Contents

Welcome to help for Super Video Poker for Windows!  Please select an item.

How to Play

Highlights (as in features)

Context-Sensitive Help

Game Menu

Options Menu

Analysis Menu

Special Effects Menu

Help Menu

Commonly Asked Questions

How to Register

Registration Form

License and Disclaimer

Feedback

Acknowledgements

Glossary


Context-Sensitive Help

Pressing the F1 key while a menu item is highlighted will bring up help text for that item.  Pressing F1 while in the Statistics, Probability, or Payoff History Table windows will bring up help for that window.


Highlights

Besides the basic "Jacks or better" video poker game, this game has the following features:

--  "Joker's Wild" variation of video poker

--  "Double Joker" and "Deuces Wild" variation of video poker

--  Animation

--  Sound effects

--  Context-sensitive help

--  Save/Restore games

--  User-definable payoff tables with save/restore of tables

--  Probability table display

--  Statistics display

--  Play history table and graph

--  Undo

--  Suggested best play

--  Logging of each hand to file

--  Autoplay mode -- computer plays alone with user-set breakpoints

--  Probability and best play suggestion for any user specified hand

Super Video Poker for Windows requires Windows 3.1 or later and VGA with 640 x 480 resolution or higher.


How to Play

This game is based on the video poker games found in finer casinos and airports in finer cities around the world.  Additional features have been added, particularly in the way of statistical and probability information display, but the basic play is the same.  You may click on any term below that is highlighted for more information about that term.

1)  Click on the card deck in the middle of the screen to deal your initial hand.

Your credits  will decrease by the number of coins  you selected (between 1 and 5).  Five cards are dealt to you.

2)  Select which cards you wish to hold by clicking on them or pressing the 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 key on the keyboard corresponding to the five cards.

3)  Click again on the card deck in the middle of the screen to draw cards.  Cards not held are replaced by new cards.

4)  If your final hand is a paying hand, your credits will increase by the amount indicated in the payoff table.

That's it!  There are many other options and features available, but you can read about that later under specific help topics.  A summary of especially interesting features is in the highlights  section.

See also:	Deal


How to Register

Super Video Poker for Windows is not free.  It is copyrighted and distributed as Shareware.  As an unregistered user, you may use this program for up to thirty days free of charge to see if you like it, however, if you decide to keep it you must register your copy with the author.

The cost of registration is $25 (U.S.).  You will receive the latest version of this game with the registration reminder screen turned off and 90 days of technical support via mail or e-mail.

The unregistered version of this game is full featured and is not "crippleware," but unlicensed users may not use it beyond thirty days.

To see a printable copy of a registration form, click on Registration Form below.  If for some reason you cannot print the form, you may register by simply mailing a note with your name, mailing address, and preferred diskette size, 3.5" or 5.25" (1.2M), with your $25 to the author.  The REGFORM.TXT file also contains a printable registration form.

See also:	Registration Form

License and Disclaimer


Registration Form

To print this form, select "File | Print Topic" from the menu above.

Send a check for $25.00 (U.S. funds only) to:

Elton Inada

117 Smart Ct.

Encinitas, CA  92024

Please print your name and address clearly below.

________________________________________________

Name

________________________________________________

Street Address

________________________________________________

City	State	Zip

Diskette size (Check one):       __  5.25" (1.2M)        __ 3.5"

You can give direction to the development of future programs by indicating what platforms you want to see programs like this available for.  Check all that apply.

  __ DOS  __ Windows   __ OS/2(PM)   __ Windows NT

  __ Windows 95   __ Other:__________________

After registering you will receive a registered copy of the latest version of Super Video Poker for Windows and 90 days of technical support via mail or e-mail.

Comments, bug reports, and/or suggestions are welcome.  Describe what you want to see in future versions!

[Form H20]

For more information see:	How to Register

License and Disclaimer


Deal

You can deal cards by clicking on the card deck (in the middle of the screen), or by pressing the Enter key while in the main game window.

If you are starting a new hand, you will be dealt five new cards, if you are in the middle of a hand, you will draw enough cards to replace only those not  held.

