODE, where the computer will show you which cards to keep. LEARN MODE, there the computer will not let you discard the wrong cards. BEEP MODE, where the computer will beep if your play is incorrect but will allow you to continue. REVIEW - Select to review any playing errors. Errors are only tracked if the TRACK MODE is on. Up to 50 errors will be kept. After that time, you will be given a message are need to review your errors to make room for more. AUTOPLAY - Select to automatically play hands. Good for creating a large statistical base. Use separate initials for your autoplay hands. See AUTOPLAY for more information. ABOUT - Shows the author and current version of the software. Also show whether the software is registered and who it is registered to. QUIT - The quit option will end the game. It first confirms that you want to quit. Statistics for the current session are displayed and saved. You then have the option to restart. Use this option to restart with a new player, since new initials will be requested before play or autoplay begins again. .TOPIC: STATISTICS STATISTICS Two types of statistics are kept by initials. History - This history shows the results of the hands. The categories are: Nothing Jacks or Better Two Pair Three of a Kind Straight Flush Full House Four of a Kind Straight Flush Royal Straight Flush The results of all hands fall into one of these categories. The percentage of each is also shown based on the total hands. Amount won or lost is based on a point value equal to a quarter. The number of errors made is also shown. History statistics can be seen by selecting STATISTICS from the main menu. Two options are available. CURRENT SESSION and HISTORY. CURRENT SESSION shows the hands played for the current player in progress. This option also shows the hands since a Royal Flush, Straight Flush, or Four of a Kind. Hands since data represent all players, including autoplay. HISTORY data shows the same data, but for each player, one player per page. History data does not include current session data. ROYAL FLUSH HISTORY, STRAIGHT FLUSH HISTORY and FOUR OF A KIND HISTORY. Select each of these to see the statistics for that hand. Data includes date, time, hands since previous, and initials. Last page gives the average number of hands between the hands. Autoplay hands are included in these statistics. Individual hand history can grow quite large, especially Four of a Kind history and especially with autoplay. See PURGING STATISTICS to eliminate data from these files. .TOPIC: DRAW POKER ODDS DRAW POKER ODDS Video poker games have a casino advantage just as any other casino game. These odds are set by the payback schedule for the various hands you receive. The payback for this game is as follows (assuming max coins bet): ROYAL FLUSH 4000 STRAIGHT FLUSH 250 FOUR OF A KIND 25 FULL HOUSE 9 FLUSH 6 STRAIGHT 4 THREE OF A KIND 3 TWO PAIR 2 JACKS OR BETTER 1 ALL OTHERS 0 This game uses a 9-6 payback schedule which corresponds to the Full House and Flush paybacks. Other payback schedules might be 8-5 or even 6-5 and their are a lot of other payback schedules. Some games might pay 10's or better but the other payoffs will be lower to compensate. It is a good idea to examine the payoff schedules before you play. However, if you do not get the Full House or Flush, it does not matter what the odds are. The strategy contained in this program is for a 9-6 payoff schedule with 4000 points for a ROYAL FLUSH and WITH MAX COINS BET ON EACH PLAY. If you bet less than 5 coins, then the strategy table changes. Also keep in mind that any jackpot of $1200 or more is taxable. A W2-G form is provided with your jackpot money. There are some games if you look around that pay 4700 coins for the ROYAL and are also 9-6. .TOPIC: AUTOPLAY AUTOPLAY Autoplay is where the computer plays all hands, but at a very fast pace. Autoplay is a good way to generate a large number of statistics for your analysis. Select AUTOPLAY from the menu. You will be prompted for the number of hands to play. Hit enter to play until ESC is hit. It is a good idea to use different initials for autoplay hands, so save your hands and restart before using autoplay. Autoplay displays the number of hands played. This is the total number of hands played since last saved, not the number of hands requested to be played. Autoplay can be slowed down by using the speed control if desired, but no sound is available during autoplay. During autoplay, the computer