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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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Feb 05, 2008

Unpenalized Straight Potential in Deuces Wild

In versions of Deuces Wild where straights and flushes receive the same amount, 'QT' and 'QJ' (which have exactly the same value) are close in value to a 4-card inside straight. Sometimes you hold the {'QT', 'QJ'} and sometimes you hold the inside straight.

The main determinant on which one you hold are the number of straights possible by holding {'QT', 'QJ'}. Let's look at 'QT' in specific. I'll also refer to Full Pay Deuces Wild (15-9-5-3-2-2-1) specifically, but the same argument holds for Double Deuces, Loose Deuces, and Triple Deuces, among others.

In the Dancer/Daily Winner's Guide to Full Pay Deuces Wild, we used the term "unpenalized straight potential" to talk about this concept. This phrase is a mouthful, so in today's article I'm trying to use a different approach that might be easier for some to understand.

There are three different straights possible when you hold 'QT', namely AKQJT, KQJT9, and QJT98 --- which I'll refer to as A-high, K-high, and Q-high respectively. Depending on the cards making up the inside straight, at least one of these straights is penalized --- sometimes two, and sometimes three. Let's see how individual cards penalize these different straights.

If there is an ace in the hand, it makes the A-high straight more difficult because there are now only three aces in the deck rather than four. Assign the ace a weight of 1, where the one refers to the number of straights penalized.

If there is a king in the hand, it makes both the A-high and the K-high straights more difficult. Assign the king a weight of 2.

If there is a jack in the hand, it makes all three potential straights more difficult. Assign the jack a weight of 3.

If there is a nine in the hand, it penalizes both the K-high and the Q-high straights, so we assign it a weight of 2.

If there is an eight in the hand, it penalizes only the Q-high straight so we assign it a weight of 1.

Any other cards in the hand are assigned a weight of zero.

Now let's look at all of the hand that combine 'QT' with a 4-card inside straight, and add up the weights we have assigned.

'QT' AJ8 --- 5 (i.e. 1 + 3 + 1)
'QT' AK9 --- 5 (i.e. 1 + 2 + 2)
'QT' K98 --- 5 (i.e. 2 + 2 + 1)
'QT' AK8 --- 4 (i.e. 1 + 2 + 1)
'QT' A98 --- 4 (i.e. 1 + 2 + 1)
'QT' J83 through 'QT' J87 --- 4 (i.e. 3 + 1 + 0)
'QT' K93 through 'QT' K97 --- 4 (i.e. 2 + 2 + 0)
'QT' AJ3 through 'QT' AJ7 --- 4 (i.e. 1 + 3 + 0)
'QT' AK3 through 'QT' AK7 --- 3 (i.e. 1 + 2 + 0)
'QT' 983 through 'QT' 986 --- 3 (i.e. 2 + 1 + 0)
'QT' 976 --- 2 (i.e. 2 + 0 + 0)
'QT' 876 --- 1 (i.e. 1 + 0 + 0)

It's easy to see how the final weight is the sum of the individual weights. This isn't difficult. The question arises as to what good does it do to add these up. We can actually work out the strategy with respect to the accumulated weight total.

If the weights add up to 5 or 4, we ALWAYS hold the inside straight.

If the weights add up to 3 or 2, we hold 'QT' so long as the small cards are unsuited with the 'QT'.

If the weights add up to 1, we hold 'QT' even if one of the small cards is suited with the 'QT'.

In the 20-12-5-3-2-2-1 version of Deuces Wild (called pseudo FPDW by Dancer/Daily --- I've heard the term "fooler deuces" used to describe the same game) the rule is slightly different, but knowing the weighting system helps you here too.

In that game, 4-card inside straights are almost always preferable to {'QT', 'QJ'}. The only exception is the 'QT' 876 hand with no flush penalty. We've seen above that this is the hand where the most straights are unpenalized, so it makes sense that if 'QT' was going to be greater than any inside straight, T876 would be the one.