I find myself playing a lot of 9/6 Jacks or Better machines with progressive royals (yes, I realize how lucky I am to have games like that available), but it's only been recently that I felt I should get a handle on playing strategy changes which become important as the value of the jackpot rises. For example, proper playing strategy at a 9/6 Jacks game with a royal of 4000 coins says to never hold an Ace-Ten suited; one should hold the Ace with another high card, or alone if no other high card is present. But, if the royal is big enough, holding Ace-Ten suited is the proper play.

That very question, when to hold Ace-Ten suited, is what inspired this study. Much like using the true count in Blackjack to vary from basic strategy, I wanted to know at what level of royal did it make sense to vary from the proper play in video poker. But I wanted to keep it rather simple, so I didn't figure each play at its exact departure point; I set levels where it was okay to vary and kept that on the conservative side. For example, with a royal at 4000 coins, if one is dealt a hand of Jc Js Qs Ks 4d, the proper play is to hold the pair of Jacks. But, if the royal is just a bit higher, the best play is to hold the three-card royal. I don't know the exact point where that variation becomes correct, but it's about 4250 coins. Now, I may remember that particular play, but what about all the other combinations, like a pair of Jacks with a suited King, Ace and so forth? It would slow me down too much to make a variation on each of those at their exact departure point, so I did this in increments. The increment I chose was 1000 coins. At a quarter machine, that means $250 and at a dollar machine it means $1000. So, if a royal is at $1250 on a quarter machine, I'll make some variations, at $1500 I'll make more and so forth. By doing it this way, I was able to fit the variations on a 3X5 card which I can carry with me.

I'll show a 'long' version of this so that you understand all the plays, then reproduce my card at the end. I should point out that I've ignored penalty card plays in this. For example, a suited 10-Jack has a different value when one of the cards you're discarding is of the same suit as the 10-Jack than a hand without a 'flush penalty' card. Those are important, but it overcomplicates this. If you're playing with penalty variations, you're at a level where you can do what I did here and figure those in.

So, that's what we have here, the (to my knowledge) first chart of 'Basic Strategy Variations' for 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker. You can see where this might lead: a chart for 8/5 Jacks, one for 9/7 Double Bonus with progressive royals and quads, and so on. This might be fun -- a lot of work, for sure, but also a lot of fun. It might also be a book someday, but for now it's all free to our valued readers. If you have any questions, comments or notice any mistakes, please e-mail me at aceten@stlnet.com.

Breaking a high pair to draw to a 3-card royal is probably the most common situation you'll encounter. What matters most here is whether or not a suited 10-A is in the royal draw.

Here's how I did my 'pocket' card:

There are a lot of other variations, but for most the jackpot must be so high that you'll probably never see it. However, if you do run across a game, as I did recently, that is over $8000, I think it's okay to go for the royal when you're in doubt. If there's a specific variation you'd like a 'number' on, e-mail me.

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