Let\u2019s talk dollars and sense. Assume you\u2019re playing dollar single line DDB, five coins at a time. Holding two pair, you have the following possibilities — and the value of those possibilities.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/table-3-28-17.png\")
<\/p>\n
The frequency numbers from the chart may be found in Video Poker for Winners or other quality software. The dollar figures aren\u2019t generally seen, although you do get the sum of them, shown in green. And notice I didn\u2019t include columns for straights, flushes, straight flushes, or royal flushes simply because you can\u2019t get one of those when you start out by holding a pair or two pair.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take the line corresponding to KK66. You have 47 possible draws, which is the normal number when you\u2019re drawing one card from a 52-card pack and you\u2019ve already looked at a five-card deal. You\u2019ll end up with two pair 43 times and a full house four times. You can probably do this much in your head if you start with figuring how many full houses you can get. After all, the only time you\u2019re going to get a full house is when you draw one of the two remaining kings or one of the two remaining sixes. In all other cases, you\u2019re going to end up with the same two pair with which you started.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s new in this chart, shown in blue, is how much each of these hands is worth. The two-pair final hand contributes $4.57 to your total EV and the full house adds $3.83. Rather than give a definition for how I figured out those numbers, I\u2019ll show you the calculations: $3.83 = (4 * $45 \/ 47). $4.57 = (43 * $5 \/ 47). The $45 and $5 in the formulas are the amounts you receive from a full house and two pair respectively in this game.<\/p>\n
In the line corresponding to holding the kings, there are now 16,215 possible draws. For most of us, including me, there are way too many possibilities to figure this stuff out in our heads, or even with paper and pencil, with a high degree of confidence. Fortunately, software to do this for us is very fast, accurate, and inexpensive.
\nThe number that really pops out at me on this line is the 69\u00a2 that the chance at a 4-of-a-kind is worth. Yes, the quad is worth $250 when you get it, and that\u2019s the number beginning players focus on, but you only get it a little less than one chance in 360. Multiply it out and it comes to 69\u00a2.<\/p>\n
Also, note that the chance for a full house is 47\u00a2 when you hold a pair, compared to the $3.83 it\u2019s worth when you hold two pair.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to think of possibilities — like you COULD get a four-of-a-kind. It\u2019s much harder to think of probabilities — which means how often does it happen percentage-wise. It\u2019s even harder to multiply out the VALUE of the hands which means the probability multiplied by the pay schedule.<\/p>\n
Players sometimes confuse this hand with A\u2660 A\u2665<\/span> 6\u2663 6\u2666<\/span> 5\u2660. To put this into the above chart we need to add another column for four aces with a kicker. If we do that, we\u2019ll find all the numbers in the chart stay the same, except the value of the four aces without a kicker is worth $1.63 and the value of four aces with a kicker is worth $1.48. Adding those together gives us $3.11 — compared to the 69\u00a2 the kings were worth. This makes holding the aces worth more than holding two pair, aces up.<\/p>\n The strategy for this part of the game is AA > Two Pair > KK, QQ, JJ. If you can read the strategy and just follow it no-questions-asked, then you don\u2019t need columns like this one. If you ever wonder \u201cwhy,\u201d and haven\u2019t figured out the answer to this particular question, maybe this column will be useful to you.<\/p>\n As for me, I\u2019m always wondering \u201cwhy?\u201d Once I figure that out (which I normally can do in video poker — not so much in certain other parts of life), it makes it much easier to keep strategies memorized.<\/p>\n This column is written primarily for beginners and low-intermediate players. Readers more advanced than that should give it a once-over as well. There\u2019s a chart here you\u2019ve likely never seen before. You\u2019re playing Double Double Bonus, receiving 45 for a full house. How much you get for the flush is irrelevant to this discussion. If […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[261,218,1492,220,196,418],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Facebook\"](\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/96x96\/facebook.png\" "\\"Follow")
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