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| Strategies for playing Video Poker |
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Playing Strategy
House Edge
Advice and Comments
Appendices
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Deuces Wild
The following strategy is based on the "full pay"
deuces wild paytable below.
| Full Pay Deuces Wild |
| Hand |
Payoff |
Probability |
Return |
| Royal flush (natural) |
800 |
0.00002208 |
0.01766709 |
| Four deuces |
200 |
0.00020342 |
0.04068426 |
| Royal flush (wild) |
25 |
0.00179518 |
0.04487958 |
| Five of a kind |
15 |
0.00320057 |
0.04800855 |
| Straight flush |
9 |
0.00413697 |
0.03723269 |
| Four of a kind |
5 |
0.06492502 |
0.32462510 |
| Full house |
3 |
0.02122914 |
0.06368741 |
| Flush |
2 |
0.01658389 |
0.03316779 |
| Straight |
2 |
0.05659214 |
0.11318429 |
| Three of a kind |
1 |
0.28451355 |
0.28451355 |
| Non-winner |
0 |
0.54679803 |
0.00000000 |
| Total |
|
1.00000000 |
1.00765031 |
Basic StrategyFollowing is a strategy for the
payoff table above. To determine the best play look under the list
given the number of deuces hold (you never discard a deuce). Then
look for the highest playable hand on the list. For example if you
have both a pair and four to a flush you would keep the pair because
it is higher on the list. The numbers on the right represent the
expected return, which can vary depending on the discards.
The player should evaluate straight flush draws carefully.
Usually the number of ranks the straight flush spans determines the
spread. However if the straight flush is on the low end this can
reduce the number of ways to complete it. For example suited 3-4-5
0 Deuces
- Natural royal flush (800.0000)
- 4 to a royal flush (19.574469)
- Straight flush (9.0000)
- Four of a kind (5.8510637)
- Full house (3.0000)
- Three of a kind (2.0175762)
- Straight/Flush (2.0000)
- 4 to an outside straight flush (1.65958)
- Suited 10-J-Q (1.3987)
- 4 to an inside straight flush (1.3829787)
- 3 to a royal flush, except 10-J-Q (1.2719704)
- Pair (0.560222)
- Two pair (0.5106383)
- 4 to a flush (0.5106383)
- 4 to an outside straight (0.5106383)
- 3 to a straight flush, spread 3-4, suited 345 (0.5051-0.3959)
- 2 to a royal flush, jack highest1 (0.38815913)
- 3 to a straight flush, spread 5 and suited 346,356
2,3 (0.35522664)
- 4 to an inside straight (0.34042552)
- 2 to a royal flush, queen highest4 (0.33851373)
- 2 to a royal flush, king highest, no penalty cards5
(0.3278446)
- Garbage, everything discarded (0.32552597)
- 2 to a royal flush, king highest, 1 penalty card6
(0.3185939)
- 2 to a royal flush, ace highest (0.29768732)
- 3 to a straight flush, A low (0.2729)
Notes: 1: Suited 7-10-J beats suited 10-J if either (1)
king and ace discards, or (2) queen discard without 8
2: Play 4 to an inside straight over 3 to a straight flush,
spread 5, if there is a straight penalty card to the straight flush.
3: Play 2 to a royal, queen high, over 3 to a straight flush,
spread 5, when 6 or 7 high.
4: Play 2 to a royal, queen high, over 4 to an inside straight if
there are no flush penalty cards and a fully open straight
possibility. A fully open straight possibility means that there
exists some possible straight with no penalty cards discarded. For
example with suited 10-Q and unsuited 5-K-A the player has a full
chance at a Q-J-10-9-8 straight. However with suited 10-Q and
unsuited K-9-5 the player should go for the inside straight because
the K and 9 block any fully open straight possibility.
5: There are some rare exceptions in which it is better to
discard everything rather than keep two to a royal, king high, with
no penalty cards. See my deuces
wild appendix 1 for a list of these exceptions.
6. There are some rare exceptions in which it is better to keep
the two to a royal, king high, despite a 9 or ace straight penalty
card. See my deuces
wild appendix 3 for a list of these exceptions.
