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VIDEO POKER
 Bob Dancer writes a video poker column for beginners to experts. He also writes a column each week with Jeffrey Compton titled Player's Edge, which features information on promotions at various Las Vegas Hotel. Player's Edge is published each Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Click here to send Bob Dancer an e-mail.
April 09, 2002
The Joker Mid-Card Rules in Kings or Better Joker Wild --- Part I of II
In the best version of Kings or Better Joker Wild (KBJW), quads pay 20, full houses pay 7 and flushes pay 5 and returns more than 100% with perfect play. Sometimes the natural royal returns 4,000 coins and sometimes 4,700 but that won't matter in this discussion because all of these hands have the joker, and you cannot get a natural royal when you hold on to the joker.
Using the W (for wild card) to stand for the joker, consider the following hands:
W Th 8s 4c 3d --- hold W8
W Th 9s 4c 3d --- hold WT
W 9h 8s 4c 3d --- hold W8
Outside of the joker (which is worth more than your original bet), none of these hands is very good. Most seat-of-the-pants players just hold the joker. Playing for quarters, however, holding the joker and the right mid-card is at least 6¢ better than just holding the joker. In this week's column, I want to discuss what a mid-card is, and a simplified set of rules for the correct play --- without explaining a lot about the "why". In next week's column, I'll get into more of the "why", and also provide a more accurate set of rules. Next week's rules will almost always get you to within a quarter-of-a-cent accuracy, but complete accuracy is very elusive and beyond the scope of this forum. Furthermore, even if you had perfect rules, it might easily take 15-30 seconds to sort through them, and doing all of this to save a quarter of a penny actually COSTS you money, because each hand is worth about a penny itself even before you count in slot club benefits.
A mid-card is a 5 through T only, and the reason you hold the joker and a mid-card is that it is easier to get straights and straight flushes drawing three cards than four. The joker mid-card combination is at the bottom of the "hands with joker" side of the strategy card --- lower than any high card (i.e. WA or WK), a 4-card flush (e.g. W Qh 7h 2h), a 4-card straight (e.g. W 8s 7h 6c) or even a 3-card straight flush with up to two insides (e.g. W 4d 7d).
The reason that WT is the highest mid-card combination and W5 is the lowest has to do with "up and down" elbowroom to get straights and straight flushes. W5, for example, can be part of five different straights (i.e. 9-high, 8-high, 7-high, 6-high and 5-high) but W4 could only be part of four different ones (i.e. 8-high, 7-high, 6-high and 5-high). This difference in the number of straight possibilities is enough to make the difference.
A problem arises when we have two (or more) mid-cards in the same hand. How do we choose? The answer depends on how seriously you want to take the game.
On Liam W. Daily's and my strategy card, we give you four different levels of strategies. Level 1, which we call "Beginner", and is suitable for players on their first trip or two to Vegas, doesn't even discuss mid-cards, so the player should just hold the joker on such hands. The rule I present today is from Level 2, which we call "Recreational", and is appropriate for players who play once a month or so. The rules that I'll present next week are from Level 3, which we call "Basic" and are for more serious players. We do have more complete rules in Level 4, which we call "Advanced," but if you want them, you'll have to get the card itself.
So the Level 2 mid-card rule is this:
When there is a choice of mid-cards, choose W6, W7, or W8 over WT and choose WT over W5 or W9. Why? You'll have to wait until next week for that explanation. A hint is that it involves the principle of "redundant high pairs."
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