How I Got My Royal

15 September 2024

By Jerry Stickman

From Junior in Minnesota

Hi Stickman,

I'd like to pass on to your readers a tip for hitting a Royal Flush. This actually happened to me a few days ago.

Say you were dealt:

2h, 5c, Kh, 7d, 10s. Most players would hold just the Kh and draw four. But if the 10 were the same suit as the high card, hold both and draw just three. This is just what happened to me. I drew Ah, Qh and Jh and hit a RF.

John S.
NY

Hi John,

Congratulations on that royal! Nobody ever gets tired of hitting them, that is for sure. The odds against you hitting it with that hand were 16,215 to 1. Not too shabby.

Face cards are powerful in a video poker hand. Suited face cards are even more powerful due to the chance of high pairs, flushes, straight flushes, and, yes, royal flushes.

There are situations, as you mention above, that even non-face cards that are suited can be powerful. In most cases it takes three suited cards to warrant holding them. They can produce flushes and straight flushes given the proper starting cards.

An exception to that rule comes when the hand contains two suited cards and one of the suited cards is a face card. Of course, this also assumes that the rest of the hand is junk, as in your example hand.

Any one face card can be the lone held card if the rest of the hand is junk – or if the only other suited card is less than a 10. This was the case for you.

Any face card with a suited 10 and junk warrants holding both suited cards, not just the face card.

In jacks or better, there is one major exception to that rule. When dealt a suited ace and 10 and three junk cards, the proper play is to hold the lone ace. Most video poker players I know have a very difficult time with this one.

It does not make sense to them to discard a possible royal flush. The math, however, proves that hold is the correct one.

On a 9/6 jacks or better game, holding the lone ace returns 2.3255 credits for the five credits played (on average), versus a return of 2.3028 credits when the ace and 10 are held.

What most players fail to consider is there are many more opportunities for other winning hands when the lone ace is held. For example, 52 possible four-of-a-kinds when holding the lone ace versus two with the ace-10.

True, there is one shot at a royal flush when holding the ace-10, but there is also a possible straight flush when holding the lone ace – A-2-3-4-5. That combined with multiple other possible winning hands makes the lone ace the proper hold – by about 25 hundredths of the bet.

As always, may all your wins be swift and large, and your losses be slow and small.

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