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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.
May 28, 2002
When to throw away KQ, KJ and KT in NSU Deuces Wild
In NSU Deuces Wild ("NSU" standing for "not so ugly" --- identifiable by receiving 16 for five of a kind and 10 for a straight flush), you usually do not throw away the 2-card royals, KQ, KJ and KT. There may well be something BETTER in the hand (such as an inside straight or ANY three card straight flush including A-low), but you should almost always prefer to keep the 2-card royal to throwing all five cards away.
This column is about those rare cases when you throw away all five cards. These exceptions can be worth up to 2.97¢ to the dollar player, but are usually worth quite a bit less. Unless you are playing at a professional level, don't bother with memorizing these exceptions.
To understand these exceptions, we must explain the concept of flush penalties and straight penalties. Let me define these terms by example. If we are talking about the Kh Qh, then any heart between the 3h and the 8h would be a flush penalty. Why? Because it is easier to get a flush when you have 10 hearts still in the deck than when you have 9 --- remembering that the 2h is not considered a heart because it is wild and hence suitless. For the dollar player, having a flush penalty reduces the value of the KQ by about 7¢. The reason the 9h, Th, Jh and Ah aren't flush penalties is because these cards, when combined with the Kh Qh, would make a 3-card straight flush or a 3-card royal flush --- which you would never throw away.
A straight penalty to the Kh Qh is any non-heart A, J, T or 9. Let's consider the J as an example. It is easier to get an AKQJT straight when there are still 4 aces in the deck, 4 jacks and 4 tens. When you are dealt a J, that makes it harder to get a straight (because there are now only 3 jacks still in the deck) and the value of KQ is diminished by about 5¢.
When you have three penalties, which means an A, a 9 and a flush penalty, you always throw away all five cards. The more interesting cases happen when you only have two penalties.
Before we talk about this, we need to address the concept of the "remainder of the deck". Compare Kh Qh Js 8h 3d (where we hold KQ) with Kh Qh Js 4h 3d (where we throw everything away). The difference between them is that in the first case, discarding the 8 hinders the chances for a Q-hi, J-hi, T-hi, 9-hi or 8-hi straight. Discarding the 4 only hinders the chances for an 8-hi, 7-hi, 6-hi or 5-hi --- and because you need a wild card for all 5-hi and some 6-hi straights, they are not so plentiful. So the difference in these two hands isn't in the value of the KQ. The difference in the value of drawing five new cards is 1.97¢.
Here are the rules. In every case there is a straight penalty, and one of the low cards is a flush penalty.
a. KQ with A or J --- Draw 5 with 34, 35, 36, and 45
b. KQ with T --- Draw 5 with 34 and 35
c. KJ with A --- Draw 5 with 34 and 35
d. KJ with Q --- Draw 5 with 34, 35, 36, and 45
e. KJ with T --- Draw 5 with 34 only
f. KT with A --- Draw 5 with 34 only
g. KT with Q--- Draw 5 with 34 and 35
h. KT with J--- Draw 5 with 34 only
If I don't want to look up the exact hand on the chart, I use the following shortcut.
With KQ and KJ, with either an A or an un-pairing Q or J (i.e. all combinations WITHOUT a ten in it), I draw 5 new cards with 34, 35, 36, and 45
With KQ and KJ and a T, or with KT and either an A, Q, or J (i.e. all of the combinations WITH a ten in it), I draw 5 new cards with 34 and 35.
This simplified rule isn't perfect, but it is memorizeable and fast, and always equal to or less than a half-cent wrong
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