Page 24 - September 2010 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
VIideo Poker Strategies are Transitive—Usually
f John is the brother of Pete, and Pete is the brother of Sam, we know that John and Sam are also brothers. e “is the brother of ” relationship is called transitive. Transitivity is a logical, mathematical relationship. ere are a lot of transitive relationships, such as “heavier than,”
“taller than,” etc.
ere are a lot of relationships that are not transitive. Let’s say George is in love with Mary, and Mary loves her mother. We can’t conclude that George loves Mary’s mother. Whatever else it is, love is an intransitive
relationship.
Video poker strategies
are usually transitive. If we know that a 4-card straight ush is more valuable than a 3-card royal ush in a particular game (which is true in most, but not all games) and that in this game a 3-card royal ush is more valuable than a pair of 7s, we can conclude that a 4-card straight ush is more valuable than a pair of 7s if the strategy is transitive, but not if the strategy is intransitive.
While transitivity is the norm in video poker strategies, this column is going to list a few instances where this is not the case.
be able to conclude that ‘JT9’ > 77. But this isn’t the case. Why not?
e simple explanation is that ‘JT9’ is less valuable when there are two 7s in the hand than when there are two 6s. You can say the 7s are straight penalties to the ‘JT9’. If youpreferapenalty-freestrategy you can list this in your strategy as 77 > ‘JT9’ > 66. Whether you believe penalty cards are useful or not, it’s possible to play this intransitive part of the strategy
Consider 9-5 Super
Double Bonus played
for dollars ve coins at a
time. In the hand ‘JT9’ 66
(the quote marks indicate the cards are suited with each other) the correct play is ‘JT9’ by 11¢. In the hand ‘JT9’ 77, the correct play is 77 by 4¢. is is intransitive. Since ‘JT9’ > 66 and 66=77, we should
“Video poker strategies are usually transitive. If we know that a 4-card straight flush is more valuable than a 3-card royal flush in a particular game (which is true in most, but not all games) and that in this game a 3-card royal flush is more valuable than a pair of 7s, we can conclude that a 4-card straight flush is more valuable than a pair of 7s if the strategy
perfectly.
In NSU Deuces Wild, the
3-card straight ushes (where the W indicates a deuce), W‘56’=W‘57’=W‘68’=
W‘79’ = W‘8T’ = W‘9J’. ese are all 3-card straight ushes with one inside. When two of these 3-card straight ushes are in the same hand it is usually a tie.
But not always. For example, fromWJ♥9♥5♣7♣it doesn’t matter if you hold the hearts or the clubs, but from
W J♥ 9♥ 5♣ 6♣, the hearts are more valuable by 9¢. We haveW‘J9’=W‘57’and W‘57’ = W‘56’ but we also have
‘J9’ doesn’t. e penalty free strategy is W ‘57’ – W ‘J9’ > W ‘ 5 6 ’.
Another example may be seen in 10/7 Double Bonus. ‘KQ’ =‘KJ’, but when you match these with‘T97’,‘KJ’ is superior by 7¢ and but ‘KQ’ is inferior by 3¢. I’ll let you
gure out why.
Still another example is found in 8/5 Bonus Poker.
‘AJ’ = ‘AQ’, but when you match these with ‘789’, ‘AJ’ is superior by 2¢ but ‘AQ’ is inferior by 5¢.
Assuming all video poker strategies are transitive may appear logical, but it just isn’t the case. Many strategies have a few intransitivities. I know of no strategies with a lot of them. If you play any of these games and are seriously trying to win you should at least be aware of them.
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 the software “Video Poker for Winners,” his new book, Video Poker for the Intelligent Beginner, Winner’s Guides, strategy cards, his autobiography Million Dollar Video Poker, and his two novels, including Sex, Lies, and Video Poker. Dancer’s products,
is transitive, but not if the strategy is intransitive.”
W ‘J9’ > W ‘56’. Intransitivity. Again it has to do with straight interference. e 9 in ‘J9’ is a straight penalty
to both W ‘57’ and W ‘56’. When matched with ‘57’, W ‘J9’hasstraightinterference.Whenmatchedwith‘56’,W
Page 24
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
September 2010
Video Poker with Bob Dancer