VIDEO POKER

The Suit of the Deuce DOES Matter

There is at least one obscure game, Sigma's Deuces Deluxe, where natural straight flushes pay more than wild straight flushes, and in that game a straight flush of 2h 3h 4h 5h 6h pays more than 2s 3h 4h 5h 6h. But that has always been the exception. I am talking about "normal" Deuces Wild games of any pay schedule --- whether it is full pay (25-15-9-5-3-2-2-1), NSU (25-16-10-4-4-3-2-1), pseudo full pay (20-12-9-5-3-2-2-1), ugly ducks (25-15-9-4-4-3-2-1), Loose Deuces, Double Deuces, Triple Deuces, or any other pay schedule. In these games, the suit of the deuce sometimes matters.

To be sure, in every one of these games, the correct play for 2s Qh Jh Ts 9h is identical to that of 2d Qh Jh Ts 9h. In some games (like full pay for instance), holding 2QJT9 is correct in both cases. In other games (like NSU for instance), holding 2QJ9 is correct in both cases. The correct play for several video poker hands, including this one, varies by pay schedule.

If the above hand, however, were 2h Qh Jh Ts 9h, even though the correct play remains the same, it looks different, at least on some machines. On a Fifty Play, Hundred Play, or Flex Play machine (plus other "new generation" machines), the 2h looks very much like an Ah. On older IGT machines, there are three "Wild" designators on each deuce and they look distinctly different from any other card. On the newer machines, however, this is simply not the case.

Each card has its rank (i.e. 3, 4, J, etc.) in the upper left corner and a big suit symbol (i.e. a spade, diamond, heart or spade) in the lower half of the card. On a king, queen or jack, there is a face in the upper right corner. On a deuce, there is the world "wild" in the upper right corner, and on an ace there is a shield --- made up of the identical colors found on the word "wild". The three through the ten have no special symbol in the upper right corner, and the colors on the ace or deuce look distinctly different than the faces on the royalty cards. But at a quick glance, (and video poker players often play quickly), the ace looks quite a bit like the deuce and is easy to confuse.

So the 2h Qh Jh Ts 9h looks suspiciously like the Ah Qh Jh Ts 9h --- even though you know it's not. It clearly looks more royal-like than does 2c Qh Jh Ts 9h, where the 2c is obviously of a different suit. The correct play doesn't change, but many players, when playing fast, would play them differently.

I watched a very good player be dealt 2d 3d 5d Td Qc and quickly hold the four diamonds, rather than the correct play of deuce only. This was an $8 error on the 25¢ Hundred Play NSU game he was playing. Had the 2d been a 2c instead, there is no way he would have made the mistake. But since the deuce was the same suit as three of the other cards, it looked like a natural 4-card flush to him, which is holdable in most games.

Is there a lesson here? Yes. And that is to slow down when you are playing these new-fangled machines. It is not easy to go back and forth between different machines errorlessly. I am sending this column along to the relevant people at IGT with the request to please do something to make the deuce look different from the ace in later upgrades to these machines. Perhaps they will honor this request eventually. But if and until they do, watch out. It is very easy to confuse these cards.