Poker Galore! Authentic simulation of Las
Vegas video poker machines with beautiful
graphics and Sound Blaster support. Includes
Jacks or Better, Joker Poker, Double Down
and Second Chance. Register to get Deuces
Wild and Multi-Meter Progressive. Player
stats and strategy tips. Learn to win!
EGA/VGA required, mouse optional.

POKER GALORE

DISCLAIMER
__________

This game is intended for amusement purposes only, and should not be used
for any other purpose. The creator of this game neither endorses nor
discourages casino gambling. The tips and suggestions listed in this
documentation are opinions gathered from various researchers and gamblers,
and if anybody uses any of these suggestions in actual casino play, they do
so at their own risk. The author of this computer game and documentation
assumes no responsibility for any gambling losses resulting from any
playing strategy suggested by this document. See 'The Small Print' at the
bottom of this document for other legal information.

INTRODUCTION
____________

Video poker is a fascinating game which is widely played in Las Vegas,
Nevada and a few other places. Since its introduction in 1970, it has
grown in popularity until it rivals that of the traditional slot machine.
In recent years a number of variations on the original Jacks or Better
video poker machine have been introduced, some with very favorable odds.
With strategy, practice, and luck, it is possible to beat the house at
video poker.

QUICK START -- HOW TO PLAY POKER GALORE
_______________________________________

To start the game, put all the poker files in a subdirectory on your hard
disk and type:

C> POKER

Use the mouse or the function keys to choose one of the six available video
poker games. If you are playing the unregistered version of Poker Galore,
only four of the poker games will be available:

Jacks or Better
Joker Poker
Double Down Poker
Second Chance Poker

The registered version of Poker Galore includes two more games:

Deuces Wild
Multi-meter Progressive Poker

If you got Poker Galore from a bulletin board, you will need to unzip it
before you can play the game. If you are reading this document, then you
must have already unzipped Poker Galore. The zip file name for the
unregistered version 1.0 of Poker Galore is GALORE10.ZIP. If you have any
trouble with zipping or unzipping, ask your sysop.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
___________________

Poker Galore requires an IBM compatible computer with 256k memory and an
EGA card with enhanced display (sometimes called an EGA monitor), or VGA
card and VGA monitor. The EGA or VGA card must have 256k memory on the
card (all VGA cards most EGA cards, except for very old cards, have 256k
memory).

If you do not have EGA or VGA, this program will not run! Because of the
high resolution and beautiful colors, EGA or VGA is absolutely required to
run this program. Some IBM computers such as the PS/2 Model 25 and Model
30 do not support EGA. Tandy 1000 series computers do not support EGA or
VGA. A mouse and Sound Blaster card are supported but not required.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
_________________

Poker Galore was written in C and compiled with Microsoft C 6.0. All
graphics functions were achieved using the Fastgraph programmer's graphics
library. For more information about Fastgraph, contact Ted Gruber Software.

HOW TO TURN OFF THE SOUND EFFECTS
_________________________________

If you are in the main menu, use the mouse or function key to select
"Turn Sound On/Off". If you are already playing a game, press key
to toggle the sound effects off and on.

SOUND BLASTER SUPPORT
_____________________

If you have a Sound Blaster card, Poker Galore will assume it is set to the
default address and IRQ. If you are using a different address and IRQ for
your Sound Blaster, you can run the program SBCONFIG. SBCONFIG will prompt
you for your address and IRQ. This program will create a small text file
called "SB.CFG" which will hold your Sound Blaster address and IRQ. Poker
Galore will check for this file when it starts up. If you have any trouble
with your Sound Blaster card, try deleting the file SB.CFG.

Poker Galore will run fine on systems without a Sound Blaster card, but the
music and sound effects won't sound as nice.

EXITING THE GAME
________________

From any screen other than the main menu screen, you can press to
exit to the main menu, or if you are using a mouse, you can use your left
mouse button to click on the box marked "ESC exit". From the main menu,
you can exit to DOS by pressing or , or you can use the left
mouse button to click on the box labeled "F10 Exit to DOS".

