Page 12 - February 2007 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
CJommon Errors at Jacks or Better
acks or Better is one of the simplest of all video poker games. Although the phrase “Jacks or Better” is found on many games to indicate you get your money back for a high pair, when we are talking about the game “Jacks or Better” we mean a game where you get
double your money for two pair, and a constant amount of money (usually 25 per coin bet) for all four-of-a-kinds.
ere are many pay schedules for this game, but the errors described here are not errors in any of the pay schedules. e amount of the error will vary depending on how much you receive for a full house or a ush, but will not change the fact that it is an error.
e amounts listed will assume you are playing dollar 9/6 Jacks or Better for ve coins at a time.
1. A♥ Q♠ J♦ 5♠ 4♥ versus K♥ Q♠ J♦ 5♠ 4♥
QJ is best in the rst hand by 16¢ and KQJ is better in the second hand by 10¢. Beginners treat these hands as the same, but they’re not. AQJ and KQJ have the exact same potential to end up with a high pair, two pair, or 3 of a kind. But KQJ has twice the potential for ending up with a straight as AQJ. is extra straight potential is worth about 26¢ to the dollar player, and it so happens that the value of holding QJ by itself lies smack dab in the middle.
2. Q♥ J♥ T♥ 9♥ 8♠
If you were dealt Q♥ J♥ T♥ 9♥ 7♠, it would be common to hold the hearts quickly and feel your blood move a bit faster. After all, a straight flush pays 250 coins and you have two chances at it. Plus, even if you don’t connect on the straight flush, there are chances for regular straights, regular flushes and even a high pair. All in all, pretty good! But as good as the 4-card straight flush is, an ordinary dealt straight is better. Holding all five cards is worth an extra $2.13.
3. K♣ Q♣ J♣ J♥ 5♠
Holding the high pair over a 3-card royal ush is the better play by 24¢. Or more! With A♦ J♦ T♦ J♠ 5♦, the high pair is worth a full $1.48 more than the 3-card royal. e 1-in-1,081 chance for the $4,000 royal ush
is worth $3.70 all by itself plus you have chances for many other good things to happen (although well over half the time you end up with nothing at all). e high pair is a worth a guaranteed $5, plus it has signi cant chances for improvement too. It is hard to see all the possibilities because there are 16,215 di erent draws you can make to a pair of jacks, and nobody this side of Rain Man can do those calculations without a computer.
4. Q♦ Q♠ T♦ 9♦ 8♦
Here the QT98 straight flush draw is worth $4.23 more than the queens, even with their guaranteed $5! Four-card straight flushes, even those with a gap, are powerful. Of the players who miss this, at least half of them didn’t recognize that QT98 had straight flush potential. Had they practiced on a computer, they wouldn’t be making this mistake, because whenever they did, the computer would announce, “major error.” Most of us only take a few such announcements to learn the lesson.
5. 2♠ 3♠ 4♠ A♦ 9♣ versus 2♠ 3♠ 4♠ 5♦ 9♣
In the first hand, hold 234 by 24¢ and in the second prefer 2345 by 86¢. Always in Jacks or Better, an open-ended 4-card straight is better than any 3- card straight flush appearing in the same five cards. But A234 isn’t open-ended, because A-low is as low as you can go. It is an inside straight with one high card, and that isn’t eligible to be held in Jacks or Better.
6.A♣K♣4♦5♦6♦versusA♠K♣3♦5♦6♦ Prefer 456 in the first hand by 21¢ and 356 in the second by 28¢. Three-card straight flushes are the most confusing hand in video poker. The rules
are different for every variation of the game—and sometimes even for different pay schedules for the same game. In Jacks or Better, 3-card straight flushes with no high cards and no gaps are better than any two suited high cards, and 3-card straight flushes with no high cards and one gap are better than any two unsuited high cards.
7.K♥Q♠J♦9♣5♦versusK♥Q♠T♦9♣5♦
In the first hand KQJ9 is the better play by 16¢ and in the second, KQ is the better play by 14¢. In Jacks or Better, inside straights (i.e. 4-card straights with a gap) are eligible only if they have at least three high cards. In the first hand, in addition to having the four cards available for the straight, there were nine cards in the deck available to make a high pair. In the second hand, there were only six cards in the deck available for a high pair. And this reduction in three possible high pair out of the 47 possible draws is worth more than 30¢.
How did you do? In truth, this test was simple for anyone who has studied the game at all. Anybody who missed any of these and still plays in the casino is going into battle with one hand tied behind his or her back. You don’t have to practice on a computer or study a strategy card, but you’ll get a lot more bang for your gambling dollar if you do.
Bob Dancer is America’s best-known video poker writer and teacher. He has a variety of “how to play better video poker” products, including Winner’s Guides, strategy cards, his autobiography Million Dollar Video Poker, and his two novels, including Sex, Lies, and Video Poker. Dancer’s products may be ordered at www.bobdancer.com
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Page 12
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
February 2007
Video Poker with Bob Dancer