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The Joker Mid-Card Rules in Kings or Better Joker Wild --- Part II of II

In last week's column (a few mouse clicks away) I started this discussion. If you haven't read it, or don't remember it well, I suggest you start there and come back. In that column, when it comes to holding mid-cards, I said the best single rule was: When there is a choice of mid-cards, choose W6, W7, or W8 over WT and choose WT over W5 or W9.

This week, I'll list a 3-part rule that needs to be followed IN ORDER.

a. Choose the mid-card with the least flush interference.
b. Choose the mid-card with the least straight interference.
c. In the case of a tie after following the previous two rules, choose W6, W7, or W8 over WT and choose WT over W5 or W9.

Remember the joker mid-card combination is being held because it is easier to get straights and straight flushes when you draw three cards to a good start than when you draw four cards to just the joker.

The first rule talks about flush interference. In a hand such as W Th 8s 5d 3s, the 8 has flush interference. What this means is that the 3 is the same suit as the 8 (in this case spades). Since we started with 12 spades in the deck other than the 8, it is easier to end up with a flush by drawing 3 spades out of these 12 still in the deck than it is to end up with a flush by drawing 3 spades of the 11 still in the deck --- which is the case here because we were dealt the 3s and threw it away. This flush interference (also called flush penalty) poisons the value of W8 sufficiently so that WT is the best play here.

The second rule talks about straight interference. Consider W Jd 9c 5h 2s, or W Jh 9c 5h 2c, where the choice is between W9 and W5. In both cases, the cards have equal flush interference --- no flush interference at all in the first hand and single flush interference to both cards in the second. Now look at how close the J is to the 9 compared to how close the 5 is to the 2. With only one gap, the J is closer to the 9 than the 2 is to the 5 --- which has two gaps. One gap away interferes with straights more than two gaps away, so W5 is preferred to W9.

Rule 3 is the same one we spoke about last week. One example of it would be W Td 9c 4h 2s. There is no straight or flush interference to either the WT or the W9, so in case of a tie, hold the WT. Another example would be W Jc 9d 6c 4d. Here both W9 and W6 have flush interference and "one gap away" straight interference, so using the third rule, we prefer W6 to W9.

Now the "why." Starting from either W9 or W6, we will get equal numbers of straights and straight flushes, as well as 3-, 4- or 5-of-a-kinds, full houses, and regular flushes. But we get more "high pairs" (i.e. WA or WK) when we start from W6 than when we start from W9. The reason is that some of the straights you get starting from W9 already use a king --- such as WKQT9, or maybe WKQJ9. So these hands have both a "high pair" --- i.e. WK AND a straight. But because of the rules of the game, the high pair is redundant --- meaning that you only get paid for the higher-valued straight. With the W6, none of the straights dealt involve an A or a K, so you have all eight of these cards available with which to give you high pair in case there is nothing else.

The W9 and W5 each have this problem. The 9 reaches up to the K, and the 5 reaches down to the A. The WT has the bad-news of this problem two-fold, because it reaches up to both the A and the K (both of which reduce the occurrence of high pairs), but this is partially offset by the good-news that you can get a joker royal (e.g. a suited WAKQT) which pays twice as much as a straight flush.

A 6, 7, or 8 cannot reach an A or K in a 5-card straight, so these cards are the highest. The good-news bad-news about the T puts it into second place, below the 6, 7, and 8 --- but above the 5 or 9. These rules sometimes give rise to hands tied in value --- such as W Jh 9s 5h 3s --- choose W9 OR W5, or W Jh 8s 6h 3s --- choose W8 OR W6.

When I was playing this game a lot, I learned these rules well (actually even more advanced rules than these), and made myself some practice cards, which I would review just before going out to play. (I made sure, using WinPoker, that my answers were correct.) Once reviewing these cards, my "intuition" would be pretty right-on, so I would then go into the casino and play quickly. When one of these hands came up, I would look at them and then pick the one that "seemed right." If it was a guess, it was an "educated guess." Even playing for dollars, I doubt that using this technique I ever made an error on these hands of greater than a tenth of a cent.