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

March 25, 2008

A Kings or Better Joker Wild Puzzler

Today's column involves Kings or Better Joker Wild in the version where four of a kinds pay 20 for 1 and full houses pay 7 for 1. Even if you don't play this game, I encourage you to read on. The puzzle should be solvable so long as you understand that it's a kings or better game (i.e. you get your money back for a pair of kings and a pair of aces, but not for a pair of jacks or queens) and the joker (which I abbreviate as "W", for wild card) is used in whatever way gives you the most.

Let's say we know how to play the following two hands (where the single quote marks indicate the cards are suited with each other):

(a) W 4h 5h 7h 4c --- play W '457'
(b) W 4h 5h 8h 4c --- play W 44

With this information only, we now want to figure out how to play W As 4s 5s Ad. The three possible answers are:

1. It is definitely correct to hold W 'A45'
2. It is definitely correct to hold W AA
3. We don't have enough information to figure this out

Notice that I am NOT asking you to look at a strategy card or a computer program to figure out how to play the hand. We'll get to the correct answer soon enough. What I am asking you to do is to determine whether or not we have enough information to figure it out just by knowing (a) and (b) above.

I strongly encourage you to try to work this out before reading on. It is not particularly difficult, but many players will choose the incorrect answer. You need a certain amount of "video poker common sense" to figure out certain types of hands --- including this one --- and I'm trying to teach things that will improve this for many readers. (Obviously there will be readers who get this answer correct, for the right reasons. If that's you, congratulations. But many readers will not get the correct answer. This column is for these readers.)

The difference between (a) and (b) above has to do with the number of gaps or insides. In (a), the 4-card straight flush contains one inside --- and this straight flush combination is better than 3-of-a-kinds. In (b), the 4-card straight flush contains two insides --- and this straight flush combination is worse than 3-of-a-kinds.

So far so good. Now we must look compare W AA with W 44, and compare W 'A45' with the two straight flush combinations W '457' and W '458'. Let's take W AA first. Is W AA any more valuable than W 44? The answer is 'no', although this answer will surprise some players because this is, after all, a "kings or better" game. The "kings or better" phrase in the name of the game refers to pairs, not 3-of-a-kinds. All 3-of-a-kinds in this game, with or without wild cards, are worth $19.68 for the 5-coin dollar player.

Now let's compare the 4-card straight flushes. W '457' is worth $24.375 (and more valuable than W 44) and W '458' is worth $18.75 (and less valuable than W 44). Can we say how much W 'A45' is worth?

The answer is 'no', other than W 'A45' is clearly more valuable than W '458'. Can you see why?

W 'A45' includes a high pair, namely a pair of aces. Even if you draw a "nothing" sort of card, you'll get your money back. W '458' does NOT include a high pair. If you draw an unsuited jack, for example, you will NOT get your money back.

So the answer to our original puzzle is that logically we can't determine how to play the hand just by knowing the correct answer to (a) and (b) above. If we check out software or a good strategy card, we'll find that W 'A45' is worth $20.625 in this hand. Since this is greater than $19.68, we know that the correct play from W 'A45' A is to go for the straight flush.

In the Dancer/Daily notation, both W 'A45' and W '457' fall into the SF4 -1 category. W 'A45' has one high card and two insides while W '457' has no high cards and one inside. W '458', on the other hand, has no high cards and two insides and is hence a SF4 -2. The strategy for the appropriate section of this game is listed as SF4 -1 > 3-of-a-kind > SF4 -2, which gives the correct play for all three hands.