The card deck is shuffled between every new hand.


Undo

After playing out a hand, you can undo the last draw of cards to replay the same hand again.  You cannot undo the initial dealing of a hand, however, only the drawing of cards can be undone.  Undoing will reset everything to the state it was in before the final draw of cards.


Commonly Asked Questions

Q:  How do I run this program?

A:  Since you're reading this file, I assume you unzipped the archive containing this help file (SVPOKER.HLP) and the executable file (SVPOKER.EXE) into some directory, for instance, C:\WINDOWS\GAMES.  From the Windows Program Manager menu then, select the File | Run option and give the full path name for SVPOKER.EXE, for instance, C:\WINDOWS\GAMES\SVPOKER.EXE.

Q:  How do I add this program (icon) to my desktop?

A:  From the Windows Program Manager menu, select the File | New option and add a Program Item.  For the Command Line specify SVPOKER.EXE, and specify the appropriate Working Directory, for example, C:\WINDOWS\GAMES, if that is where SVPOKER.EXE is.

Q:  Is this game really dealing and shuffling the cards randomly?

A:  Yes.  There is no intentional biasing or favoring.

Q:  The animation for the Jack of Clubs changes depending on what cards it is adjacent to.  Are there other cards like that?

A:   A couple.  Future versions may have more.


Hand Pick

You can setup a hand manually to see what the best play strategy is for the hand and what the play probabilities are.  This option may be used before cards are dealt or drawn.

Instead of being dealt cards randomly, you will be asked to select a card from the deck for each card in your hand.  You may not select the same card twice, of course.  If you cancel before filling your hand, the remaining cards will be dealt randomly.

See also:	New

Best Play

Probability


Game Menu

For more information choose a Game menu item:

New

Undo

Open

Save

Save As

Hand Pick

Exit


Options Menu

For more information choose an Options menu item:

Game Type

Deck

Payoff Settings

Starting Credits

Autoplay

Autoplay Count

Semi-Autoplay

Status Bar


Special Effects Menu

For more information choose a Special Effects menu item:

Moving Cards

Animation

Sound Effects


Analysis Menu

For more information choose an Analysis menu item:

Best Play

Statistics

Payoff History Graph

Payoff History Table

Probability

Log File


Help Menu

For more information choose a menu item:

Help Index

Using Help

About


Help Index

Selecting Help Index will show the opening help file screen.


Using Help

Selecting Using Help will display information on how to use the Windows help facility.


About

Selecting About will display information about this program including the version number and the author.


Best Play

Selecting Best Play will let the computer select the best cards to hold to maximize the expected payoff based on calculated probabilities.  You can use this option with the hand pick option to determine the best play for any arbitrary hand.

Ctrl-B from the keyboard will also invoke this option.

See also:  	Semi-Autoplay


Status Bar

Selecting Status Bar from the options menu will toggle the status bar on the bottom of the main window on and off.


Statistics

Selecting Statistics displays/hides the statistics table showing the number of times each paying hand has occurred.  The number of hands that have passed since each paying hand occurred is also shown.

Pressing Enter in the Statistics window will close it.

Pressing F6 will switch you to another window.


Probability

Selecting Probability displays/hides the probability table showing the odds of getting a paying hand from the current hand with the cards held as indicated.  You can use this option with the hand pick option to view the play probabilities for any arbitrary hand.

Pressing Enter in the Probability window will close it.

Pressing F6 will switch you to another window.


Log File

Selecting Log File will enable/disable the log file.  If enabled, each initial and final hand will be written to a text file.


Deck

The Deck option lets you select a different design for the back of the card deck.


Payoff History Graph

The Payoff History Graph shows you payoff history in a point-to-point graph.  The last 100 hands are kept track of.  The Color check box toggles the color coding of the lines connecting the dots.  Different colors are used for different paying hands.

Pressing Enter in the Payoff Graph window will close it.

Pressing F6 will switch you to another window.

See also:

Payoff History Table


Payoff History Table

The Payoff History Table shows your payoff history as a table.  The last 100 hands are kept track of.

