![]() Newsletter Signup
Stay informed with the
NEW Casino City Times newsletter! Recent Articles
Best of Elliot Frome
|
Gaming Guru
Reading a Strategy Table - Part III26 July 2006
This week, we'll finish up the rest of the strategy table. Even though these hands are the poorest payers on the table, that doesn't make them any less important. Mistakes on any part of the strategy table can shrink your bankroll in a hurry. Also, since these final 12 rows also contain the 2-card Royals, misplaying these hands can greatly reduce your chances for hitting that Royal. It is important to realize the power of the 2-Card Royal, without giving them either TOO much power or not enough power. The next six rows of our strategy table are as follows:
The first row on the table is the first of our 2-Card Royals. Unlike 3 and 4-Card Flushes and Straights, we cannot simply count the number of High Cards in the hand. Instead, 2-Card Royals have a classification all their own. Version 3 (or V3) is a 2-Card Royal with no 10 or Ace (i.e. JQ, JK, QK). We subtract 1 from the 'Version' if the 2-Card Royal contains an Ace, and subtract 2 if it contains a 10. Thus a QA is a V2, a Q10 is a V1 and a A10 is V0. As we'll soon see, A10 (or V0) is not even playable in this version of video poker. Remembering how to calculate the version number of a 2-Card Royal and how its expected value compares to other hands is very important. The hands in this part of the table overlap greatly with 2-Card Royals, and playing them wrong can be costly. Right away, we see that a 2-Card Royal V3 has a higher expected value than
a 4-Card Inside Straight with 4 High Cards. This hand can occur only 1 way (J-Q-K-A-X).
Thus if the JQ, JK, or QK are of the same suit, you throw away the 4-card straight
and go for the 2-Card Royal. However, if the JA, QA or KA are the 2 suited cards
then we keep the 4-card Straight. The final 6 rows of our strategy table are as follows:
The last part of our table introduces 2 of the most common hands we have to play when playing video poker. It's not very good news that they appear near the bottom of our table. These 2 common hands, '2 High Cards' and '1 High Card' will account for about 30% of all of our hands. Far less common but similar in terms of play is the '3 High Cards'. The 3 High Cards MUST BE J-Q-K. They must be unsuited, or we would play them as a 2-Card Royal (V3). If the 3 High Cards contain an Ace, then we play it as 2 High Cards, UNLESS the Ace is a suit match to one of the other high cards, in which case it is a 2-Card Royal (V2). Also important to note is that there is no 4-Card Inside Straight with 2 High Cards. So, if dealt 9-10-Q-K-X, we do NOT go for the straight, but rather hold only the Q-K. The lowest playable 4-Card Inside Straight must contain at least 3 High Cards. So, a 9-J-Q-K is played unless a 2-Card Royal exists within it. Snuck in between the 2 High Cards and the 1 High Card is the last playable 2-Card Royal for this version of video poker. If you are dealt 1 High Card and a 10 of the same suit, we hold this 2-Card Royal instead of the single High Card. IF however, there is a second High Card, we play it as 2 High Cards. So, if dealt 10-J-Q, where the 10 and Queen are of the same suit, we still hold the J-Q for 2 High Cards. Below 1 High Card is the final 3-Card Straight Flush version. You can't get any worse than this in terms of a Straight Flush. It is Double Inside and has NO High Cards. What we do learn from this is that EVERY 3-Card Straight Flush is playable. That doesn't mean that aren't variations we throw away in favor of a better hand, but at no time do we throw away a 3-Card Straight Flush and draw 5 new cards. That brings us to the infamous 'Razgu'. My father coined this phrase because it sounds better than saying 'garbage hand'. When all else fails, we draw 5 new cards. The expected value is a rather low 0.36, but it's is still better than drawing to a 4-Card Inside Straight with no High Cards, or holding a 2-Card Straight Flush or 1 medium card. As bad as a Razgu is, these other hands are far, far worse. Well, that's the whole strategy table and a lot of insight into how to use it to help you on your way towards learning expert strategy. It's important to remember that EVERY change to a video poker paytable can affect the strategy. The next step in the process is to practice, practice, practice. You can use a deck of cards at home, but to really learn the game, I would strongly recommend you buy a good version of video poker software for your PC. My father worked closely with the developers for Masque Video Poker Strategy Pro, which plays 61 versions of Video Poker, but there are other good ones out there as well. Once you have mastered the game at home, you are ready to go to the casino and try it with real money. Good luck! Recent Articles
Best of Elliot Frome
Elliot Frome |
Elliot Frome |