As we continue on our journey in quest of speed and accuracy at this difficult game, I'll try to create some more easy-to-remember rules for playing various hands. I want to stress that my little rules don't guarantee that you'll extract the last 0.02% out of this game, but they'll get you close. And honestly, all I really want to accomplish here is to get you above the 100% return level. Remember that All American Poker, if approached with a strategy which is proper for Jacks or Better, will see you playing at a 2-3% long-term disadvantage so it's worth the time and effort it'll take to master these.

The Methodology

As presented in Parts 2 and 3 of this series, I break down the hands dealt to me into three separate categories: hands with all low cards in them, hands with all high cards in them and hands which have both high and low cards in them. In this installment, I'll cover the most common and the most difficult, which are the hands with both high cards (Jack, Queen, King, Ace) and low cards. Since I included the 10 in many hands with all high cards last time, I'll skip most of them here.

The General Rules for Mixed-Card Hands

First, let's start with some "no-brainer" rules which are pretty much basic to the game. Remember that we're discussing hands that contain both high and low cards.

Rule #1: Never break a "made" straight, flush or full house, except
- for a four-card Royal or
- a four-card outside straight flush

Rule #2: Break any other (lower) hand for a four-card inside straight flush.

Remember that a four-card inside straight flush consisting of all high cards and a 10 is a four-card Royal and that's already covered by rule #1.

Okay, this gets us down to three-of-a-kind which you never break (it can't co-exist with a four-card SF of any type) and on to a four-card flush. Look at this hand:

Hopefully you noticed that this is a four-card flush (rather than a 3-card SF) and it's an easy hand to play, since you'll always hold all "mixed" four-card flushes with a few exceptions. That's our next rule:

Rule #3: Hold any 4-card flush, except those with a 3-card, King-high Royal in them.

By "King-high", I mean a 3-card Royal without an Ace. Here's an example:

The proper play is to hold the suited 10, J, K. Now look at this one:

Because there's an Ace in here, the proper play is to hold the four diamonds. But what about this hand:

There's all kinds of stuff going on here. A King-high 3-card Royal, a four-card straight (8, 9,10, J) and the one exception to Rule # 3, a four-card straight flush. It's an inside straight flush, but that doesn't really matter because it's the proper play by a big margin. So, let's complete our rule:

Rule # 3: Hold any 4-card "mixed" flush, except
- those with a 3-card, King-high Royal in them, unless there's a four-card straight flush draw.

I honestly don't know how to word this any differently, but I think you know what I mean. If you have a better way, please let me know.

Now let's move on to a hand which I always play very carefully and that's two-pair. Take your time when you're dealt this, because speed can cause you to miss it. Here's an example:

The proper play is to hold the three spades, because that's the single-best three-card Royal draw. Here's another one:

This is also a good three-card Royal draw, so break up the two-pair. What would you do here?

Yes, we've already covered these in a previous lesson, but I wanted to go over them again. Here, we hold the two-pair because there's an Ace in the hand. This leads us to our next rule:

Rule #4: Hold any two-pair, except
-when a King-high, three-card Royal is present.

There is one hand which fits in here and it's very difficult to remember, so let's see what we can do about that. Look at this play:

Obviously, there's a three-card Royal in here as well as a 4-card open-ended straight. Because of the Ace, the proper play is to hold the four-card straight! If you miss it, that's not the worst mistake you can make, since the expected value for the three-card Royal is 7.0814 and for the straight it's 7.4468. But we want a rule for this anyway, right?

Rule #5: Hold any Queen-high, four-card straight over a three-card Royal with both an Ace AND a 10 in it.

Weird, isn't it? And yes, this applies to a King-high straight as well, except if we replace the 9 with a King, we now have a "made" straight and that's an automatic hold, as stated by rule #1.

A Speed Tip

Now that we're moving into the really tough hands where little cards and big cards kind of overlap, let me call a break to give you a tip which has helped me greatly. The trick here is to learn the "bottoms" of straights by heart. What I mean is that a 7 is the "bottom" of a Jack-high straight, the 8 is the bottom of a Queen-high straight, a 9 is the bottom of a King-high straight and a 10 is the bottom of an Ace-high straight.

I can hear you now: "Well duh, GM". But where the speed part comes in is recognizing that a hand with both an 8 and a King in it cannot be an inside straight nor an inside straight flush play even if both are suited. You may still end up holding both cards, but it will be for a different reason, like a three-card flush, for example. Eliminating some of the very important hands very quickly speeds up the game for me and it might work for you as well.

Different Subsets

You must remember that a low card (2-10) has an effect on high cards in two primary ways: as a part of a flush and/or as part of a straight. Sometimes, the low cards in a hand will stand on their own, but that's rare, so let's cover them first. You are never going to hold just one or two low cards by themselves when the hand you've been dealt also includes high cards (A, K, Q, J). And furthermore, the only time you'll hold three low cards by themselves while discarding high cards is when the three little guys can be used as part of a straight flush. Here's an example of what I mean:

The proper play here is, believe it or not, to hold the three-card straight flush draw over the two-card Royal. Now remember that the "best" two-card Royal draw is a suited Jack-Queen and the "worst" three-card straight flush draw is 2, 4, 6. So this leads us to our next rule:

Rule #6: Discard any two-card Royal to draw to any three-card straight flush.