Pressing Enter in the Payoff Table window will close it.

Pressing F6 will switch you to another window.

See also:

Payoff Graph Table


Exit

Selecting Exit it will close down the application.


Open

Selecting Open will let you restore a previously saved game.  You will be asked for the file name of the previously saved game.  The game options, and payoff history, will be restored.

See also:

Save	Save As


New

Select New to end the current game and start a new game.  The payoff history will be erased and the count of hands played will be reset to zero.  The initial starting credits will be reset also.

See also:

Starting Credits


Save

Select Save to save the current game to disk.

See also:

Open

Save As


Log Save
Save Game with Open Log

If you try to save a game while a log file is open, you will be asked if you'd like to copy the log file to an identical log file to keep open.  Usually a log file is closed when a game is saved so that when the game is restored, the log file will be where the game left off.  If you want to keep playing with a copy of the current log file, you may choose one of the three alternative options.

You can copy the current log file to a new name, close the old log, and then use the new log file to continue logging entries.  The second option is similar except it closes the new log file, and continues logging entries to the old log file name.  Lastly you may leave the current log file open, but when you restore the saved game, you will not have any corresponding log file.

See also:

Save

Save As


Save As

Select Save As to save the current game, specifying which file name to save under.

See also:

Open

Save


Open Payoff File

Selecting Open will let you restore a previously saved payoff table.  You will be asked for the file name of the previously saved table.  Just the payoff table will be restored.

See also:

Save Payoff Table

Save Payoff Table As


Save Payoff Table

Select Save to save the current payoff table to disk.

See also:

Open Payoff File

Save Payoff Table As


Save Payoff Table As

Select Save As to save the current payoff table, specifying which file name to save under.

See also:

Open Payoff File

Save Payoff Table


Starting Credits

Selecting the Starting Credits option lets you change the initial credit value you start with when you begin a new game.  Your current credits will not change unless you are starting a new game (i.e., hands played equals zero).

New


Game Type

Select Payoff from the Options menu to save, load, or change the payoff amounts for paying hands.  You may only change the payoff amounts in between hands.

See also:

Jacks Or Better

Jokers Wild

Double Joker

Deuces Wild


Jacks Or Better

The Jacks Or Better option from the Options | Game Type menu lets you change the game type to the Jacks Or Better variation of video poker.  This option is only available in between hands.

Select this option to play with no wild cards (e.g., Jokers) in the deck.  The payoffs change appropriately for the "Jacks Or Better" game.

See also:	Poker Hands


Jokers Wild

The Jokers Wild option from the Options | Game Type menu lets you change the game type to the Jokers Wild variation of video poker.  This option is only available in between hands.

Select this option to play with a Joker in the deck.  The payoffs change appropriately for the "Joker's Wild" game.  The Joker acts as a wild card, that is, it can represent any card in the deck.  If you get a Joker in your hand, and there is more than one paying hand that can be made by using the Joker, you will be credited with the higher ranking hand.

See also:	Poker Hands


Double Joker

The Double Joker option from the Options | Game Type menu lets you change the game type to the Double Joker variation of video poker.  This option is only available in between hands.

Select this option to play with two Jokers in the deck.  The payoffs change appropriately for the "Double Joker" game.  The Jokers acts as wild cards, that is, they can represent any card in the deck.  If you get a Joker in your hand, and there is more than one paying hand that can be made by using the Joker, you will be credited with the higher ranking hand.

See also:	Poker Hands


Deuces Wild

The Deuces Wild option from the Options | Game Type menu lets you change the game type to the Deuces Wild variation of video poker.  This option is only available in between hands.

Select this option to play with the four deuces (2's) as jokers in the deck.  The payoffs change appropriately for the "Deuces Wild" game.  The deuces acts as wild cards, that is, they can represent any card in the deck.  If you get a deuce in your hand, and there is more than one paying hand that can be made by using the deuce, you will be credited with the higher ranking hand.

See also:	Poker Hands


Payoff Settings

Select Payoff from the Options menu to save, load, or change the payoff amounts for paying hands.  You may only change the payoff amounts in between hands.

