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 the previous 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 finish the most common, yet the most difficult, which are the hands with both high cards (Jack, Queen, King, Ace) and low cards.

Now we need to sort out those hands which have 9s and 10s in them, along with a high pair. Look at this one:

Here we have a four-card straight and a high pair. The natural tendency is to hold the pair of Jacks and, while it's not a terrible mistake, the best play is to hold the straight draw. But look at this one:

Now the proper play is to hold the pair of Jacks! How can that be, you ask? Well, it's because now there is only one high card in the straight draw, but in the previous hand, there were two. You'll only run into this with a Jack and a Queen in the hand, because if there's a King present along with a 9, you'll have an inside straight and you don't break a high pair for that. Just to be complete here and to show you that I haven't skipped a hand, look at this one:

The proper play is to hold 10, J, Q, K but I already covered this in the section dealing with hands made up of all high cards with some 10s in them. (It's rule #4 back there.)

But let's make a rule for the hands with a high pair and an outside straight possibility:

Rule #8: Never break a high pair (in a "mixed" hand),except
-for a four-card outside straight with two or more high cards,

I'm ignoring flushes and straight flushes, including Royals, because other rules cover them. Understanding this rule really speeds up my game. If you have a high pair along with some low cards, it's a 99 percent chance that you'll hold only the pair, except when four of them are of the same suit. Then, most of the time, you'll hold the four-card flush. Now, look at this hand:

Here we have a four-card inside straight draw with three high cards. But the proper play is to hold the three-card SF draw. The King isn't in the proper suit, so don't invite him to the party. (At least that's how I remember it!) Here's another one:

Almost the same hand, but now there's a fourth high card, the Ace. But the straight flush draw (9,J,Q) is still the correct play. This same concept applies to hands with 8,10,J suited;Q,10,9 suited and J,9,8 suited. It's really not so much a job of memorizing these hands, but understanding what gives them value. They're all 3-card SF draws with one gap and one high card.

Now look at this hand:

With two gaps in the SF draw, it's not even close. The proper play here is to hold the 4 high cards. Perhaps we can make a rule for this:

Rule #9 Always hold A,K,Q,J (no more than two suited), except
-for a 3-card straight flush with no more than one gap.

Now don't get confused here. You need to remember that the hand already has four high cards in it, and only two of them are suited (obviously if three of the high cards are suited, it's a three-card Royal and other rules apply) so there are only a few exceptions, namely 9,J,Q suited and we've discussed that; 8,J,Q suited and we covered that one as well. That leaves 9,J,K suited and 9,Q,K suited which are both SF draws with two gaps, so you hold the four high cards. Easy as pie, isn't it? (Yes, I know. Not really.)

Try this one:

We have a four-card inside straight draw (9,J,Q,K) and a three-card SF draw with two gaps (9,J,K). Remember the "rule of two"? It says to ignore the SF draw if there are two gaps in it and there are two cards to a Royal AND there's an inside-straight draw. So, we hold 9,J,Q,K.

Now try this one:

We already know that we don't break a low pair to draw to an inside straight consisting of all low cards, but the one high card in there changes everything. The proper play is to toss one of the 9s and go for the inside straight. And if we'll do it with one high card, it's safe to say that we'll do it with two or more as well. This is an easy rule:

Rule #10: Break any low pair to draw to a four-card inside straight with one or more high cards.

Just remember that an "inside" straight has only one gap. Look at this hand:

This is the hand that players who are used to the strategy for Jacks or better games probably miss the most. The correct play is to go for the inside straight and it's quite a large mistake if you don't. We better make this a rule:

Rule #11: Hold any four-card inside straight over a single high card.

The wording, "single high card" defines just what kind of inside straight we're talking about; it's obviously composed of all low cards.

Now let's turn our attention to hands like this which have an Ace in them. Since the Ace can be a "low" card in straights and straight flushes, they can cause some confusion because they're also a high card. Here's a prime example:

Rule #10 applies here, so you'd discard one of the 2s. Here's a variation on the theme:

I didn't trick you, did I? This is a four-card outside straight draw, so toss the Ace. Now look at this one:

Hold the pair or the 4-card inside straight or the 3-card SF? The answer for this leads to our next rule:

Rule #12 Break any low pair to draw to any 3-card SF that contains a high card.

Just to keep this Aces thing straight in my own mind, I made up this somewhat redundent rule:

Rule #13: Hold any Ace-low three-card straight flush, except - When there's a "made" straight

A, 2, 3, 4, 5 is a "made" straight and it ranks above a three-card SF which, in turn, ranks above a four-card inside straight.

But what about this?

