Contributing expert Jean Scott writes:
"Perfect strategy" is the mathematically flawless way to play a game, using a long chart with penalty cards and complicated details. In a more simplified strategy, the less valuable complexities have been removed or combined to make the chart easier to read and play, with little impact on the return of the game.
"Penalty cards" are those cards in a VP dealt hand that you consider in your decision of what to hold when you're comparing two holds that are extremely close in value. These are sometimes called interference cards, because one or more cards in a dealt hand might slightly interfere with -- that is, slightly lessen -- your chances in making a particular hand out of a certain hold.
I know, I know. That sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo. Okay, here’s a simple example, if there's anything simple about penalty cards!
In 9/6 Jacks or Better, one line of the simplified strategy chart from the Frugal VP software says to always hold a same-suit K and 10 royal draw. However, on a chart that considers penalty cards, there would be a line that says to hold a same-suit K and 10 royal draw UNLESS there's both a 9 in the hand (a straight penalty card) AND there’s another card of the same suit as the K and 10 (a flush penalty card). In that case, you would hold only the Kh.
The 4 hands below show how you would consider penalty cards.
Kh, 10h, 2d, 3d, 7d -- Hold the Kh,10h; there are no penalty cards of either kind.
Kh, 10h, 3h, 2d, 7d -- Hold Kh,10h; the 3h is what we call a flush penalty card, because it reduces the number of ways to make a flush out of Kh,10h. But remember, we have to have TWO kinds of penalty cards before we can hold only the Kh.
Kh, 10h, 9d, 2d, 4s -- Hold Kh,10h; the 9 is a straight penalty card, because it reduces the number of ways to make a straight out of Kh,10h. But again, that one penalty card isn’t enough for you to hold only the Kh.
Kh,10h,2h,9d,3s -- I hope you can now choose the correct hold: the Kh only. Why? Because you have both a flush penalty card (the 2h) AND a straight penalty card (the 9d). With two penalty cards, the Kh alone has a higher value than the Kh,10h.
If your eyes are glazing over at this point, don’t despair. If you play 800 hands per hour, ignoring ALL the penalty cards situations in 9/6 JoB, not just the one I used as an example above, will cost the quarter player a penny an hour* and the dollar player 4 cents an hour.
*.001% (the overall difference between the simplified strategy and the "perfect" one) times $1,000 ($1.25 times 800) for those of you who enjoy the math. (If you have Frugal VP, you can find the difference for most games by going to machine->statistics. Click on Win/losses per hour. Click on Strategy v/s Perfect play. There you will see the difference between going by the simplified chart v/s perfect play (penalty play) dependent on the number of hands played per hour.)
As I said in my Dec. 16 Frugal Fridays column, if you love the challenge of penalty cards, by all means consider them. But most players will find that they'll play a simplified strategy more accurately, they'll play faster, and accrue more slot club benefits, and the time they don’t use for studying and practicing complex penalty-card situations can be used to scout for better playing opportunities.
Jean is author of best-seller The Frugal Gambler, now in its second edition, and More Frugal Gambling. The Frugal Video Poker Software, which comes complete with an 11-minute video in which Jean explains the fundamentals of video poker play, is also available from our online store ShopLVA.com, by clicking here.