See also:

Payoff Table Entry

Open Payoff File

Save Payoff Table


Payoff Table Entry

The Enter Payoffs option from the Options | Payoff menu lets you change the payoff amounts for paying hands.  This option is only available in between hands.

Separate payoff amounts may be set for each initial bet amount (number of coins), and for the Joker's Wild game.

A payoff table must be saved to a file if it's to be used at a future date, otherwise any changes will be lost when you exit the game.

See also:	Save Payoff File


Autoplay

Select Autoplay to have the game play by itself.  It will compute the best cards to hold for each play.  The number of hands specified in the autoplay count will be played out, then autoplay will turn itself off.


Autoplay Count

Select Autoplay Count to specify how many hands to play out when Autoplay mode is turned on.  After auto-playing the specified number of hands Autoplay mode turns off.  The default value is a very large number.

See also:	Autoplay


Semi-Autoplay

Select Semi-Autoplay to have the program suggest what you should hold after each new hand is dealt.


Moving Cards

Select Moving Cards to show the cards "moving" as they are dealt out.


Animation

Select Animation to enable the animated face cards.


Sound Effects

You must have a Windows sound driver capable of playing .WAV (wave form) files installed to hear the sound effects.  If you do not have a sound card, you may be able to obtain a Windows sound driver from your computer dealer that will work with your ordinary PC speaker, but you must obtain and install the driver.

The Sound Effects option will let you do the following:

- Turn on or off sound effects.

- Specify the minimum level (threshold) of paying hand that the cheer-sound should play on.

- Specify which cheer-sound to use, the built-in sound or the CHEER.WAV file in which you may put your own sound data.

If sound effects are off, the cheer-sound will be the default Windows "exclamation" sound.  If  sound effects are on, the cheer-sound will be the built-in digitized game cheer-sound or the sound from the CHEER .WAV file.  You may use your own .WAV file by copying it into the working directory and naming it CHEER.WAV.

The threshold may be set to "No threshold" if no cheer-sound should ever play, otherwise a cheer-sound will be played whenever a paying hand equal or better than the threshold occurs.


Number of Coins

Click on the Number of Coins button to change your initial bet.  Changing the amount bet changes the payoff table.


Glossary
Glossary of Terms

For more information, select a term:

Credits

Draw

Held or Hold

Hand

Poker Hands


Poker Hands

Jacks or Better game:  The minimum paying poker hand is a pair of jacks.  The paying poker hands and default payoff amounts are as follows:

Pair, jacks or better	Pays 1:1

Two pairs	Pays 2:1

Three of a kind	Pays 3:1

Straight	Five cards in consecutive sequence by rank

Pays 4:1

Flush	All of one suit

Pays 6:1

Full house	Three of a kind and a pair

Pays 9:1

Four of a kind	Pays 25:1

Straight flush	Pays 50:1

Royal flush	Straight flush, 10 through Ace

Pays 250:1 (800:1 if 5 coins are bet)

Joker's Wild game:  The payoffs for the game for Joker's Wild is different.  The minimum paying hand is a pair of kings.  The default payoff amounts for the Joker's Wild game are as follows:

Pair, kings or aces	Pays 1:1

Two pairs	Pays 1:1

Three of a kind	Pays 2:1

Straight	Five cards in consecutive sequence by rank

Pays 3:1

Flush	All of one suit

Pays 5:1

Full house	Three of a kind and a pair

Pays 7:1

Four of a kind	Pays 20:1

Straight flush	Pays 50:1

Wild royal flush	Straight flush 10 through Ace with a joker

Pays 100:1

Five of a kind	Four of a kind plus a joker

Pays 200:1

Royal flush, no joker	Straight flush 10 through Ace, w/o joker

Pays 800:1

Double Joker game:  The minimum paying hand in Double Joker is 2 pairs.  The default payoff amounts are as follows:

