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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.

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

Feb 12, 2008

An Interesting Situation from Bonus Poker

I've played a lot of 8/5 Bonus Poker. It only returns 99.166%, which makes it a losing game most of the time, but there are situations where slot club and promotions pay enough to make the game worthwhile. And with a progressive, of course, it can easily surpass 100% in return. The hands I want to discuss today are not affected by moderate levels of the progressive.

Most players who play 8/5 Bonus Poker also play 9/6 Jacks or Better, which is a much easier game. The games are similar, but there are many differences. As is common in my columns, consider cards in single quote marks to be suited with each other. Consider the following:

a. 'JT7' K9
b. 'JT7' K8
c. 'J97' KT
d. 'J97' K8
e. 'J87' KT
f. 'J87' K9

In each case we have a jack-high three-card straight flush with two insides, plus an off-suit king, plus a straight penalty to the straight flush. How do you play these hands? The next paragraph provides a big hint, but serious students may want to try to figure it out without the hint.

To make it easier on you, I'll tell you that four times the correct play is the unsuited KJ and the other two times it is the 3-card straight flush. No other play is correct. Further, once I tell you that these are the two plays, it's definitely possible to logically to logically determine which is which --- even if you've never played this game before.

The first thing to notice is that in all six of these hands, the 3-card straight flush has exactly the same value --- namely $2.4237 for the 5-coin dollar player. They each have a straight penalty, and they each have a high-card penalty.

If you're not familiar with a high-card penalty, compare 'JT7' 38 with 'JT7' K8. In the 1,081 draws to 'JT7', in the first case there are 132 times you end up with a high pair. Usually it's a pair of jacks, but it could be a pair of aces, kings, or queens. In the second case there are only 129 times you end up with a high pair, because it's harder to draw a pair of kings when there are only three of them remaining in the deck rather than when there were four. The value of 'JT7' when you throw away K3 is $2.4376.

So if the value of the 3-card straight flushes remains constant in these six hands, and four times we hold KJ and twice we hold the 3-card straight flush, it follows that the value of KJ must be less in two of these hands than it is in the others.

The two things that hurt the value of KJ in these hands are the presence of a ten and the presence of a nine. Each of these cards hurt the value of KJ by interfering with the possible straights. A ten hurts worse because it hurts the chances for both an AKQJT and KQJT9 straight. A nine hurts the chances for a KQJT9 straight but has no affect at all on the chances for an AKQJT straight.

Since there are exactly two of the six hands that include BOTH a ten and a nine, namely hands a) and c), and we've been told that there are only two cases where we don't hold KJ, then these two cases must be the ones. In both a) and c), the value of KJ is $2.4104, which is less than the $2.4237 value of the 3-card straight flush.

In hands b) and e), there is a T penalty without a 9, and in these cases the value of KJ is $2.4252, which is infinitesimally better than the 3-card straight flush. In hands d) and f), there is a 9 penalty without a T, and in these cases the value of KJ is $2.4450, which is more than 2¢ superior to the 3-card straight flush.

Most times there is a different play between two similar hands, a close examination of the numbers reveals the "why" of the matter. I've had a lot of players say to me that "Video Poker for Winners" doesn't tell them WHY there are differences in two plays. True enough, but there's plenty of information provided that allows you to figure it out for yourself, ONCE you learn how to decipher that information.

The reason we sometimes examine minutia in this column is that on many hands, examining minutia is the only way to figure out the differences between the hands. It's a process to teach you how to do this, and sometimes the process is difficult. That's the price you must pay if you wish to become expert at video poker.