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Dancer's Answers We publish a brand-new video poker article from Bob Dancer every Thursday in this section. These columns are called "Dancer's Answers". Click on any of the links below for more Dancer's Answers: Bob Dancer Articles - Main Page Vicksburg Video Poker - May 8, 2008 Vicksburg, MS Video Poker - Part 2 - May 15, 2008 Vicksburg Casino Video Poker - Part 3 - May 22, 2008 Common Deuces Wild Mistakes – Juan or the Other – May 29, 2008 Figuring Out Quick Quads - June 5, 2008 Breaking Full Houses in Quick Quads - June 12, 2008 A Quick Quads Puzzler - June 19, 2008 Let’s Go Scouting - June 26, 2008 When You're Not Sure of the Game - July 3, 2008 Can it be Right to Play Hunches - July 10, 2008 Good Hearted Woman in Love With a Good Timin’ Man - July 17, 2008 One-Way Versus Two-Way Straight Penalties - July 24, 2008 Effectual versus Ineffectual Straight Penalties - July 31, 2008 Unusual Dealt Royals - August 7, 2008 Learning from a Horse Handicapper - August 14, 2008 When Bad Is Good - August 21, 2008 I Live For These Moments - August 28, 2008 Las Vegas Do It Different - September 4, 2008 Figuring the worth when there are Multiple Progressives - September 11, 2008 Which is the Better Play? - September 18, 2008 How Much is Too Much? - September 25, 2008 Evaluating a Promotion - October 2, 2008 Next Dancer's Answers column coming on October 9, 2008! |
Sometimes the Jack, Sometimes Ace-Jack, Never the Ace by ItselfA friend of mine decided to learn 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe. The casino where he wanted to play, the Excalibur in Las Vegas, offered both this game and 9/6 Jacks or Better. He planned to play a half-million dollars of coin-in during a promotion. Since BPD returns 99.64% and JoB returns 99.54%, he figured the BPD game would save cost him $500 less. He figured he could learn the new game well in five or so hours so this made his study time worth $100 an hour.
He already knew JoB and decided to teach himself BPD. He came to a problem hand that stumped him, and that was ace-jack unsuited along with three “sort of nothing” cards. JoB says to ALWAYS hold AJ, which is what the Video Poker for Winners strategy says to do. But when he was practicing advanced hands, sometimes the computer said to hold the jack by itself. It NEVER suggested holding the ace by itself. “Where do I start in my analysis?” he asked me. “This seems like a strange situation.” Okay. Although I’ve never played this game, this kind of analysis is right down my alley. I figured that if he was struggling with the question, surely the answer wouldn’t be obvious to everybody, so that would make it a suitable subject for a column. Before I address the question, I suggest you work it out for yourself if you can. After all, it’s not really the answer to this particular question on this particular game that’s so important, but rather learning to think like a competent video poker player. Whether you ever play this game or not, the principles involved affect similar questions in other games as well. First let’s look at the games. 9/6 JoB and 9/6 BPD pay schedules are the same except for two differences. On a 5-coin basis:
That’s it. Otherwise the pay schedules are identical. The higher return for the quads is worth slightly more than what you give up in two pair, although the variance is quite a bit higher in BPD. On those days where you get a lot of quads, you’ll enjoy BPD. On those days when you don’t, you won’t. First let’s look at why you sometimes hold a solitary jack but never a solitary ace. This is opposite to the way many other games are played. In games where you sometimes or always hold the ace by itself, such as Double Bonus or Double Double Bonus, the reward for four aces is quite a bit more than the reward for four jacks. In this game, they each pay 400. When you start from an ace by itself, the only straight flush you can get is ‘A2345’. When you start from the jack by itself, it’s possible to get the ‘KQJT9’, ‘QJT98’, as well as the ‘JT987’ straight flush. These additional straight flushes (along with additional straights as well) mean the solitary jack is worth MORE than the solitary ace. Once you know this, it’s not so strange that sometimes you hold the jack (the higher-valued card) by itself and never hold the ace (the lower-valued card) by itself. Now let’s go to the problem of sometimes you hold AJ and sometimes just the jack. The value of an unsuited AJ is unaffected by any cards in the range of 2-9 in the hand. The suit of these low cards don’t matter to the value of the AJ because since the ace and jack are unsuited with each other, there is no chance for a flush to result when we start with AJ. Assuming you’re playing for dollars, from AJ349 and AJ875, where suits don’t matter so long as the ace and jack are not the same suit, the value of AJ is ALWAYS worth $2.2060. The value of the jack by itself, however, varies with the other three cards in the hand. The highest value for the jack is when the other three cards