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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.

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Mar 27, 2007

Comparing Deuces Bonus to Deuces Wild

Let's look at two different games: 9-4-4 Deuces Bonus Poker and 16-10 NSU Deuces Wild. The pay schedules are below:

Royal Flush	250/800	250/800
4 Deuces with Ace	400	200
4 Deuces	200	200
Wild Royal	25	25
5 Aces	80	16
5 3s, 4s, or 5s	40	16
5 6s - Ks	20	16
Straight Flush	9	10
4 of a Kind	4	4
Full House	4	4
Flush	3	3
Straight	1	2
3 of a Kind	1	1
1-4 coins	98.22%	98.50%
Max coins	99.45%	99.73%
Variance	32.66	25.78

There are three features that "make" Deuces Bonus. First, if you get an ace-kicker with four deuces you receive 400-for-1 rather than 200-for-1. Second, there are significant bonuses on 5-of-a-kinds, where four aces get the most, four 3s, 4s, and 5s get second most, and the other 5-of-a-kinds get the least. Since these are all bonuses compared to regular Deuces Wild, the offsetting feature that "pays for the party" is that you only get your money back for a straight, rather than getting 2-for-1 in regular Deuces Wild.

The reason I picked these two pay schedules is because the central part of the pay schedule (the 4-of-a-kind, full house, and flush) is 4-4-3 in both games. It is this part of the pay schedule that determines most of the strategic decisions. Therefore you will get relatively few differences in strategy here. Had I chosen to compare this version of Deuces Bonus with Full Pay Deuces Wild, where the return is 5-3-2 for the same categories, the strategies would have been considerably different.

As in all good Deuces Wild strategies, the strategy is broken down by the number of deuces. I'll do that here. The differences I'll point out will be at the penalty-free level, which is plenty-hard enough for most people. Since I'm only talking about the differences, you probably need to know one of the strategies for this to make sense. Four Deuces --- The only enhancement here is to look at the fifth card. In Deuces Bonus, you hold all five cards if it's an ace, and only hold the four deuces if it's any other card. In NSU, it doesn't matter whether you hold the fifth card or not.

Three Deuces --- The only enhancement here is that you keep an ace kicker with three deuces. Letting a W (for wild card) stand for the deuce, from WWWA6, you hold WWWA in Deuces Bonus and WWW in NSU.

Two Deuces --- There are two differences here. First, in Deuces Bonus you do not go for any 2-deuce 4-card straight flushes, such as WW'67' or WW'68', where the quote marks mean the cards are suited with each other. The reason is fairly obvious in that straights only pay half as much in this game as they do in NSU. Although you're trying for a straight flush when you draw to these hands in NSU, you settle for a straight much of the time. The second difference is that you hold an ace kicker to two deuces. That is, from WWA69, suited or not, you hold WWA in Deuces Bonus and WW in NSU.

One Deuce --- There are numerous changes here. I'll number them to make it easier to follow.

1. From W'567'5, you hold W55 in Deuces Bonus. With all other 3-of-a-kinds, you prefer the perfect 4-card straight flushes (i.e. W'567'-W'9TJ'). This is the only place where the value of 5-of-a-kinds comes into play. 3-of-a-kinds are superior to all imperfect 4-card straight flushes (i.e. those not listed above.) In NSU, 3-of-a-kinds are inferior to all 4-card straight flushes except those including an ace.

2. Dealt straights are less valuable than 3-card royals in Deuces Bonus, whereas they are more valuable than all imperfect 4-card straight flushes in NSU. The reason for this is that straights pay only half as much in Deuces Bonus.

3. If you have a straight containing two different 3-card royals in the same five cards in Deuces Bonus, you hold the one with the lower high card. That is, from W'KT' "QJ", you hold W'QJ', but from W'KT' "AJ" you hold W'KT'. In NSU you hold the straight.

4. In Deuces Bonus, you only hold the perfect 3-card straight flushes, W'67'-W'9T', while in NSU you also hold ones with one inside, W'56', W'57'-W'9J', and even W'45' sometimes, which has slightly less value. The reason, again, is only half the return on straights.

5. In NSU, you at least sometimes hold 4-card straights in the range of W'567'-W'TJQ'. In Deuces Bonus, these are never held.

6. Finally, it isn't a difference between the games, but probably should be mentioned that you do not hold an ace kicker with a single deuce as you do with two, three, or four deuces.

No Deuces --- There are only three changes here. These are:

1. In Deuces Bonus, dealt straights are less valuable than 3-card royals or 4-card straight flushes (neither of which is true in NSU). That is, from 'QJT'98, you hold 'QJT' in Deuces Bonus and all five cards in NSU.

2. In NSU, perfect 3-card straight flushes ('567'-'9TJ') are superior to pairs. This is not true in Deuces Bonus, simply because of the lower value of straights.

3. In Deuces Bonus, you do not hold any 4-card straights, with or without an inside. In NSU, you hold both.

In several places I referred to "perfect" straight flush draws. There are two things that make them perfect. First of all, the cards are consecutive and second of all, there is enough room above and below the combination to fill it in with natural cards. For example, W'568' is not perfect because the cards are not consecutive. W'56' is not perfect because there are only two spaces below it (the 3 and the 4) before you run into the deuce. How many spaces you need depends on the number of cards in the combination --- excluding the deuces. When you have two natural cards (as in W'56', which is not perfect), you need three spaces. When you have three natural cards (as in W'567' or simply '567', both of which are perfect), you only need two spaces above and below.

Whether this is a lot of changes or not depends on your perspective. Experienced players know more than one game and have practiced each enough so that they can move between games with little loss in efficiency. Beginning students find going back and forth between games confusing. We all went through that. It takes considerable time practicing to keep the games straight. Treating each game as a different sort of applied mathematics, requiring serious study to master, is an approach that can serve you well.

Not-so-serious players move back and forth between games with little attention paid to pay schedules or how the strategy changes from game to game. Studying the games is something they have neither time nor interest in pursuing. These players have miniscule chances of winning. They may win today, but when they lose, their losses will swamp their previous wins.