Fundamental Errors Series
Jacks or Better
Double Bonus
All American Poker
Deuces Wild

We all make mistakes in the playing strategy of our favorite game, either because we're playing too fast, or we're unsure of the proper play or we play a 'hunch'. Most likely, those misplays don't cost us that much, especially if they're just an every-once-in-a-while, random occurance. But, I've seen many players make what I call "fundamental errors"; incorrect plays which they make over and over again that cut their expected return by a considerable amount. Naturally, a lot of these players are new to the game and they simply don't know which is the right play, but even if you're experienced, you'll want to browse through these to check your game.

Obviously, training and practice is the key to learning the proper playing strategy for your favorite game. I use the program, "Bob Dancer presents WinPoker" which was created by Dean Zamzow for my practice sessions, since it keeps track of my errors and automatically calculates just what those errors are costing me in terms of the expected return. For example, the expected return for perfect play at a 9/6 Jacks game is 99.54%, but if I'm only 99.6% correct in my playing strategy, my return will be more like 99.14% and even a great slot club cash rebate program probably won't get me to 100%. And that's an error rate of just 4 hands out of a thousand! Yes, I'm dramatizing a bit here in order to make my point, because some mistakes have a bigger impact than others. For example, if you always break a high pair (Jacks or better) in order to draw to a 3-card Royal, that's a pretty serious mistake because the hand come up relatively frequently (about once an hour at average rates of play) and the 'cost' of the error, as expressed in expected return, is fairly high. So it naturally follows that if you get a hand which is very rare and misplay that, the impact on your return is much less. For example, the lowest hand one should keep in 9/6 Jacks play is a double-inside straight flush draw (like 4,6,8 suited) and it's pretty rare; in 10,000 hands of play, you'll get it about 26 times and, even if you play it correctly, it'll be a loser 89% of the time! The expected return on this hand is 2.22 (for 5 coins bet) and if you just throw it away, the expected return is 1.80. We're not talking about a big-time difference here.

But I'm not concerned about obscure, nit-picking hands; the point I want to make to you is the impact of plays that, when in doubt, seem to be a good move but really aren't. A lot of these involve the Royal and we all feel like one is 'due', so we just go for it. Add enough of those plays up and you've turned a game that is barely profitable into an outright loser. Let me show you what I mean. If you're new to video poker, you may think that holding 3 cards to the Royal (which pays 4000 coins) is a lot more profitable than holding a pair of Jacks (or better) which just pays 5 for 5; it basically just gets your bet back. Yes, a Royal DOES pay a lot more, but the odds of getting a Royal from a 3-card draw is 1 in 1081! But the pair is 'made' and it can get better. Here's how the numbers look:

10d Qd Kd Kc 4s
Hold K, K: 7.6827
Hold 3-card Royal: 6.9288

Those numbers mean this: If you hold the pair of Kings, your average result will be a return of 7.6827 coins for every 5 coins you bet. If you go for the Royal instead, your average result will be a return of 6.9288 coins for every 5 you bet. Yes, one of those results may be a 4000-coin Royal, but mostly it will be nothing and sometimes it'll be a pair and sometimes it'll be a flush or straight. But it's not better than holding the made pair. The difference between the two plays is about 0.75 of a coin, so if you play dollars, it costs you 75 cents to go for it; if you play quarters, it costs you about 18 cents.

"But", I hear you say, "I'll gladly trade 18 cents for a $1000 Royal." Sure, who wouldn't? But remember this, grasshopper, you need to hit the Royal to get the grand and that's a thousand-to-one shot.

"Yes, but", you counter, "a thousand dollar Royal will make up for a lot of lost 18 cents."

Sure will; about 5500 of them....if you ever get to see that many. Remember that even the most "Royal-oriented" strategy (breaking any hand to draw to any 3-card Royal) still takes about 25,000 hands to bring home the bacon. In the meantime, you'll be pumping $$$ into that machine like it's a vacuum cleaner because you're trashing flushes, pairs, straights, etc. and, when your ship finally does come in, it may not make up for all your losses. This game is tough enough; don't make it worse.

Now I know all you experienced players out there aren't making that mistake, but what about this one?

Js Qs 5h 6h 7h

Or this one?

10d Jd Qs 3s 4s

In both hands, the Royal draw is the incorrect play. Not by much, to be sure, but wrong nonetheless. In the first hand, the straight flush draw is the correct play and in the second hand, you should hold the J,Q. How do you play this one:

8d 10d Jd 5c 6s

The correct play here is to hold the 8,10,J because it's a straight flush draw and its expected value is 3.1961. Just the T,J alone is worth only 2.4292.

A lot of people, when they first start playing video poker, don't understand the rule about dropping the Ace in a hand with 3 high cards. Look at this one:

7h Qs Jc Ad 4h

The 'knee-jerk' reaction is to hold all 3 high cards, but that's the incorrect play. With an Ace in the hand, the number of possible straights is cut down considerably, simply because you MUST get a 10 and a King to do that. But, by dropping the Ace, the number of straights possible goes up and that makes the J, Q more valuable on their own. Holding all 3 high cards has an expected return of 2.2803, but holding only the J, Q has an expectation of 2.4961. Not huge, but significant, because you'll get hands like this fairly often. Keeping the Ace is a fundamental error you don't want to make.

Here's a little variation on the theme:

Ad 10d 6h 9c 2s

Who, in their right mind, is going to hold just the Ace in this hand? Well, the smart player will. Am I for real here; throw away the 10 and guarantee myself that I won't get a Royal? Yep, that's the play. Holding A,10 has a value of 2.3028 while holding the Ace on its own is worth 2.3255!! This is a tough hand to play correctly and if I'm looking over your shoulder some day, I won't say a thing if you go for the Royal.

A few more 'beginner' hands to ponder:

2s 3c 5s 4s Js

The flush, right? Flushes typically outrank straights and that's the case here. The 2,3,4,5 is worth 3.4043 and the four spades are worth 6.60638, a very big difference.

8s 8h 9c 10c Jh

9c 9s 10d Jh Qc

Pairs always outrank straights, until you get a bunch of high cards in the hand. In both of these, the pair is worth 4.1184, but the straight is worth 3.7234 in the first hand and 4.0426 in the second.

And, to wrap this up:

10s 10d Jh Qs Kd

This is the 'fooler'. The pair is still worth 4.1184, but the straight draw is 4.3617 because of all the high cards.

So, how did you do? Remember, you need to get all these right so you'll be playing at maximum efficiency. Don't let fundamental errors keep you from doing your best at Video Poker.

See you here next time when I'll discuss fundamental errors for Double Bonus Poker.