Excel Video Poker with VBA Macro Code

Video poker is one of my favorite games to play while sitting around a casino and sipping free drinks. So, I decided to build an Excel Video Poker program.

Sadly, I haven’t figured out a way to program in free drinks. Other than that, Excel Video Poker comes with all the functionality of a basic video poker machine that you can find in most casinos.

Interestingly, video poker is one of the very few casino games that the player could have the edge over the house. Different machines will have different rules and payouts, but a professional video poker player who is able play exactly right can gain a slight advantage over the house on certain machines.

The Excel Video Poker program is a pretty standard Jacks or Better game in which the player is dealt 5 cards from the deck and is given one opportunity to exchange one or more cards for new ones from the same deck. The player wins a payout if the final hand is a pair of Jacks or better.

The best hand you can make is a royal flush which pays 250 to 1. However, as is standard in most Jacks or Better games, there is a premium paid for betting the max of 5 credits. In this case, a royal flush pays 800 to 1.

If a player uses optimal strategy without making any mistakes, the expected return is 99.54% which is about the same as using basic strategy in blackjack.

As with all other programs on More Than Spreadsheets, the VBA code is unlocked so you can see exactly how the game works.