HOW TO DISPLAY YOUR PLAYING STATISTICS
______________________________________

Use the mouse or press the function key from the main menu to choose
the "Display Statistics" option. You will see a screen that shows how well
you are doing in each of the six games. The following statistics are
displayed:

Bankroll - current status of bankroll (starts at $100 on each
of the six games)

Hands - number of hands dealt

Action - total sum of money wagered

Amount Won - total sum of money won on all hands

Payback - defined to be the amount won divided by the action.

Notice that the bankroll is only displayed once, and that it is always
cumulative. The bankroll always starts at $100 for a new player or a new
game.

The progressive jackpots are displayed at the bottom of the Playing
Statistics screen. The progressive jackpots go up a tiny amount with each
hand played by any player on any of the games.

PERSONALIZING POKER GALORE
__________________________

Use the mouse or the function key from the main menu to choose the
"Enter Your Name" option. You will be prompted for your name, which will
be stored in a file along with your playing statistics. This is useful if
you want to keep track of your wins and losses. Information on up to 10
players can be stored in the POKER.DAT file. If you do not enter your name,
you will only see your statistics for the current playing session and your
cumulative statistics will not be kept.

If you would like to keep track of your cumulative statistics, it is
recommended that you use the "Enter Your Name" option at the beginning of
each playing session.

CHOOSING A GAME FROM THE MAIN MENU
__________________________________

You may use the mouse or the function keys to choose a game from the
main menu. The following games are available:

F1 Jacks or Better
F2 Joker Poker
F3 Deuces Wild
F4 Multi-Meter Progressive
F5 Double-Down
F6 Second Chance

PLAYING VIDEO POKER
___________________

There are four simple steps in playing video poker: (1) insert 1 to 5
coins. (2) You are dealt 5 cards. (3) Choose which cards to keep and
which ones to discard. (4) Draw new cards to replace the ones that were
discarded. Here are the keystroke sequences to accomplish these steps:

Insert coins: You can insert coins one at a time by pressing the
. You may insert 5 coins by pressing the
key. If you are using a mouse, you can click
the left mouse button anywhere on the screen to
insert one coin. If you want to insert 5 coins at
a time using the mouse, you must click on the box
labeled "Coins 5".

Deal cards: Press the key to deal the cards. If you are
using a mouse, press the right mouse button to deal the
cards. If you insert 5 coins, the cards will be dealt
automatically.

Hold/discard: Use the first five function keys to hold and
discard the cards of your choice. For example,
if the first card is labeled "Hold" and you want
to discard it, press the key to change the word
"Hold" to "Discard". If you change your mind,
press the same key again.

If you are using a mouse, you can use the left
button and click anywhere on the card or in the
box labeled "hold/discard".

When you select a card to discard, you will no
longer see the front of that card. The card will
be turned over and you will see the back of the
card.

You may press to discard all 5 cards. If you
are using a mouse you can use the left button to
click on the box "discard all" to discard all 5 cards.
If you quickly click the left mouse button twice on
this box, all 5 cards will be discarded and 5 new
cards will be drawn immediately.

Draw: When you are satisfied with your selection of cards
to hold and discard, press the key to draw
the replacement cards. The cards which you chose to
discard will disappear and new cards will appear in
their place.

If you are using a mouse, you may click the right
button to draw.

After you have performed the above steps, the computer will determine
whether you have a winning hand and what that hand is worth, and then it
will adjust your bankroll accordingly. You can then repeat the above
steps.

The object of the game is to increase your bankroll.

JACKS OR BETTER
_______________

This is a good game to start with. It is the simplest game, and some help
is offered on the screen as you play. You will be prompted for which keys
or mouse buttons to use to insert coins, deal, hold and discard cards, and
draw.

Jacks or Better is the original and probably the most popular video poker
machine found in Las Vegas. The payout schedule is as follows:

Royal Flush 250 (4000)
Straight Flush 50
4 of a Kind 25
Full House 9
Flush 6
Straight 4
3 of a Kind 3
Two Pair 2
Jacks or Better 1

If you achieve any of the above hands, your winnings would consist of the
number in the payout schedule multiplied by the number of coins inserted
for the hand. The exception happens in the case of the royal flush when 5
coins are inserted. In this case, a royal flush pays the jackpot amount of
4000 coins.