starts with 40 points and if it runs out, 40 more points are given. The amount shown is a running total of pretend money won or lost based on a point being equal to a quarter. Hit F10 during autoplay to turn off the card display. Hands will be played much faster this way. Hit F10 again and the cards will be displayed. Autoplay used the strategy contained in this program and never makes an error. Hit ESC at any time to stop autoplay. .TOPIC: TRACK MODE TRACK MODE TRACK MODE is available from the STRATEGY menu option. Double click or highlight and hit enter to turn track mode on/off. While TRACK MODE is on, all errors according to the strategy will be saved for later review. Select REVIEW from the main menu to view errors. See REVIEW OPTION .TOPIC: REVIEW MODE REVIEW MODE Select REVIEW from the menu to review any errors you may have made according the the strategy contained in this program. A screen will be displayed and will show you the cards you were dealt. Your play versus the strategy play will be shown. F10 will take you to the strategy display screen. Hit any key to see next error. Errors can only be review once. Once it is viewed it will be deleted from the error list. Also, when your error limit is reached, a message will be displayed on the PLAY screen indicating such. You are required to review your current errors before any more hands can be played. .TOPIC: SHOW MODE SHOW MODE SHOW MODE is available from the STRATEGY menu option. Double click or highlight and hit enter to turn track mode on/off. With show mode on, the desired cards to hold based on the strategy contained in this program is shown. You can use this information to suit your needs. .TOPIC: LEARN MODE LEARN MODE LEARN MODE is available from the STRATEGY menu option. Double click or highlight and hit enter to turn track mode on/off. With learn mode on, the computer will not allow you to draw new cards or stand if the wrong play is made according to the strategies contained in this program. .TOPIC: BEEP MODE BEEP MODE BEEP MODE is available from the STRATEGY menu option. Double click or highlight and hit enter to turn track mode on/off. With the beep mode on, the computer will beep when you hit draw with the wrong cards discarded according the the strategies contained in this program. Play will continue unless the Learn mode is on, where errors are not permitted. .TOPIC: CONTROLS CONTROLS Select CONTROLS from the menu to adjust the speed or sound of the game. SPEED controls the speed at which the cards are dealt. This can be set to FAST, MEDIUM, or SLOW. SOUND controls the sound when points are bet or when points are won. A sound will be heard for each point. .TOPIC: PURGING STATISTICS PURGING STATISTICS You can purge unwanted data from your statistics. History and Draw History statistics are kept by initials. Select PURGE from the statistics menu, enter initials to purge and hit enter. A confirmation message will appear. You can also purge hand history (eg. FOUR OF A KIND HISTORY). Select this option and enter the number of records to KEEP. This number of records will be kept on the Royal Flush, Straight Flush, and Four of a Kind history. Oldest records are purged first. History and Draw history data is backed up to files before purging. These can be restored by copying back to the old name: copy BSPOKER.HIS to SPOKER.HIS BSPOKER.RAN to SPOKER.RAN to restore files. .TOPIC: TECHNICAL INFORMATION TECHNICAL INFORMATION Files included with this software: SPOKER.EXE These are required SPOKER.HLP files and are the SPOKER.BIN only ones required. Files created during execution: SPOKER.HIS History file SPOKER.RAN Strategy history file SPOKER.HI1 Royal Flush history SPOKER.HI2 Straight Flush history SPOKER.HI3 Four of a Kind history SPOKER.SEC Registration file, when you register. If you are in the practice of backing up your files, the files created during execution are the ones that should be periodically back up. When you get a new release of the software, only the first three files above should be replaced. All files created during execution should remain as is in order to preserve statistics. Other files you may encounter: ORDER.TXT Order form LICENSE.TXT License agreement, READ. This info is also included in SPOKER.HLP VENDOR.TXT Vendor information SPOKER.TXT Any special instructions for an upgrade. .TOPIC: NEW RELEASE INFORMATION NEW RELEASE INFORMATION STRATEGY POKER V2.0 - This is the initial release. V2.1 - Menu fix for mouse control.