1 Deuce
- Wild royal flush (25.0000)
- 5 of a kind (15.0000)
- Straight flush (9.0000)
- Four of a kind (5.8510637)
- 4 to a royal flush (3.4042554)
- Full house (3.0000)
- 3 consecutive suited cards 5-6-7 or greater (2.21277)
- 3 of a kind (2.01758)
- Straight (2.0000)
- Flush (2.0000)
- All other 4 to a straight flush (1.70213 to 1.97872)
- 3 to a royal flush, highest card king or less (1.1424607)
- 2 consecutive suited cards, 6-7 or higher, + deuce (1.0952822)
- 3 to a royal flush, ace highest card, no penalty cards
(1.0462534)
- Deuce only (1.0328652)
- 3 to a royal flush, ace highest card, 1+ penalty
card3 (1.0286771)
- 2 consecutive suited cards, 5-6 or lower, + deuce (1.0166513)
- 4 to an outside straight (1.0000)
Note: 3: There are some rare exceptions in which it is
better to keep the deuce only rather than keep two to a royal, ace
high, plus deuce, with no penalty cards. See my deuces
wild appendix 2 for a list of these exceptions.
2 Deuces
- Wild royal flush (25.0000)
- 5 of a kind (15.0000)
- Straight flush (9.0000)
- Four of a kind (5.8510637)
- 4 to a royal flush (4.617021)
- 2 consecutive suited cards, 6-7 or higher, + deuces
(3.3404255)
- 2 deuces only (3.2730188)
- 2 consecutive suited cards, 5-6 of lower, + deuces (3.1276596)
- Full house or less
3 Deuces
- Wild royal flush (25.0000)
- 3 deuces only, non-pair discarded (15.059204)
- 3 deuces only, pair 9 or less discarded (15.057354)
- 5 of a kind (15.0000)
- 3 deuces only, pair 10 or greater discarded (14.938946)
- 4 to a royal flush (11.829787)
- Straight flush or less
4 Deuces
- 4 deuces (200.0000)
Terms:
Outside straight: An open ended straight that can be
completed at either end, such as (7,8,9,10). A wild card shall not
be used to complete an outside straight. For example 2,5,7,8 is not
4 to an outside straight because of the missing 6. However 2,5,6,7
is 4 to an outside straight. Inside straight: A straight
with a missing inside card, such as (6,7,9,10). Penalty
card: A penalty card is a potentially useful discarded card. For
example if the player had 3 to a royal and 4 to a flush the correct
play is to keep three to the royal, discarding the fourth suited
card. The discarded suited card would be called a flush penalty card
because it could have been used to complete a flush. By discarding
it the players odds of forming a flush are "penalized." Sometimes
penalty cards can affect borderline plays. For example if the player
had a suited 10 and king, with no other cards of that suit, nor a 9,
jack, queen, or ace, then the player should keep the two to a royal
flush. However this is only marginally better than discarding
everything. If the player had just one suited card, or any card that
could be used to complete a straight, then the odds of forming a
flush or straight would be depressed, lowering the overall expected
return below that of discarding everything. So in that situation the
player should be mindful of the effect of penalty cards.
MethodologyTo determine the above strategy I
created a program can determine the expected return of the best play
of any hand. The way it works is to consider all 32 ways to play a
hand. For every play the program systematically scores the held
cards with every possible set of discards and averages the results.
The play that yields the greatest average is determined to be the
best play and the specific statistics for that play are displayed.
The program can also show the statistics for non-optimal plays.
Using this program it was then a time consuming task to try numerous
borderline hands and rank them in order of expected return. I used
Bob Dancer's Deuces
Wild Video Poker report to verify my strategy. There I found
some obscure exceptions that I did not notice, which I used to
correct my strategy. So I would like to thank Bob Dancer for his
help. You may order his software and strategy cards here.
Other Video Poker Games and InformationDeuces wild
simple
strategy. Jacks or better simple
strategy. Jacks or better intermediate
strategy. Jacks or better optimal
strategy. Jacks or better quiz. Go
to the video poker main
page. Go to optimal strategy for deuces
wild. Go to expected
return tables for other forms of video poker. Jacks or better
practice
quiz.
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