Frank Kneeland is my co-host on the Thursday night “Gambling With An Edge” radio show, archived on www.bobdancer.com.
Frank created strategies for teams 20 years ago — which is before I started. My own strategies were devised without ever knowing what he had done — or even that he existed specifically. (Yes I was aware there were video poker teams, but I didn’t know much about them or who ran them and never saw their strategies.)
Frank and I were comparing my strategies — which I consider to be “top down” — and his — which he considers to be “bottom up.” Although in general I like my approach over his, I very much like one concept he uses and I don’t.
He lists hands that are never held. This is an alien concept to the users of modern strategies — but it can be very useful. The first time he mentioned it to me I thought he was crazy. (I think about Frank that way more than occasionally, however on his good days I think he is amusingly eccentric.) But after consideration, I think it is a better way to do things.
For example, consider the hand Qh Jc 9d 8h 4s — in a game without wild cards. The two possible hands to consider are QJ and QJ98. In Double Double Bonus, I include both categories — because there are hands where you hold QJ (such as QJ732) and hands where you hold QJ98 (such as the current one). On this particular hand, since QJ98 (listed as ST4 1i 2h) is found higher than QJ, that is the correct play according to the strategy chart. Frank lists both combinations on his chart and recommends the same play.
In Jacks or Better, however, you never hold inside straights with two high cards, so that combination isn’t listed on the strategy. The proper play is simply QJ.
But now consider if the strategy had a line such as: ST4 1i 2h NEVER HELD, and this line was below QJ. What does this buy us?
What it buys us is that both reasonable combinations are listed on the strategy. The only time you look at the strategy is if you don’t know how to play a hand. You look at both possible plays and choose the one that comes highest. Even though it says “NEVER HELD,” you can still find it. Once you’ve found both plays, you stop looking and go ahead and play the hand. But people who can’t find the ST4 1i 2h listing (because it’s not there — and sometimes you can look very hard to find something that isn’t there because you not sure it isn’t there) waste valuable time looking in vain for one of the apparently reasonable plays.
To be sure, the Dancer/Daily cards and Winner’s Guides cover this situation with a note that reads: “Never hold 4-card inside straights with fewer than three high cards.” But the note is at the end of the strategy, and some players have a hard time understanding that this note refers to a potential combination like QJ98.
Frank’s strategy (using somewhat different, albeit comparable notation to what I use) lists SF4 1i 2h on his chart — but without the comment “NEVER HELD.” He expected players to keep looking upwards until they find QJ. Maybe this was a reasonable expectation when he personally tutored his team members for many hours before letting them play with real money. But if you sell strategies to anybody who wants one, without private tutoring, it is likely NOT reasonable to expect that players will go past ST4 1i 2h on a chart until they find QJ.
So the “NEVER HELD” notation is a compromise of sorts between his system and mine. Most players don’t give a fig whether it’s a top down or bottom up strategy. They just want to be able to use the strategies to figure out how to play particular hands.
I doubt that I will publish a new set of strategy cards with this new notation on it. Basically it’s too much work for too little gain. With modern software creating decent enough strategies quickly, fewer players are willing to purchase strategy cards — even if the strategy cards are “better” than what you get with the video poker software.
That said, a lot of players tweak published strategies. A lot of my students have told me that they started with my strategies but did blah-blah-blah to them in order to make them easier to understand for them personally. I always commend them for this. Tweaking a strategy to make it more useful makes a lot of sense. You have to understand a strategy pretty well to tweak it, and each of us thinks in a slightly different way.
Those who have done this, and saved their strategies on their computer, may want to insert NEVER HELD lines where appropriate — perhaps on various inside straights and 3-card flushes and QJT, or sometimes AK, AQ, and AJ. In Deuces Wild games, you’d list ‘AK’, ‘AQ’, and ‘AJ’ this way (where the quote marks signify the cards are suited with each other). These hands are held in some games (so they are on your “radar”) but they aren’t held in this particular game.
You can make this work with or without penalty card considerations. In 10/7 Double Bonus, on hands including an unsuited AK, AQ, and AJ, players who don’t want to use penalty cards simply hold the A by itself, so you can use the NEVER HELD designation. If you want to give the (rather complicated) conditions where you actually do hold these combinations, that’s okay too. Now the NEVER HELD designation wouldn’t be appropriate so you shouldn’t use it.
This will make your strategies longer. But likely faster to use. Try it and see!