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Jerry Stickman Gaming Guru  Open and inside straights in Jacks or Better18 October 2025
By Jerry Stickman Open and inside straights and straight flushes were the topics of a recent article, with a following article having a quiz on inside and open straights on a jacks or better game. Now how about looking at some hands on a NSUD game? NSUD stands for Not So Ugly Deuces (or Ducks). This is a great game to play – if you can find it. It returns 99.7 percent with proper play. The pay table looks like this for five credits played: Royal Flush (no wild cards)/4000 4 Deuces/1000 Wild Royal Flush/125 5 Of a Kind/80 Straight Flush/50 4 Of a Kind/20 Full House/20 Flush/15 Straight/10 3 Of a Kind/5 First hand: 5c6c7c2hQd This hand contains: - a wild card (2h) - a two-card royal flush (2hQd). - a four-card open straight flush (5c6c7c2h) The returns are: - Holding the lone wild card returns 5.0323 credits on average. - Holding the two-card royal flush returns just 4.5430 credits. - Holding the four-card open straight flush returns 12.5532 credits. The obvious hold – the four-card open straight flush. Now let’s look at a slightly different hand. Let’s change the 6c to a 6h. This new hand is: 5c6h7c2hQd In this case we no longer have a four-card open straight flush. Instead, we have: - a four-card open straight (5c6h7c2h) - a three-card inside straight flush (5c7c2h) - a two-card royal flush (2hQd) - a lone wild card (2h). The returns are: - Holding the four-card open straight returns 5.000 credits. - Holding the three-card inside straight flush returns 5.2128 credits. - Holding the two card royal flush returns 4.5430 credits. - Holding the lone wild card returns 5.0146 credits. The three-card inside straight flush is the best hold for this hand. Now, let’s slightly change the hand one more time by making the 5c a 5h, and making the 6h a 6c. The modified hand is: 5h6c7c2hQd This hand now contains: - a four-card open straight (5h6c7c2h) - a three-card open straight flush (6c7c2h) - a two-card royal flush (2hQd) - a lone wild card (2h). Does this change matter? The returns are: - Holding the four-card open straight still returns 5.000 credits. - Holding the two-card royal flush still returns 4.5430 credits. - Holding the lone wild card returns 5.0154 credits. - However, holding the three-card open straight flush now returns 5.6938 credits, making it the preferred hold. Let’s look at one final hand for NSUD. 4d5d6c8dQh This hand contains only two viable holds: - a four-card inside straight (4d5d6c8d) - a three-card inside straight flush (4d5d8d) The returns are: - the four-card inside straight returns 1.7021 credits. - The three-card inside straight flush returns 2.0629 credits. Holding the three-card inside straight flush is the proper hold. Is that the way you would have played these hands? As always, may all your wins be swift and large, and your losses be slow and tiny. Jerry “Stickman” Jerry “Stickman” is an expert in craps, blackjack and video poker and advantage slot machine play. He is a regular contributor to top gaming magazines and 888casino.com. He authored the video poker section of Everything Casino Poker: Get the Edge at Video Poker, Texas Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, and Pai Gow Poker! You can contact Jerry “Stickman” at stickmanjerryg@gmail.com This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net. How do you play these open and inside straight hands?11 October 2025
Open and inside straights and straight flushes were the topics of a recent article. Here are some hands that feature open and inside straights/straight flushes. These hands are played on a full-pay (9-for-1 for a full house and 6-for-1 for a flush) jacks or better game with the max credits of five. ... (read more)
Open straights in video poker4 October 2025
Look at the strategy for just about any video poker game and you will find two different types of straight – an open (or more accurately – open-ended) straight and an inside straight. The terms open and inside also apply to straight flushes which are simply straights consisting on one suit. Most players, no ... (read more)
Which casino game has the best shot of winning27 September 2025
From Stuart in Minnesota. Hi Mr. Stickman, I have read several of your articles on the Casino City website and like what I see. I am quite new to casino play so I apologize in advance if this question has been covered before. I am quite conservative in my approach to casino gambling. It appears that you are too. ... (read more)
Jerry Stickman |
Jerry Stickman |