Two pairs	Pays 1:1

Three of a kind	Pays 2:1

Straight	Five cards in consecutive sequence by rank

Pays 3:1

Flush	All of one suit

Pays 4:1

Full house	Three of a kind and a pair

Pays 5:1

Four of a kind	Pays 9:1

Straight flush	Pays 25:1

Five of a kind	Five of a kind (using one or more jokers)

Pays 50:1

Wild royal flush	Straight flush 10 through Ace with joker(s)

Pays 100:1

Royal flush, no joker	Straight flush 10 through Ace, with no jokers

Pays 800:1

Deuces Wild game:  The minimum paying hand in Deuces Wild is 3 of a kind.  The default payoff amounts are as follows:

Three of a kind	Pays 1:1

Straight	Five cards in consecutive sequence by rank

Pays 2:1

Flush	All of one suit

Pays 2:1

Full house	Three of a kind and a pair

Pays 3:1

Four of a kind	Pays 5:1

Straight flush	Pays 9:1

Five of a kind	Five of a kind (using one or more deuces)

Pays 15:1

Wild royal flush	Straight flush 10 through Ace with deuce(s)

Pays 25:1

Four deuces	Four deuces (2's)

Pays 200:1

Royal flush, no joker	Straight flush 10 through Ace, with no deuces

Pays 800:1


Hand

The term "hand" refers to the five cards you have been dealt.  Your hand is always shown face up.

See also:

Deal	Poker Hands


Held or Hold

After being dealt an initial hand, you may choose to hold any or none of the cards.  Click on those cards you wish to hold.  Clicking again on a card that is held will release it for discard.  Any cards not held will be discarded and replaced when you draw.  You may also use the keys 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 on the keyboard to select a card to hold or release.

See also:

Deal


Draw

The term "draw" means to take new cards from the card deck to replace cards in your hand which were not held.  Click on the card deck to draw new cards.

See also:

Deal


Drag

To "drag" an item, move the mouse pointer over the item, then press the mouse button down and hold it down.  Without releasing the mouse button, move the mouse pointer around and the item should be dragged around wherever the mouse moves until you release the mouse button.  In general, most items may not be dragged, and in this game only certain items in certain circumstances may be dragged.


Feedback

Please send any comments, suggestions or bug reports to the author.  The author may be contacted via U.S. mail or e-mail:

Elton Inada

117 Smart Ct.

Encinitas, CA  92024

Internet:	inada@alumni.caltech.edu

CompuServe:  72233,3451


Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the beta-testers who contributed to this project and much thanks to all the early registrants for their support and encouragement.  Special thanks to Michele Smith for her artistic contributions, to Haruhiko Okumura for providing public-domain compression code, to Dean Inada for his programming suggestions and testing, to Randall Takemoto-Hambleton for his many feature suggestions, testing, and encouragement, and to Debbie for her loving support.


License and Disclaimer

License

Super Video Poker for Windows is not a free program;  it is copyrighted and distributed as Shareware.  Unregistered users are granted a limited license to use this software on a 30-day trial basis.  Any use of this software beyond thirty days requires registration.  The use of unregistered copies of this software, outside of the initial 30-day trial, by any person, business, corporation, or government agency, or any other entity is strictly prohibited.

The executable file and documentation files may not be changed or modified in any way except by the author.  You may freely distribute unregistered copies of this program as long as all files, including the text files, are included and no money is charged.  A small copying fee not exceeding $10 US may be charged.

This program is for entertainment use only.

Disclaimer

This program and the accompanying documentation are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.  All warranties are disclaimed, including damage to hardware and/or software from use of this program.

The author assumes no risk as to the quality and performance of the program.  The author shall not be liable for special, consequential, or other, damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of your use or inability to use the program, or any other claim by any other party.  In any event, the liability is limited to the licensing fees you paid.


Credits

Credits are the standard monetary unit for SuperVideo Poker for Windows.  Credits are equivalent to "coins".  To start a new hand you "pay" between 1 to 5 coins.  You select the amount by clicking on the button in the upper-right with a digit on it.  If you have a paying hand when the hand is over, you receive the credits indicated in the payoff table.

You do not receive any credits until the hand is over.