In the previous five chapters of this series, I tried to show you how to combine speed and accuracy at the All American Video Poker game. But I hope you'll remember that it's far better to play correctly than it is to play quickly. The 'full-pay' schedule of this game offers a long-term return of just over 100.7% and that's not very big, even if it is larger than most games you'll find out there. So, be quick to sacrifice speed in return for accuracy in order to maintain your edge by carrying a strategy card with you, because there are some plays in this game that go against what seems rational and they can be very costly mistakes.

A quick test

Just 10 questions cannot, of course, cover the entire strategy of All American Poker but a few important basics of the game are presented here and you really should get them all correct. Jot your answer down on a piece of paper and see how you do. The correct answers are below and they're presented by "expected value".

Hand 1

a. Hold all
b. Hold 10, J, Q, K only

Hand 2

a. Hold two-pair
b. Hold 3 hearts

Hand 3

a. Hold 3 clubs
b. Hold, J, J

Hand 4

a. Hold J, A
b. Hold J only
c. Hold 9, 10, J

Hand 5

a. Hold J, Q
b. Hold J, Q, K
c. Hold 3 clubs

Hand 6

a. Hold Q, Q
b. Hold Qh, Kh
c. Hold 10, J, Q, K

Hand 7

a. Hold 6, 6
b. Hold 5, 6, 7, 8

Hand 8

a. Hold 6, 6
b. Hold 5, 6, 7, 9

Hand 9

a. Hold 9, 9
b. Hold 3 spades

Hand 10

a. Hold 9, 9
b. Hold 3 spades

Answers (The highest number wins.)

1.
a. 1000.0000
b. 97.1277

2.
a. 7.9787
b. 9.8936

3.
a. 7.0352
b. 7.0407

4.
a. 2.2152
b. 2.2106
c. 2.6226

5.
a. 3.1810
b. 3.0435
c. 2.4977

6.
a. 7.0407
b. 2.6193
c. 7.6596

7.
a. 3.4764
b. 6.8085

8.
a. 3.4764
b. 3.4043

9.
a. 3.4764
b. 3.4135

10.
a. 3.4764
b. 4.6161

Speed Tips
Some of these were presented in the preceeding lessons, but I wanted to review them one more time, because they have really helped me speed up my play.

Tip # 1
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.

Tip # 2
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.

Tip # 3
If a hand is composed only of low cards (2-10) and four of them are of the same suit, you will always hold the 4-card flush. And you'll still hold all four suited cards 99.9% of the time if there are high cards in there as well.

Tip # 4
Practice, practice, practice. That is the real key to this game.

See you here next time.