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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.

Oct 14, 2008

Two Easy Puzzlers in Kings or Better Joker Wild

Today's column refers to the Kings or Better Joker Wild game where the pay schedule is 20-7-5 for four-of-a-kinds, full houses, and flushes. Although the game isn't found in too many casinos, it is still out there. It is found at the South Point for quarters so that will be one of the classes taught in the semester of free video poker classes that will begin on Tuesday November 11 at 1 p.m.

Straights in KBJW only pay 3-for-1, which is less than they do in games without wild cards. Therefore we hold them less than we do in other games.

For example, if we have a hand without high cards (i.e. no ace and no king), a 3-card straight flush with one inside is superior to a 4-card open-ended straight. That is, from '467' with a 5 of a different suit, we hold '467' rather than the "typical" 4567. Once we understand that straights pay less than usual, this isn't particularly hard to understand. Add to that, the fact that straight flushes pay the usual 50-for-1 (i.e. 250 for a 5-coin bet) and that the joker in the deck makes them about three times as likely as they are in non-wild card games, it adds additional "firepower" to the argument that we go for the straight flush here rather than the straight.

But now let's look at 3-card straight flushes with two insides. These are not as valuable as open-ended 4-card straights. The puzzler is to create a 5-card hand where you'd prefer the 4-card straight to the 3-card straight flush. Go ahead and try. I'll wait.

While this is fairly easy (as Bob Dancer puzzlers go), a couple of intermediate players I showed this puzzler to weren't able to come up with an appropriate hand. How about you?

Players who attempt to use the same four cards for both the 3-card straight flush and the 4-card straight are doomed for failure. Starting from '357', for example, whether you add a four or a six, the 4-card straight will have an inside, which isn't what we're looking for.

If we use five cards, however, it's an easy problem. Starting from '357', you can add either 24 or 68 to create a hand where a 4-card straight can co-exist in the same five cards. It's not difficult, but for some reason several people have a blind spot to it.

Now for the second puzzler. The only 4-card inside straights you ever hold in KBJW include the joker, one high card, and a card suited with that high card. Not counting suits, there are three different 4-card inside straights that we ever hold in this game. What are they?

First of all, you're told you have exactly one high card along with the joker (for which I'll use a W to signify). There are only two possible high cards --- namely an ace or a king.

From WA, if we create 4-card straights --- namely WA23, WA24, WA25, WA34, WA35, or WA45 --- these each have TWO insides. The only possible straight is A2345, where one of the cards is replaced by a joker, and each of the above combinations are missing two cards from the A2345 "complete set." Therefore, they each have two insides.

Since hands starting with WA are all disqualified, we need to look at hands beginning with WK. Since we're told these combinations have exactly one inside, it's obvious that WKQT and WKJT are two of the three possible combinations. But where is the third?

If we include a nine in the combination, such as WKQ9 or WKJ9 or WKT9, each of these has two insides so these can't qualify.

The only possible combination we haven't considered so far is WKQJ. The problem with that is that it has no gaps and therefore appears to have no insides. Yet it does. The only straights that either WKQJ or WKQT or WKJT may be part of are ace-high and king high. All three of these combinations have the same value, and so long as the fifth card is in the range of 2-8 and is suited with the king, we hold the 4-card inside straight.

In many articles before I've discussed that '234' and '235' and '245' all have one inside and the same value. This is very much analogous to king-high combinations. In both cases, since straights cannot be extended beyond the ace, this robs the combination of value.

Leaving the joker aside for the moment, in most games KQJ is more valuable than either KQT or KJT. The reason for this is that in most games we play, KQJ has THREE high cards whereas KQT and KJT have only two. Sometimes this extra high card affects the strategy. There are games where you hold the 3-card royal from 'KQJ' K but hold the pair of kings from 'KQT' K.

In KBJW, however, KQJ and KQT and KJT all have one high card, namely the king --- even though we're USED to games where this isn't true. Further, when you add the joker to the mix, since WK is already a high pair and so we are guaranteed to get our money back, any additional high cards in the hand are irrelevant.