If you’re unfamiliar with my notation, KTx refers to a suited king and ten with a third card in the same suit that is too low to be part of a KQJT9 straight flush or an AKQJT royal flush. Specifically, that limits us to KT2, KT3, KT4, KT5, KT6, KT7, and KT8. In games without wild cards where you get your money back for a pair of jacks or better, each of these combinations has the same value.
The KTx combination in some games is played KT; in some games it is played KTx; and in some games the correct play is to merely hold the king. This article will attempt to make sense of which games are played which way — and why.
Beginners often have the idea that JT, QT, KT, and AT all have the same value. They don’t. The reason they differ in value has to do with the potential for straights and straight flushes. When playing 9/6 Jacks or Better for dollars, five coins at a time, JT is worth $2.56; QT is worth $2.49; KT is worth $2.39; and AT is worth $2.30. In that game, a high card by itself is generally worth about $2.32, which means that it’s better to hold KT over a single king, but better to hold a single ace over AT.
I certainly don’t have these numbers memorized because they are different in every game. All the games we are looking at today return 1 for 1 for a pair of jacks or better and 800 for 1 for a royal flush (with five coins bet), but the amounts you get for two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, and straight flush sometimes change from game to game to game. And even within the same game, the values of these combinations change depending on what the other three cards are in the hand.
Still using dollar 9/6 Jacks or Better as an example, from Kā¦ Tā¦ 4ā„ 5ā„ 6ā£, the value of KT is $2.3941 and the value of the king by itself is $2.3244. Add a flush penalty (i.e. a card in the same suit as the KT which in my notation would be referred to as KTx), for example Kā¦ Tā¦ 4ā„ 5ā„ 6ā¦, and the value of KT drops to $2.3108 while the value of the king by itself drops to $2.3042. In addition to the flush penalty, add a 9 penalty to the same hand (i.e. a card that when discarded makes it harder to get a KQJT9 straight because there are only three 9s left in the deck), specifically Kā¦ Tā¦ 9ā£ 5ā„ 6ā¦, and the value of KT decreases to $2.2911 while the value of the king by itself becomes $2.2988. In this particular hand, it is now better to hold the king by itself rather than KT.
One of the primary pay schedule categories that affect KTx hands is how much is paid for a flush. When flushes return 7 for 1 (e.g. 10/7 Double Bonus or 9/7 Triple Double Bonus) KTx is ALWAYS preferred over either KT or the king by itself. This is a relatively high return for the flush (compared to other video poker games) and the correct play is to go for the flush as a primary target.
When flushes return 5 for 1 (e.g. 8/5 Bonus Poker or 9/5 White Hot Aces) the king by itself is ALWAYS held over both KT and KTx. This is a relatively low return for the flush (compared to other video poker games) so on these hands the flush is not a primary target.
When flushes return 6 for 1 (e.g. 9/6 Jacks or Better, 9/6 Double Double Bonus, or 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe) the preferred hold sometimes is KTx, sometimes it is KT, and sometimes just the king by itself. Let’s see if we can now figure out some rules for this. We’ve already seen the rule in 9/6 Jacks or Better, which is to hold KT unless there is a flush penalty (KTx) and also a 9 in the hand, in which case we hold the king by itself.
When the value of two pair goes from paying 2 to 1 to paying 1 to 1, the correct play on the hand in question is played KTx. The most common examples of this are 9/6 Double Double Bonus, 9/6 Triple Double Bonus, and 9/6/4 Double Bonus.
When the value of straights increases from 4 to 5 (as in 9/6/5 Double Bonus) the correct play on the hand in question becomes KT. This should make sense, because it’s possible to get a straight holding KT, but it’s impossible to get a straight holding KT2. Therefore, when the reward for a straight goes up, relatively speaking, it’s better to try for the straight.
When the value of a full house goes up from 9 to 10 (as in 10/6 Double Double Bonus) the correct play on these hands becomes KT rather than KTx. Again this should make sense, because while it is possible to get a full house holding KT, it is impossible to get a full house holding KT7.
Finally, the higher the value of four of a kind, the more likely that the correct play becomes holding the King by itself. This is because from a single king, the odds of getting four of a kind are approximately 4,000 to 1. But from holding KT, the odds of getting four kings are about 16,000 to 1 and the odds of getting ANY four of a kind are about 8,000 to 1. That’s enough to make a difference in what becomes the correct play. In 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe (which has the same pay schedule as 9/6 Jacks or Better except that quads pay 80 for 1 rather than 25 for 1 and two pair pays 1 for 1 rather than 2 for 1) the correct play on the hand in question is to hold the king by itself.
As the return for a straight flush increases, the correct play leans more towards KT, but in both 9/5 White Hot Aces (where straight flushes return 80 for 1) and 9/5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus (where straight flushes return 100 for 1) the correct hold is still just the king on these hands.
Although there were more nit-picky details here than in most of my other columns, the rules of thumb presented can help you figure out how to play the hands in question on just about every game where you get your money back for a pair of jacks or better. And since many players at least occasionally experiment on games they haven’t studied in detail, rules of thumb can be very useful.