JOKER POKER
___________

Joker Poker is played with a 53 card deck. The extra card is the joker and
is considered to be a wild card. It can be used to represent any other
card in the deck. When a hand contains the joker, the computer will
calculate the best possible hand that can be made using the joker as some
other card.

Here is the payout schedule for joker poker:

Royal Flush (with no joker) 400 (4000)
5 of a Kind 200
Royal Flush (with a joker) 100
Straight Flush 50
4 of a Kind 20
Full House 7
Flush 5
Straight 3
3 of a Kind 2
Two Pair 1
Kings or Better 1

Notice that a royal flush with a joker in it pays less than a royal flush
without a joker in it. Notice also that the lowest paying hand is a pair
of kings, and some of the other hands pay less than the Jacks or Better
payout schedule. As with Jacks or Better, you can win a 4000 coin jackpot
if you get a royal flush with no joker and 5 coins played.

DEUCES WILD
___________

Deuces Wild is played with a 52 card deck containing 4 wild cards, the
deuces (cards valued 2). The payout schedule is as follows:

Royal Flush (with no deuces) 400 (4000)
4 Deuces 200
Royal Flush (with deuces) 25
5 of a kind 15
Straight Flush 9
4 of a Kind 5
Full House 3
Flush 2
Straight 2
3 of a Kind 1

As with the other games, it takes a royal flush with no wild cards and 5
coins to win the 4000 coin jackpot. Deuces Wild does not pay on any pair.
It pay 200 times the number of coins in for a hand containing 4 deuces.

Since there are more ways of making winning combinations when there are
more wild cards, each winning hand pays slightly less than in Jacks or
Better.

MULTI-METER PROGRESSIVE
_______________________

Multi-Meter Progressive is similar to Jacks or Better if you play 5 coins
or less. You have the option of inserting a sixth coin and trying for a
progressive jackpot. If you play 6 coins and make any winning hand lower
than a full house, the payout will be the same as if you had inserted 5
coins. However, if you make a full house or better, and you have 6 coins
in, you will win a progressive jackpot.

In real casino play, the progressive jackpots go up each time a player
inserts a coin into a progressive machine or a "bank" of progressive
machines (usually 10 or 20 machines networked together). So, many players
are contributing to a jackpot that only one player will win. To simulate
this in our game, we increase the jackpot amounts whenever any player
inserts coins into any machine. That is, playing Jacks or Better, or any
other game, will increase the progressive jackpots.

Some players only play the progressive machines when the jackpot reaches a
certain level. When the progressive jackpot goes over this amount, the
expected return is in the player's favor, and it can be very profitable to
play a progressive machine. For more information about this, please refer
to the references, particularly the books by Lenny Frome and Stanford Wong.

When a progressive jackpot is won, the win value goes back down to the
corresponding five-coin payout, and then slowly increases again.

DOUBLE-DOWN
___________

Double-Down is a game played in two stages. The first part is played
exactly like Jacks or Better. You insert coins, deal, hold/discard and
draw 5 cards and the payout schedule is the same as in Jacks or Better. If
you have a winning hand, you are given the opportunity to double your
winnings. You may continue to double your winnings until you lose or until
you choose to stop.

After playing a winning hand, the computer will ask you "Do you want to
play Double-Down?". To play Double-Down, press the key or click the
left mouse button on the box labled "YES". It will then turn all the cards
face down and immediately turn up one card on the far left representing the
dealer's card. This card will be labeled "DEALER". You are then given the
opportunity to pick one of the other four cards. Use the mouse or the
function keys to make your selection. This card will be labeled "PLAYER".
If the card you choose has a higher value than the dealer's card, you win.
Whatever amount you won on the poker hand is now doubled. The computer
asks you if you want to play again. If you do, proceed as above. You can
double your money indefinitely, or until you lose.

In the case of a tie, no money changes hands.

