Dear
Mark: I am a novice Video Poker player so here's my
question. Playing 5-card draw with jacks or better,
I draw a pair of 5s, a king, a 7 and a 2. Do I just
keep the pair of fives, or do I keep the fives and
the king? Jerry S.
A good decision on a live poker game can be a bad
one at Jacks-or-better video poker. For instance,
a kicker, a high card with a pair, can be at times
advantageous to hold at your kitchen table, but should
always be discarded on a video poker machine. Holding
a kicker, to any pair, Jerry, reduces your return
by 5%.
I
did write in a column years ago that there was one
scenario where you did want to hold a kicker. There
used to be a time when the machine didn't lock up
as a winner when four cards had the same face value.
For instance, you initially draw a 6-6-6-6-Jack. My
advice back then was to hold all five cards so that
you wouldn't accidentally discard one of your four-of-a-kinds.
Today, most machines won't allow you the opportunity
to do something so… dummy me.
Video
Poker Stay Put ?
Many
players erroneously believe that if they had stayed
put and inserted just five more coins, or had
pressed the play button on a coinless machine
one more time, that royal -- that someone else
fortuitously hit -- would have been theirs.
Poker
Blind Bets and Video Poker Odds
Poker blind bets how much they cost the players
that are forced to pay them. Video poker the odds
of hitting a Triple Play video poker machine vs.
single-hand machine.
Good
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