CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

VIDEO POKER

Columns

• Back to Bob's index

• Back to columnist index

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.

For a 3,000-word preview of Bob's juicy new novel, "Sex, Lies, and Video Poker", visit www.bobdancer.com.

For more details and a schedule of Bob's free classes, visit www.bobdancer.com.

Sep 07, 2007

An Interesting Situation in Deuces Bonus Poker

Consider the 9-4-4 version of Deuces Bonus Poker. This game returns 99.45% if you play it well. It isn't a winning game without a lucrative slot club, but it at least falls into the "decent" range. The pay schedule for this game is as follows:

Royal Flush	250/800
4 Deuces with Ace	400
4 Deuces	200
Wild Royal	25
5 Aces	80
5 3s, 4s, or 5s	40
5 6s - Ks	20
Straight Flush	9
4 of a Kind	4
Full House	4
Flush	3
Straight	1
3 of a Kind	1

I've seen this game offered with one or more progressives. That can change it from being "decent" to being an excellent choice. The type of hand I want to talk about today isn't affected by a progressive on the royal flush.

It happens that in the one deuce section, whether you hold a 4-card flush or the deuce by itself is a very close play. Consider the following two hands, where the W represents a deuce of any suit and the dollar amounts refer to the EV for a 5-coin dollar player:

W 4h 8h 9h Qc
W by itself is worth $4.7846
W'489' is worth $4.7872
W 4h 8h 9h Kc
W by itself is worth $4.7903
W'489' is worth $4.7872

In other words, in the first hand holding the deuce by itself is worth an extra third of a penny. In the second hand, going for the flush is worth an extra third of a penny.

There are thousands of different combinations of 4-card flushes with the off-suit fifth card. It is impossible for most of us to memorize which cases you hold the naked deuce and which cases you hold the 4-flush. Plus, in the cases presented, it really doesn't matter which one we hold.

There are cases, however, where it DOES matter. Consider these hands:

W 4h 8h Ah Qc
W by itself is worth $4.7506
W'48A' is worth $4.7872

W 4h 8h 9h Ac
W by itself is worth $4.7549
W'489' is worth $4.7872

What this means is that if there is an ace in the hand, whether part of the 4-flush or the off-suit fifth card, the value of the deuce by itself is reduced by about 3¢. The two choices are no longer close. On these hands, you "must" go for the 4-card flush.

There are two different reasons for the reduction in the value of the bare deuce when there is an ace present. First of all, WWWWA in this game pays $2,000, rather than the $1,000 for a "normal" set of deuces, so the fact that an ace is missing hurts the chances for that hand. This is the smaller of the two effects. Also, five aces in this game returns $400, so throwing away an ace hurts that chance as well. How much it hurts depends on whether you are replacing a "small bonus" card (i.e. a 3, 4, or 5) with the ace or a "regular card" (i.e. a 6-K).

The rule-of-thumb I use on this game for these types of hands is that if there is an ace in the hand I go for the 4-card flush and if there's not an ace, I hold the deuce by itself. This is very slightly superior to holding the 4-flush all of the time and is definitely superior to hold the W by itself all of the time.

If there are progressives on both the four deuces hands, this leads to you holding the deuce by itself more often than if you only received the default values for these hands. Still, at "normal" levels for these progressives, the rule of thumb presented above works well enough.

This "look for the ace" rule is a type of penalty card, of course, but a different sort than I've found in other games. It is not a straight penalty, a flush penalty, a high card penalty, or any other type I've found elsewhere. It is not a difficult rule to follow or understand, but is so unusual that most players do not discover it unless given a hint. Consider yourself given a hint.

Most good penalty card rules are exact. Not all. In Full Pay Deuces Wild, for example, the approximate penalty card rule about whether you hold 'KQ', 'KJ', or 'KT' deals with the lack of straight and flush penalties. The rule isn't precise --- but it's close enough for most players as the complete list of exceptions is long and not worth much. Today's rule falls into that category. It's close enough for most players and the complete list of exceptions is long and spending the effort to consult it or memorize it simply is a waste of resources.

Also, this is a penalty card that is sometimes kept. In the last two examples given, in the first case we keep the Ah and in the second place the presence of the Ac is sufficient for us to keep the 4-flush in hearts. There are some video poker writers who begin their definition of penalty cards by saying "a card you throw away." This means that either their definition needs reworking, or the current situation doesn't qualify as a penalty card case to them.

The Dancer/Daily definition of penalty card, as found on page 81 of Volume One of the "Winner's Guide" series is: "A penalty card is one of the original five dealt cards in the the hand that is usually (but not always) discarded and whose presence affects the value of one or more of the alternative options that may be held from the hand." This definition covers today's situation nicely. The presence of the ace in the original hand, whether held or discarded, affects the value of holding the deuce by itself.