SECOND CHANCE
_____________

This is an exciting new variation on video poker that seems to be gaining
popularity. Although the profit potential of this game may not be as high
as some of the other games, many people think it is great fun to play, and
some players even prefer it to all the other games. It works like this:
You play the hand just like the Jacks or Better game, and the payout
schedule is the same. After you discard and draw, you have one more chance
to make a hand. If the computer determines that you have a chance of
making a straight or better with one more card, it will ask you if you want
to play second chance. You must respond "yes" or "no". Use the Function
Key for "yes", for "no", or click the left mouse button on the
appropriate box.

If you choose to play Second Chance, the payout schedule will disappear and
a new payout schedule will appear, along with the back of another card
representing your sixth card. You will then be prompted to insert more
money. Insert 1 to 5 coins in the usual way, then press or click
the right mouse button as you would to draw. The sixth card will be turned
up. If that card can be matched with any 4 cards to make a winning hand,
your bankroll will be adjusted accordingly.

The Second Chance payout schedule is determined according to how many cards
are left in the deck and what those cards are. This schedule will also
vary according to what hands can be made. In no case will the expected
value of the second chance bet go over 100%. Some Second Chance hands will
pay on a pair of 10's or better.

PLAYING STRATEGY
________________

The playing strategy varies according to which game you are playing, and
certain other factors such as the size of the progressive jackpot. For a
detailed mathematical analysis of playing strategy, consult the references,
in particular the book by Lenny Frome. Here are some general strategy
suggestions:

If you are dealt a royal flush, a straight flush, four of a kind, or
a full house, do not draw any cards.

If you are playing Deuces Wild, and you are dealt 4 deuces, or if
you are playing Joker Poker and you have 5 of a kind, do not draw any
cards.

If you have 4 cards of a royal flush, draw 1 card and try to make the
royal flush. This applies even if it means you have to break up a
straight or a flush.

Hold a straight or a flush if you can not draw 1 card to a royal
flush.

If you have 4 cards of a straight flush, draw 1 card, but do not
break up a straight or a flush to do so.

If you have three of a kind, draw 2 cards.

If you have two pair, draw 1 card. Never break up two pair,
even two low pair.

If you have a pair of jacks or better, draw 3 cards. This rule
does not apply in Deuces Wild or Joker Poker.

If you have 4 cards of a flush, draw 1 card.

If you have 3 cards of a royal flush, draw 2 cards.

If you have any pair, draw 3 cards.

If you have 4 cards of a straight, draw 1 card.

If you have 3 cards of a straight flush, draw 2 cards.

If you a pair of high cards (jacks or better), draw 3 cards.

If you have 2 high cards of the same suit, draw 3 cards and try for
the royal flush.

If you have 1 high card, draw 4 cards.

This list is ranked according to expected value. Play the highest hand on
this list that applies.

Remember that this is only a list of general guidelines. An expert player
will vary his playing strategy according to the game he is playing. For
example, suppose that you are playing the progressive jackpot machine and
the four of a kind jackpot has reached a very high level. It would then be
profitable to break up a full house to try for the four of a kind.

With Poker Galore, you can develop your own playing strategy on your
personal computer. The player statistics will help you keep track of how
well you are doing.

HOW TO CALCULATE EXPECTED VALUE
_______________________________

The expected value is the average return on a hand and can be calculated
statistically. Here is an example of how you can calculate an expected
value. Suppose you have been dealt the following hand:

10H JH QH KH 6C

You have 4 cards of a royal flush, the 10, Jack, Queen, and King of hearts,
and you also have the six of clubs. You wisely choose to discard the six
of clubs. There are 47 cards left in the deck. What is the expected value
of this hand?

to get you need chances payout expected value
______ ________ _______ ______ ______________

royal flush AH 1/47 250 250/47
straight flush 9H 1/47 50 50/47
flush any heart 7/47 9 63/47
straight any 9 or ace 6/47 4 24/47
jacks or better J, Q, K 9/47 1 9/47
______

396/47

The total expected value is 396/47, or $8.43 for every dollar played.
Expected values for the other hands can be calculated in a similar manner.
Optimal playing strategy dictates that you play the hand with the highest
expected value. Detailed tables of expected values can be found in the
references.

TIPS AND HINTS
______________

Here are some more suggestions from expert players:

Remember that you are playing against a machine, not another person. You
can not bluff your way out of a bad hand, nor can you fool the computer
into thinking that you have a good hand by refusing to draw cards.