Here we have a four-card inside straight flush draw, so do we go for the 5 of diamonds? Emphatically, No! One of the basic rules from previous lessons is that we never break a "made" straight for a four-card inside straight flush draw. We only do it for an outside straight flush draw and, if an Ace is part of the SF, we can never have an outside straight flush draw. Now look at this

This is another "fooler". Yes, it's a "made" straight, but it's also a four-card outside straight flush draw, since either the Ad or 6d will complete the SF and the Ace of clubs isn't part of the SF draw. So, we hold all 4 diamonds and it's a very big mistake if we don't.

One more:

This is a four-card inside straight flush draw and you'll always break a high pair to go for it. Don't let these little cards mesmerize you.

When I first started playing All American Poker, I had a hard time remembering when to hold some of the little cards along with the big ones when there was a flush possibility. I'm happy to report that I've pretty much learned all the rules, yet I sometimes make errors, but the good thing is that they are small ones. You can do the same. Take this hand, for example:

Jack and Queen? Three high cards or three hearts? Well, in this example, you can eliminate the three high cards right away (I'll explain why in a bit.). The correct play is either the Q, J OR the three hearts, because the expected value on them is identical! This is a wonderful "trivia" question for you to toss out at your pals at the dollar All Am games. Now, if that 6 was an 8, you'd have two straight "penalty" cards and the three hearts would be the proper play. Along the same line, look at this one:

For this hand, the proper play is definitely the three hearts. But, what about this one?

So, is it J,Q,K or three hearts? Let's make this a rule:

Rule #14 Always hold 3 high cards over a 3-card flush, except
-when an Ace is one of the three high cards.

Of course, I'm assuming that there are no 3-card straight flush possibilities here and that naturally includes three-card Royals.

Here's the proof:

The proper play is the three hearts. Now look at this:

For this hand J,Q,K are the cards to hold and it's a fairly serious error if you don't. But what about this one?

J,Q,K? or J,Q only or three hearts? The correct answer is J,Q suited, so we need to work that into our rule.

Rule #15 Always hold 3 high cards over a 3-card flush, except
-when an Ace is one of the three high cards, or
-if there's a suited J and Q.

While this rule doesn't do a good job of telling you, the fact is that if there's a low card suited with the J and Q, you discard it as well. Here's what I mean:

The proper play is to hold just the Jack and Queen, because they are suited. I treat Jacks and Queens "special" in this game and, while I'll almost always hold any other two high cards with a third card of the same suit, I never do it when a Jack and Queen are together. (Again, I'm ignoring Royal and SF draws.)

Okay, let's finish three-card flushes. If you've played All Am for a while, you know that they can be confusing, so I'll try to clear that up now. There are basically two types you have to deal with when you have a "mixed" (both high and low cards) hand those with one high card and those with two high cards. With two suited high cards and a third suited low card, the rule is simple, assuming no straights or straight flushes are possible

Rule #16: Always hold two suited high cards with a suited low card, except
-when the two suited high cards are a Jack and Queen, or
-if the 3 high cards are J, Q, K

For example:
The proper play is A,K,6.

Now, look at this hand:

There is only one high card, but should you hold all three spades? The answer is no and the same would be true if the Jack was a Queen. You just need to remember to treat suited Jacks or Queens and 10s in a "special" way. Here's another one to ponder:

Three spades or K,Q or K,Q,10? The answer and rule is simple:

Rule #17 Never break K,Q/J,10, except
-if the 10 and Q/J suited.

This "Q/J" business means Queen OR Jack. If the 10 and Jack/Queen are suited, hold just those two, even if there's another small card of the same suit.

The "Rag" Hands

Now we're getting down to some hands which have low expectations, but in this section, they all have at least one high card, so we always have the hope of getting our bet back by ending up with at least a pair. That said, there are some pretty cool plays here, so try to stay with me, but none of these hands are disasters if you misplay them.

Here's one:

This is just a variation of rule #13 where the presence of an Ace makes the three-card flush the better play. Now look at this one:

The three-card flush is still the correct play. I just didn't want you to get prejudiced against Aces.

Here's a tougher one:

The three-card flush is still the way to go. But, if that 9 was a 10, you'd hold J,10 only.

A slight variation:

Now the correct play is to hold the J,9 but it's hardly a major error if you hold J,K.

Take a look at this one:

This play is, for me, tough to recognize, let alone play properly. Do you see it? The proper play is to hold J,10,9. But that's not the case here:

Now the best play is to hold the Jack, only! But it's a very small error if you hold J,A so don't lose any sleep over this. Here's a weird little hand:

Ace and 10 to go for the Royal? Queen and 9 to show how "sophisticated we are? Maybe A,Q,10 to shoot for the straight. The proper play is Q,A. Just the two high cards and, in situations like this, do that when you're in doubt. Holding two high cards is rarely a big error. Here's another hand which a lot of players miss:

In most games, you never hold a suited Ace, 10 but you do in this one. I caught a Royal that way once.

Let's wrap this up for now and I'll do one more installment to hopefully tie everything into a neat package.

See you here next time.