You have to be careful here, because if the three-card straight flush "butts" up against the two-card Royal so a four-card inside straight is another option, then this rule can go out the window. Here's what I mean:

The proper play is to hold J, Q, 8, 9, because there are two high cards in the hand and two gaps in the 3-card straight flush. You need to remember that with two high cards, you might match either and at least get your bet back and there are a lot of gaps in the SF draw. We'll make a rule for this in a minute, but I want to show you another example first:

Only one card has changed, but now the proper play is to hold the three clubs and that's rule #6 again. The SF draw is "tighter" so it's the best play.

How do we keep these hands straight? (No pun intended). The simplest is probably to just stick with rule #6 and forget about gaps and just hold any three-card SF in preference to any two-card Royal draw. Or, better yet, remember the "rule of two" which I just made up. If the SF draw has two gaps and there are two cards to the Royal AND there's a one-card inside straight draw, then go for the inside straight. Here's an example of that:

The straight flush draw has two gaps, since both the 7 and 8 are missing. But, there is a one-card inside straight draw, the 9, 10, Q, K and that's the proper play. Here's another:

Same thing. Two cards to the Royal, two gaps in the SF draw and a one-card inside straight. The best play is to hold the 8, 9, J, Q.

Here's a variation:

We have two cards to the Royal and we have a one-card inside straight draw, but the SF has only one gap. So, the correct play is to hold only the three clubs.

What about this one?

Yep, I'm trying to trick you here. This is a 4-card straight with two high cards, so it's the proper play. Back to sorting through these pain-in-the-butt hands.

Here's another:

We do have a two-card Royal and two gaps in the SF draw, but there's no four-card inside straight, so we hold the three clubs. Try this:

We don't have a two-card Royal, but we do have a four-card inside straight and two gaps in the SF draw. Fortunately, the "rule of two" still applies, so we hold 8, 10, J, Q. Obviously, it's not the suited J, Q which matters, but the two gaps in the SF draw. So the rule of two gets modified to include any two high cards, but they must both be part of the inside straight.

Hopefully I haven't overlooked anything, so let's rewrite Rule #6:

Rule #6 Discard any two-card Royal to draw to any three-card straight flush, except
- when the "rule of two" applies, or
- when there's a four-card outside straight
and remember how this applies to two high cards which aren't suited. Needless to say, if we'll toss a two-card Royal, we surely toss two unsuited high cards, unless the rule of two applies.

Another Speed Tip

A quick way to determine if a three-card flush has two gaps is just to "subtract" the lowest card of the three from the highest card. If the result is 4, it's a double-inside straight flush. For example, 4, 6, 8 has two gaps because 4 from 8 is 4. Here's another: 2, 5, 6. This, too, is a straight flush with two gaps because 2 from 6 is 4. This obviously also works for straights as well.

Now, let's really get messy here. How would you play this hand?

We have a three-card SF draw with two gaps (7, 8, J) and an inside-straight draw (7, 8, 10, J) but a modified "rule of two" doesn't apply, darn it. That high card in there gives this hand enough 'juice' to make the three-card SF draw the proper play. But look at this one:

Now the proper play is the four-card inside straight draw (8, 9, J, Q). That's because the two high cards offer us two chances to at least get our bet back. We've basically returned to the "rule of two", since the SF draw has two gaps. Let me toss another one out:

This is a "fooler". Don't invite the Jack to the party, because he isn't properly dressed. The correct play is to hold the three diamonds. See how you do with this one:

Even though there are now two high cards, the King's in the wrong suit, so the proper play by far is to hold only the three diamonds especially since there aren't any gaps in the SF draw. Of course, if the 9 in the hand above was an 8, the King wouldn't figure in at all.

Confusing, aren't they? The shortcut is to always hold the three-card SF and you'll be right most of the time. Even in the hand with the Queen, just holding the SF draw over the inside straight is a small error, but we're going for perfection here, so let's see if we can make this a rule.

Rule #7: Hold any three-card straight flush, except when two high cards are present and one of them fills a gap missing in the SF draw OR if there's a four-card outside straight.

Here's one "proof" of the rule:

You can see that the Jack fills in the 9-K straight so the proper play is to hold 9, 10, J, K. If the Jack was a Queen, the inside straight draw would still be the proper play. This is tough, I know. But, if you can grasp the concept, that will help you more than actually memorizing the rules. And remember: When in doubt, hold the three-card SF.

This has gone on longer than I ever anticipated, so let's call a break here and I'll (hopefully) finish this in Part 5.

See you here next time.