Never keep a "kicker" (a lucky card, such as an ace) when drawing to a
pair. This substantially lowers the expected value of your hand.

Never draw to an inside straight unless at least one of the cards is a high
card (jack or better) and you are playing a game that pays on jacks or
better.

If you have a worthless hand, discard all 5 cards and draw a new hand.
Keeping one card in hopes of making a pair (or a straight or a flush) will
not improve your odds.

If you have a worthless hand containing wild cards, discard all but the
wild cards.

STATISTICS
__________

The progressive jackpots and player statistics are kept in the POKER.DAT
file. If you delete the POKER.DAT file, you will erase all the statistics
for all the players and reset all the progressive jackpots. If Poker
Galore does not find the POKER.DAT file, it will create it. Warning: if
you attempt to modify the POKER.DAT file, you may get unpredictable
results! If the game does not seem to behaving properly, try resetting the
game by deleting the POKER.DAT file.

TERMINOLOGY
___________

Ace: a card whose value is one, although sometimes it is treated as a face
card whose value is greater than a king.

Casino: house of entertainment where gambling is allowed.

Deck: a collection of 52 cards, except when a joker is present to
make 53 cards.

Deuce: a card whose value is two.

Expected value: the average payback on a hand. That is, if you bet a hand
and play a hand the same way over and over, the average amount you get back
should be equal to the expected value.

Flush: five cards of the same suit.

Four of a kind: four cards of the same rank.

Full house: a hand consisting of three cards of one rank and two cards of
another rank.

High card: any jack, queen, king or ace.

Jack: the lowest face card.

Jacks or better: this hand consists of two high cards of the same rank, for
example the queen of hearts and the queen of spades. On most machines this
is the lowest paying hand, but there are many exceptions.

Joker: a card with no rank or suit, with a picture of a court jester on it,
which can assume the rank and suit of any other card.

Kicker: an extra, unpaired card before the draw.

King: the highest face card, with a rank above that of the queen and
below that of an ace.

Low card: a card valued 2 through 10.

Meter: device to display a progressive jackpot amount.

Payout schedule: each machine pays on certain hands according to the payout
schedule, which is usually posted in plain sight on the front of the video
poker machine.

Progressive: a jackpot which goes up a little bit every time a certain
amount of money is put into the video poker machine. On some video poker
machines, only the royal flush jackpot is progressive; on others, there may
be multiple progressive jackpots.

Queen: a face card ranking above a jack and below a king, the only female
face card.

Rank: The value of a card from 1 to 14, with the deuce having the rank 2
and the king having the rank 13. An ace may have a rank of either 1 or 14,
depending on the context.

Royal flush: a hand consisting of the 10, jack, queen, king, and ace all of
one suit.

Straight: five consecutive cards of any suit. An ace-low straight would
consist of ace-two-three-four-five, while an ace-high straight would
consist of ten-jack-queen-king-ace. A hand such as jack-queen-king-ace-
two is not a legal straight, unless deuces are wild. Note: a straight
does not have to be in ascending or descending order, as long as all five
cards are there.

Straight flush: a hand which is both a straight and a flush.

Suit: a deck is divided into four suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts and
spades. The suit of a card can be determined by the shape and color of
the symbols which appear on it.

Three of a kind: three cards with the same rank, sometimes called
"triplets".

Two pair: a pair is any two cards of the same rank, so two pair means you
have two unique sets of matching cards. For example, you may have a pair
of aces and a pair of eights. If you had two pairs of aces or two pairs of
eights, you would not get paid for two pair, you would get paid for having
four of a kind.

Wild: a card is considered to be wild if it can represent any other card.
The most common wild card is the joker, which is always wild in video
poker. A Deuces Wild video poker game is also available, in which case any
deuce may represent any rank and any suit.

REFERENCES
__________

BEATING THE POKER SLOT MACHINES, 1981, R. Carl Cohen, author and publisher,
P.O. Box 14495, Philadelphia, PA 19115.

BEATING THE JOKER POKER SLOT MACHINES, 1989, R. Carl Cohen, author and
publisher, P.O. Box 14495, Philadelphia, PA 19115.

