Author’s Note: About 30 years ago, Bradley Davis published Mastering Joker Wild Video Poker. It was one of the standards when I started to study the game in 1993, so I bought it and read it. A few years later, I met Davis in Atlantic City at a symposium where several gambling authors gave presentations — probably sponsored by Casino Player magazine. Although I’m older than he is, at the time I was a new gambling writer and Davis was already established. We chatted for a while, discovered we liked each other, have stayed in touch, and occasionally hook up. He emailed me recently that he was coming to Vegas and suggested we get together for a drink, which I accepted.
In his honor, I’m dusting off an article about Kings or Better Joker Wild that I first published more than 20 years ago. Although these games aren’t as plentiful as they once were, the principles in this article still apply when you find such a game.
Assume you are playing a Kings or Better version of Joker Wild and you have to choose how to play the following hand, letting W stand for the wild card: W 5♦ 6♦ 9♠ T♠.
Forget about holding the joker by itself. It is correct to go for straight flushes much more often in Joker Wild than you do in non-wild card games. The joker has such flexibility that straight flushes are much easier to get. As an aside, compare 5♥ 6♥ 7♥ in Double Double Bonus to W 5♦ 6♦ in Joker Wild. In the first case, you have exactly three different draws to complete the straight flush: i.e. 3♥4♥, 4♥8♥ and 8♥9♥. In the second case, you have nine such draws: i.e. 2♦3♦, 2♦4♦, 3♦4♦, 3♦7♦, 4♦7♦, 4♦8♦,7♦8♦,7♦9♦ and 8♦9♦. And since you get the same 250 coins for a 5-coin straight flush in both games, no wonder you go for them more in Joker Wild!
Also notice that you have two 3-card straight flush draws in the same hand. This cannot happen in Double Double Bonus because you cannot fit three spades and three diamonds into the same 5-card hand. But in Joker Wild, where the suit and rank of the joker isn’t determined until AFTER the draw, fitting three spades and three diamonds into the same 5-card hand is no problem at all.
So, what’s to choose between W56 and W9T? After all, both straight flush draws are fully open-ended. Logic says they should have equal values. But they don’t. Not by a long shot. If you were playing the best paying version of the game for dollars, holding W56 would be worth in excess of 13¢ more than W9T. Thirteen cents would be a major mistake in this game to anybody who is serious about winning.
When you draw two cards in a 53-card-deck game, there are 1,128 unique possibilities. Drawing to either W56 or W9T results in 312 3-of-a-kinds, 127 straights, 46 flushes, nine full houses, six 4-of-a-kinds and nine straight flushes. So, what’s the difference? From W56 you end up with 269 high pairs and from W9T you only get only 239 high pairs. But until it’s point out, most players can’t see why.
When you look at the straights you can end up with when you start with W56, the cards will range between a 2 and a 9. If you end up with any of the four kings in your hand, you cannot have a straight and you will get credit for a high pair. But from W9T, sometimes you need a K for the straight (as in W9TQK). So, after you take out the straights you get starting from W9T, there are fewer kings remaining in the deck. Since both of the positions result in the same number of straights, and there are only four kings in the deck however they are used, it’s no wonder that W56 results in more high pairs than does W9T.
It might seem strange that there could actually be 30 more high pairs from W56 than W9T. That might appear to be a lot. This happens when you specifically draw a KQ or a KJ to W9T. While the king, paired with the joker, gives you a high pair, this combination also gives you a straight, which pays more than the high pair. Taking KQ as an example, there are four kings and four queens which may be mixed or matched — giving you 16 possibilities. But we have to subtract off one of those because that would also give you a straight flush. So, there are 15 ways you can have KQ and another 15 that you can have KJ, which, of course, adds up to 30.
When Liam W. Daily and I first wrote about the game, we coined the term “redundant high pairs” for this phenomenon. In Kings or Better Joker Wild, it is possible to have BOTH a straight AND a high pair in the same hand, or a flush AND a high pair, or a straight flush AND a high pair. Since you only get credit for the highest appearing hand, you lose the value of the high pair. This does not happen in other video poker games.
You should also prefer the spades over the hearts in both of these two cases, for the same reason as before: W 4♠ 6♠ 9♥ J♥ and W 3♠ 6♠ 9♥ Q♥. Although the number of straights and straight flushes are lower in these two examples than they were in our first one, in both cases you’ll get 269 out of 1,128 high pairs with the spades but only 239 out of 1,128 with the hearts.
Applying what you’ve learned, how about W 3♠ 4♠ 9♥ J♥? Which straight flush draw is worth more? This time, they’re worth exactly the same! W 3♠ 4♠ and W 3♠ 5♠ are worth exactly the same in this game (for the same reason that says 2♦ 3♦ 4♦ and 2♦ 3♦ 5♦ are worth the same in Double Double Bonus), and drawing an ace to the spades creates just as many redundant high pairs for the A2345 straight (including one joker) as drawing a king does to the hearts.
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