Page 14 - November 2007 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
AIKQJ Versus Three-Card Straight Flushes
n games without wild cards, the value of four-card inside straights is determined by the number of high cards in the hand. A high card (usually A, K, Q, and J) are those cards, when paired, give you your money back. When high pairs return $5 and straights return
$20, AKQJ, the only inside straight with four high cards, is worth $2.98. Assuming the fth card doesn’t complete the straight or give you a high pair, the rank and suit of that card is irrelevant to the value of AKQJ.
In 8/5 Super Aces Bonus, the value of the ush is still worth $25. So why isn’t the strategy the same in that game as it is in 8/5 Bonus? e answer is that all three-card straight ushes are reduced by 8¢ when two pair gives you $5 instead of $10. Starting from a
3-card straight ush, you end up with two pair 2.5% of the time.
Finally we have 9/5 Super Double Bonus. e ush returns $25 and two pair returns $5, so why isn’t the strategy the same as 8/5 Super Aces Bonus? e answer is in this game, the straight ush returns $400 instead of $250. is increases the value of all three-card straight ushes with two insides by 9¢.
So now we come up to 9/5 White Hot Aces and see that the ush returns $25, two pair returns $5, and the straight ush returns $400, what do you think the strategy would be? Since these values are the same as 9/5 Super Double Bonus, we would expect the strategy to be the same—and it is.
If we look at 9/5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus, where the pay schedule is exactly the same as 9/5 White Hot Aces except that the straight ush returns $500 instead of $400, what does that tell us about the strategy? Since “QJ8” is better than AKQJ in White Hot Aces, you know it will also be better in Triple Bonus Poker Plus—by a larger amount. What you don’t know is about “KQ9.” You might be able to estimate that the “KQ9” is worth about 6¢ more in Triple Bonus Poker Plus than in White Hot Aces, but whether this makes the value higher than $2.98 or not is not easily determined without a good computer program or an accurate strategy. It works out that“KQ9” is better than AKQJ in this game—by a small amount—but it’s probably something that most players would have to look up.
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.
e value of three-card straight ushes depends mostly on the number of high cards and the number of insides, but the fourth and fth cards in the hand also frequently change the value of the 3-card straight ush.
In this month’s column, I want to look at AKQJ and any three-card straight ushes that can appear in the same ve cards. Using quotation marks to indicate suited cards, the only four cases to look at will be AK“QJ9,”
AK“QJ8,” AQ“KJ9,” and AJ“KQ9.” e three-card straight ush “QJ9” is always more valuable than AKQJ, so we’re really just going to look at the last three cases.
We do not need to use penalty cards to rank these hands, although to be sure penalty cards a ect the ranking.
In 9/6 Jacks or Better, the strategy is:
“KQ9,”“KJ9,”“QJ8” AKQJ
In 8/5 Bonus Poker and 9/5 Super Bonus Poker, the strategy is
“QJ8” AKQJ
“KQ9,”“KJ9”
In 8/5 Super Aces Bonus, the strategy is
AKQJ “KQ9,”“KJ9,”“QJ8”
ere are easily-understood reasons why the strategies are di erent. Once you understand them, if you come across one of these hands in a di erent game, say 9/5 White Hot Aces, you’ll know how to play it. e combinations
“KQ9” and “KJ9” are always worth the same amount, so I’ll arbitrarily select“KQ9” to talk about.
e combinations “KQ9” and “QJ8” t into the category of two high cards and two insides. If the other two cards in the hand are low, each of these combinations are worth exactly the same. In the hands
“KQ9”43 and “QJ8”43, the straight ush combination in both cases is worth $3.21 in 9/6 Jacks or Better, while in 8/5 Bonus both combinations are worth $3.11. e di erence in value is because the ush is worth $30 in 9/6 Jacks and only $25 in 8/5 Bonus.
When there are high cards in a hand with these combinations, the value of these combinations become less, and when AKQJ is in the hand, the values of these combinations are no longer the same.
With AK“QJ8,” for example, in 9/6 Jacks, the value of “QJ8” is $3.18. e reason this is lower than the $3.21 listed above is that we are throwing away both an A
andaK,soendingupwithapairofacesorapairof kings is less likely.
In the hand AJ“KQ9,” the value of “KQ9” in 9/6 Jacks is worth $3.11, which is 7¢ less in value than the “QJ8” in the hand AK“QJ8.” While the A and J being thrown away reduce the chances for a high pair exactly the same way as in the previous example, in this case the J also reduces the chances for a QJT98 straight. is 7¢ di erence between “QJ8” and “KQ9” remains constant in hands containing AKQJ, so long as the straight is worth $20.
Since both $3.18 and $3.11 are greater than the constant $2.98 value of AKQJ, that is why we always go for the straight ush in that game. With what we’ve already shown, it shouldn’t surprise you that the values of “QJ8” and “KQ9” are worth $2.98 and $2.91 respectively in 8/5 Bonus, which explains why there is a di erence in the plays. (“QJ8” is worth about a half-cent more than AKQJ.)
Page 14
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
November 2007
Video Poker with Bob Dancer