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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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Nov. 27, 2007

Playing Better 10/7 Double Bonus Poker --- Part I of II

In my now out-of-print Report series, I described 10/7 Double Bonus as an "ugly game." It is full of one-of-a-kind hands and strange penalty card situations. I believed that nobody played the game for "fun," but rather we put up with it because we have the advantage. Since that time, I've come to learn that there are several games quite a bit more difficult than Double Bonus.

I'm breaking up our quizzes in this game into two parts. Today's quiz deals with basic level hands --- i.e. hands where you don't need to consider penalty cards to get the correct answer. I believe that getting today's test 100% correct should be the minimum standard for playing in a casino, assuming you consider yourself competent, although clearly other players have different standards. Next week we'll go over the tougher hands.

Q1: Limiting the discussion of high pairs to {KK, QQ, and JJ} for the first two questions, when do you prefer a 3-card royal to a high pair?

Q2: When do you prefer a 4-card flush to a high pair?

Q3: When is a 3-card royal preferred to a 4-card flush in the same hand?

Q4: When is a 3-card straight flush preferred to a low pair?

Q5: The two highest-value 3-card straight flushes are 'QJ9' and 'JT9'. List all 4-card inside straights that are preferred to these combinations.

Q6: Double Bonus is one of the few games with high cards where you hold an unsuited A234. What is so unusual about the pay schedule that requires this play?

Q7: In Jacks or Better, for example, 3-card straight flushes with two insides and no high cards are the lowest-valued combinations that are ever held. In Double Bonus, there are quite a few eligible combinations that have less value than these straight flush combinations. In both games you earn 250 coins for the straight flush. There are two separate reasons why these and other 3-card straight flushes are more valuable in Double Bonus than they are in Jacks or Better (or Double Double Bonus, for that matter). What are they?

A1: 'QJT' and 'KQJ' are the only two 3-card royal flushes that are preferred to {KK, QQ, and JJ}.

A2: A 4-card flush with three high cards is preferred to a high pair. For example, from K'AKQ4' you hold 'AKQ4' but from K'AKT4' you hold KK.

A3: 'QJT' is the only 3-card royal flush that is ever preferred to a 4-card flush.

A4: 'QJ9' is preferred to low pairs in the range of 55-99. 'JT9' is preferred to low pairs in the range of 55-TT. (On the hand 'QJ9'TT, you prefer QJT9 so if you included TT in the list of low pairs that are inferior to 'QJ9', that's a wrong answer.)

A5: There are no 4-card inside straights preferred to either 'QJ9' or 'JT9'. There are players who get annoyed at being asked to find something that isn't there, but I don't feel this is an unfair question. Stating with confidence that there are no qualifying 4-card inside straights requires a good deal of knowledge --- and that's what I'm seeking to find here.

A6: The primary reason is that straights pay 5-for-1, whereas in most other games with high cards, straights pay 4-for-1. All American Poker (or USA Poker, which is the IGT name for the same game) returns 8-for-1 and in that game too you hold A234.

A7: The answer is really quite simple once you look at the 5-for-1 return on straights and the 7-for-1 return on flushes. Jacks or Better and Double Double Bonus return 4-for-1 and 6-for-1 (or worse) respectively.

This wasn't a particularly difficult test. I suppose I could have made it a bit more complete (although not tougher) by listing 5-card hands and testing to see whether you know how to play 44567 and AAA44. In next week's quiz, we'll go quite a bit deeper into the strategy.