There are 10 different 3-card royal flush draws: AKQ, AKJ, AKT, AQJ, AQT, AJT, KQJ, KQT, KJT, and QJT. For today’s discussion, we are looking at these combinations in games without wild cards where you get your money back for a pair of jacks, queens, kings, or aces.

These 3-card royals are not all equal in value. There are some combinations that are always superior to other combinations regardless of the pay schedule. There are others where “it depends.” Continue reading Analyzing 3-Card Royal Flush Draws

I haven’t played a lot at Suncoast Casino in the northwest Las Vegas valley — mainly for geographic reasons. While I was with Shirley, we lived near Green Valley Ranch Casino which was perhaps 20-25 miles away from Suncoast. For me to go to Suncoast, I had to pass up dozens of other casinos on my drive there. It was very rare for Suncoast to have such a spectacular offer that I would have driven past all of those other casinos — at least a few of which usually had better offers — spending all of that time and gas to get to Suncoast. Continue reading Booting Players the Suncoast Way — Part 1 of 2

On most Fridays and Saturdays, there is a drawing at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. Entries in these drawings are based on your play beginning at 8:00 p.m. on the preceding Saturday. I try to compete in the drawings at least one week a month — sometimes two. I often play very little for two or three weeks and then very heavily for one or two weeks. This maximizes my chances to collect something from the drawings while still giving me free time for other activities on some Fridays and Saturdays. Continue reading I’d Be Ashamed If I Were You!

A friend of mine, Terry, usually plays 9/6 Jacks or Better (JoB). There is one casino, however, where 8/5 Bonus Poker (BP) is the best game. He wants to know what changes he should make to his JoB strategy in order to play BP.

First of all, Terry doesn’t HAVE to make any changes. JoB strategy works pretty well on BP. Rounding off to three decimal places, perfect BP returns 99.167% and BP using JoB strategy returns 99.158%. Is that difference big enough to make strategic adjustments? You’ll have to answer that for yourself. Continue reading Using 9/6 Jacks or Better Strategy to Play 8/5 Bonus Poker

I am probably far more aware of (some might say obsessed with) penalty cards than most players. I’ve written about straight penalties, flush penalties, low straight penalties, low straight kicker penalties, straight flush penalties, and high card penalties, as well as specific card penalties such as a ‘9 penalty.’ There are also some situations where two or three penalties must occur at the same time before the strategy is affected. Continue reading A Royal Flush Penalty