EXPERT VIDEO POKER FOR LAS VEGAS, Lenny Frome, 1989, Compu-Flyers, LF-425,
5025 S. Eastern Ave #16, Las Vegas, NV 89119.

HOW TO WIN AT VIDEO POKER, David R. Gerhardt, 1985, 1987, Gerhardt
Software, 32600 Concord Drive, Dept. 401, Madison Heights, MI 48071.

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO POKER, Stanford Wong, 1988, Pi Yee Press, 7910 Ivanhoe
#34, La Jolla, CA 92037.

VIDEO POKER PLAYING TO WIN, David Gerhardt and Tony Korfman, Gaming Books
International, Inc. 1512 E. Fremont, Las Vegas, NV 89101.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
________________

Diana Gruber lives in Las Vegas and enjoys playing video poker at the
local casinos. She has a degree in mathematics from UNLV. Years ago
Diana worked as a blackjack dealer at the Four Queens hotel in downtown
Las Vegas. Diana is currently senior programmer at Ted Gruber Software,
and married to the president of the company. Ted Gruber is the author
of the Fastgraph programmer's graphics library. Diana is the author of
many commercial and shareware games and programs.

REGISTERING POKER GALORE
________________________

To register Poker Galore, use the convenient order form in the file
"order.frm", or send $20 to:

Diana Gruber
Ted Gruber Software
P.O. Box 13408
Las Vegas, NV 89112

(702) 735-1980 (voice orders)
(702) 735-4603 (FAX)
(702) 796-7134 (bulletin board)

VISA and Mastercard orders are accepted.

DISTRIBUTING POKER GALORE
_________________________

If you want to distribute Poker Galore:

[] Non-commercially, please do! Distribution is non-
commercial if it is for free, or by any not-for-profit
organization, or by hobby, user or computer interest group
to its members, or by any BBS. We reserve the right to
withdraw this right by giving reasonable notice.

[] Directly to the public in a store or other retail area
("Rack Vending"), please contact us for permission.

[] Commercially (other than by Rack Vending), please see
VENDOR.DOC.

THE SMALL PRINT
_______________

This explains more of the legal side of how using and distributing Poker
Galore works.

A. NON-COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION: This "Small Print" statement gives you the
right to copy and distribute the shareware version of POKER GALORE
"non-commercially". Distribution is non-commercial if it is for free, or
by any not-for-profit organization, or by hobby, user or computer interest
group to its members, or by any BBS. Commercial distributors should read
"VENDOR.DOC".

B. USING POKER GALORE, SHAREWARE VERSION: The shareware version of POKER
GALORE is yours to use for a reasonable period to decide if you like it. If
you like it, please use "ORDER.FRM" to get a registered version. Shareware
is not in the public domain, and is not free.

C. USING POKER GALORE, REGISTERED VERSION: The registered version of Poker
Galore (the one that includes Deuces Wild and Multi-meter Progressive
Poker) may be used by one person at a time. Please do not make copies of
the registered version of Poker Galore (except for backups), or give copies
to anybody.

D. OWNERSHIP: Except to the extent expressly licensed, Ted Gruber Software
has and reserves the exclusive copyright and other right, title and
interest to copy and distribute POKER GALORE, and the right to use the
Trademark "POKER GALORE" in connection with it.

E. POKER GALORE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS". NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, ARE MADE AS TO IT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON. TED GRUBER SOFTWARE
AND THE AUTHOR WILL PROVIDE NO REMEDY FOR INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM IT, INCLUDING SUCH FROM NEGLIGENCE,
STRICT LIABILITY, OR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, EVEN AFTER NOTICE OF
THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or the exclusion
of consequential damages, so the above disclaimers and exclusions may not
apply to you.

F. If you distribute Poker Galore non-commercially, you must distribute all
of its files (including this one) together in compressed or other format as
released by Ted Gruber Software. You may add simple introductory or batch
files so long as they do not interfere with or degrade the performance of
the POKER GALORE or any installation file it may contain.

G. Ted Gruber Software reserves the right to withdraw this license by
giving reasonable notice.

[v09.01.92]