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Bob Dancer writes a video poker column for beginners to experts. He also writes a column with Jeffrey Compton, "Player's Edge", featuring information on promotions at various Las Vegas casinos. Player's Edge is published each Friday in the Neon section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Click here to send Bob Dancer an e-mail.

Nov. 25, 2003

Penalty Card Situations in Full Pay Deuces Wild --- Part II of II

In last week's column (available a few clicks away), I began a list of penalty cards in FPDW. The list is concluded below.

e. SF3 -2 (= ST4 inside when sp)
SF3 -2 is notation Liam W. Daily and I use to indicate a 3-card straight flush with two insides. If your strategy ALWAYS says to prefer these straight flush combinations to 4-card inside straights, then this isn't a penalty card adjustment at all. If your strategy says to go for the inside straight when there is a tie, then you need to know how to identify the situations where there isn't a straight penalty.

• From 3h 4s 5h 7h Kd, hold either (357) or 3457. They're tied.
• From 3s 4c 5s 6s 8c, hold either (356) or 3456. Running into the deuce adds an inside to both the straight flush and the straight.
• From 4s 5d 6c 8c Tc, hold (68T). There is no straight penalty.

f. SF3 -2 [< (QJ, QT) with no sp]

A straight penalty to a Q-high 2-card royal means an 8 or higher, so the only time we hold the (QJ) or (QT) is when the SF3 -2 is 7-high or 6-high.

• From Qs Ts 8s 5h 3d, hold (QT8). The 8 is a sp to the (QT).
• From Qd Jd 6s 5s 3s, hold (QJ).

• From Qh Th 6c 5c 4c, hold (654). Although the straight flush doesn't contain a straight penalty to the (QT), (654) has only one inside, and all SF3 -1 > (QJ) or (QT).

Another way to phrase this same rule is that (QJ, QT) > SF3 -2 only when 6-high or 7-high.

g. ST4 inside [< (QJ), (QT) with no fp and with potential for an unpenalized straight]

There are three separate possible straight containing either (QJ) or (QT), namely AKQJT, KQJT9, and QJT98. If the other two cards in the inside straight are AK, then the QJT98 straight is unpenalized. If the other two cards are 98, then the AKQJT straight is unpenalized. In all other inside straights, all three straights are penalized and you should go for the inside straight.

• From Qh Jh As Kd 5h, QJAK. Although there is potential for an unpenalized straight, the 5 is a flush penalty.
• From Qd Jd 9s 8s 3c, hold (QJ). The AKQJT straight is unpenalized.
• From Qd Jd Kd 9s As, hold either QJK9 or KJKA. Both inside straight have the same value, and there is no unpenalized straight potential. .

h. [678T < (QT) even with fp]
This is a clarification to rule g. The 678T straight leaves both the AKQJT and KQJT9 straights totally unpenalized. With the potential for two unpenalized straights, a flush penalty can be tolerated.

• From Qs Ts 9h 7d 6s, hold T976. T876 is okay. T976 isn't, because the KQJT9 straight is penalized.
• From Qc Tc 7d 6d 8c, hold (QT8). In addition to being a flush penalty, the 8c is part of a straight flush that includes QcTc.
• From Qd Td 8s 7d 6h, hold (QT). It doesn't matter whether the 7 or the 6 is suited with the (QT).

That's the entire list of penalty card considerations in FPDW, other than some small-valued exceptions to rule a and b. In 1994 and 1995 when I played FPDW extensively, I knew more than half of the exceptions to the first two rules and all of the others. I played enough so that using penalty cards didn't slow me down.

Neglecting penalty cards only costs a few pennies an hour. Not much at all. But my belief was and is that the person who neglects penalty cards ALSO misses quite a few other hands. It is virtually impossible to practice enough on the computer to play non-penalty-card hands accurately without also experiencing the penalty card situations dozens of times. After you've experienced them that many times, they become second nature and not difficult.