are not the same suit as the jack and are all in the range of 2-6, such as AJ256. In this case the jack is worth $2.2157, so the jack by itself is worth about a penny more than AJ. After we define terms, we’ll call this case “no flush penalty and no straight penalty.” When there is a “flush penalty” to the jack, meaning exactly one other card in the hand is suited with the jack, say A’J3’56, then the value of the jack by itself becomes $2.18795, which is about 1.8¢ less than AJ. The REASON a flush penalty hurts the jack is that it is harder to end up with a 5-card flush if there are only 11 hearts (for example) remaining in the 47-card pack than if there are 12. With this particular pay schedule, a flush penalty is worth almost 3¢. Now let’s look at “straight penalties.” Straight penalties are those that can be in the same 5-card straight as the jack. A seven, for example, can only be in a JT987 straight. An eight, on the other hand, can either be in that straight or the QJT98 straight. This makes the eight penalty more severe than the seven penalty. A nine penalty is more severe yet. The ten, queen, and king are also straight penalties, but they are special cases which we’ll discuss later. A seven penalty, such as AJ732 makes the jack worth $2.20855, about a quarter-cent more valuable than AJ. An eight penalty, such as AJ832, makes the jack worth $2.20135, about a half-cent less valuable than AJ. Since we know the nine is a stronger penalty yet, that’ll merely increase the amount by which AJ is more valuable than the jack. The reason a ten in the hand is a special case, such as AJT43, is that the ten is a straight penalty to BOTH the AJ and the jack. When we check this hand, we find that the value of the jack is worth $2.1888 and the value of the AJ is $2.18625, meaning the jack alone is superior by about a quarter penny. The king and queen, in a hand such as AKJ43 or AQJ64, are also straight penalties to both the AJ and the J, but these turn the hand into a higher-ranking combination. In both cases we discard the ace and hold the other two higher cards, namely KJ and QJ. There can be more than one penalty, of course. There can be two or three straight penalties, flush penalties, or some mixture. Whenever this happens, the jack becomes even more penalized while the value of AJ remains unaffected, so we’ll always hold the AJ in these hands. Were I to create a perfect strategy for this game, just discussing these hands, I would do so as follows:
To me this means that the USUAL situation is that the AJ is superior to the jack by itself. The only time we hold the jack is when there is no flush penalty, no 8 in the hand and no 9 in the hand. You may choose to use different notation if you wish, but if you want to be accurate, the information conveyed must be the same. You might wish to use a simpler rule such as
This excludes ALL straight penalties (rather than just the 8 and the 9). This makes the rule easier to memorize. Our analysis above shows that when it is wrong, it is only wrong by a quarter cent. I’ve been doing this long enough so that the more-advanced rule works fine for me, but if you’re new to penalty cards using the simplified rule that you only hold the jack when there are no penalties whatsoever is a reasonable shortcut whose cost is very small. 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," 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 or by telephone at 1-800-244-2224 M-F 9-5 Pacific Time.
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Classic Dancer We republish a classic Bob Dancer article every Sunday - often these articles are updated with new insights from Bob Dancer, the master of video poker writing. Video Poker Questions and Answers - May 4, 2008 More Answers to Questions About Video Poker Machines - May 11, 2008 Losing is a Major Part of Winning at Video Poker - May 18, 2008 Video Poker VS Blackjack - May 25, 2008 The Art of Tipping Slot Personnel - Part 1 - June 1, 2008 The Art of Tipping Slot Personnel - Part 2 - June 8, 2008 Putting Your Ducks In a Row - June 15, 2008 Luck and Skill in Video Poker - June 22, 2008 Strategy Adjustments in Video Poker - June 29, 2008 One Coin vs Five Coin - July 6, 2008 Video Poker Progressives - July 13, 2008 High Pairs versus Three Cards to a Rolal in Kings or Better Joker Wild - July 20, 2008 The Double Up Feature - Does It Ever Make Sense? - Part 1 - July 27, 2008 Doubling Up - Does it Ever Make Sense? - Part 2 - August 3, 2008 Did I Quit at the Right Time? - August 10, 2008 Money Management: What Does and Doesn't Work - August 17, 2008 "I'm Playing The Wrong Game" and Other Video Poker Fallacies - August 24, 2008 You Use To Be Such a Cheapskate - August 31, 2008 Is This a Good Promotion? Part 1 - September 7, 2008 Is This a Good Video Poker Promotion? Part 2 - September 14, 2008 More Video Poker Fallacies - September 21, 2008 Not All Proposals Should be Accepted - September 28, 2008 An Opportunity Too Good to Pass Up Part 1 of 2 - October 5, 2008 More Classic Dancer coming Sunday October 12, 2008. |
