{"id":913267,"date":"2026-04-14T10:10:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/?p=913267"},"modified":"2026-04-14T10:10:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:10:29","slug":"categorizing-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/categorizing-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"Categorizing Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A friend and I were discussing 4-card straights with one deuce in NSU. The ones that are ever held are in the range of W<\/em><\/strong>567 \u2013 W<\/em><\/strong>TJQ. Each of the six possible ranges (i.e., W<\/em><\/strong>567, W<\/em><\/strong>678, W<\/em><\/strong>789, W<\/em><\/strong>89T, W<\/em><\/strong>9TJ, W<\/em><\/strong>TJQ) have different rules on which fifth cards require you to hold the deuce by itself, and which ones require you to hold the straight. Usually just the rank of the fifth card matters, but there are two separate cases where it matters whether that fifth card is suited with one of the other cards in the hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example, with W<\/em><\/strong>567, if the fifth card is an A, K, or Q, you hold the bare deuce. If it\u2019s a J or a T, you hold W<\/em><\/strong>567. If it\u2019s a 9, 8, 4, 3, you hold the 5-card straight. If it\u2019s a 5, 6, or 7, you hold the 3-of-a-kind. And if it\u2019s another deuce, you simply hold both deuces and discard the other three cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exact rules for these hands are found in the Dancer\/Daily NSU strategy card and Winner\u2019s Guide. <\/em>I\u2019m not planning on going over all of the rules today — but the chart at the bottom, courtesy of Jimmy Jazz, covers the subject well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend asked me how I practiced these hands using WinPoker.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I use the fixed card feature in the advanced hand section. I put the program in \u201cShow\u201d mode, so I\u2019m just hitting the enter button and it\u2019s either dealing me five new cards or telling me how to play the cards that were previously dealt. I key in, perhaps, 2\u2660 5\u2660 6\u2666 7\u2663 and let the computer randomly select the fifth card for me. While I\u2019m going to be dealt lots of 3-of-a-kinds and 5-card straights, I\u2019m going to get several where the fifth card is a T, J, Q, K, or A — and in this last set of cards, it won\u2019t take me long to notice that when the fifth card is a T or J, the computer holds the W<\/em><\/strong>567, and when the fifth card is an A, K, or Q, the computer just holds the deuce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I have these mastered, I change the 5\u2660 to perhaps an 8\u2665 and continue. This time I\u2019m practicing W<\/em><\/strong>678 hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend nodded and said his brain didn\u2019t work that way. In his mind, he saw 2\u2660 5\u2660 6\u2666 7\u2663 K\u2660 as unique in terms of the suits of all the cards and the position all the cards were in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was flabbergasted! Letting the deuce and the king be any suit, and the 5, 6, and 7 be different suits from one another (but possibly the same suit as the deuce and\/or the king), we have 384 different combinations of these five cards. And since there are 120 different ways for these five cards to be displayed in the five positions, this means 46,080 permutations for ways to display this \u201cone\u201d hand. If my friend had to learn each of these 46,080 hands separately (instead of just once), then video poker is a much more difficult game for him than it is for me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And further, I group W<\/em><\/strong>567 where the last card is an A, K, or Q as one thing to remember. Perhaps my friend has to remember all 138,240 permutations separately! I can\u2019t believe this is the case for him — because, after all, W<\/em><\/strong>567 hands are only one of many hands to master. Of the 2.6 million possible hands (2,598,960, actually), that number doesn\u2019t include the 120 different ways each of these hands can be displayed. Surely, he doesn\u2019t attempt the task of memorizing what to do on each of the 311,875,200 cases for every 52-card game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My advice to him was to learn to categorize. That combination is a 3-card royal, for example, and that one is a 4-card straight flush. In NSU, 3-card royals are all treated the same as each other — but that isn\u2019t the case for many other games. Similarly, a consecutive 4-card straight flush is played the same as a 4-card straight flush with one gap, but that\u2019s not always the case in other games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If all 4-card flushes are treated the same as each other in a particular game, that\u2019s the way I learn them. If a 4-card flush with one high card is played differently than a 4-card flush with two high cards in another game (such as 9-7 Double Bonus), that\u2019s the way I categorize them when I\u2019m playing that game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I only concentrate on penalty cards when they matter. In 9-6 Double Double Bonus, for example, KQJ<\/em><\/strong>K9 is played differently than KQJ<\/em><\/strong>KT, so when I\u2019m playing that game, I pay attention to straight penalties to KQJ<\/em><\/strong>, but not to KQT<\/em><\/strong>, where they don\u2019t matter strategically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For each game, I\u2019m trying to learn the fewest number of things I can that will let me play the game perfectly. If you want to know which categories I recommend, they are simply the ones used on the Dancer\/Daily strategy cards and Winner\u2019s Guides. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will this work for you? I\u2019m not sure. It depends on the way your brain works. I\u2019ve trained my brain to work efficiently at playing video poker well. Or perhaps I was born with a brain that allows me to play video poker well. Probably some sort of combination between the two. But whatever the type of brain you have going in, I\u2019m confident that it can be trained to work better at individual tasks. And if playing video poker well is a task at which you wish to do well, then I\u2019m pretty sure you can get better than you are now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know I can get better. Which is why, after being a player for more than 30 years, I still study before I make a major play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was discussing this article with Jimmy Jazz, and he showed me a chart he made when he was first studying 4-card straights with one deuce in this game. While the information in the chart is exactly the same as is found in the Dancer\/Daily strategy card and Winners Guide <\/em>for this game, the chart is prepared well. Possibly some of my readers will find Jimmy\u2019s presentation easier to understand. So, I asked for permission to show this chart to you, and Jimmy graciously consented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ST4 with one deuce in NSU<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of the six rows represent individual hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key:
Gray: unsuited cards dealt with one deuce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Light Blue: If this is fifth card, hold all five cards<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brownish\/Orange: If this is fifth card, hold ST4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellow: If this is fifth card, hold deuce by itself<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violet: If this card is suited with one of the cards in gray boxes, hold deuce by itself. If this card is unsuited with the cards in gray box, hold deuce by itself<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Gray – 3 cards dealt in addition to deuce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orange –  ST4 is this is 5th card<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellow – Deuce only if this is 5th card<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue – Hold straight if this is 5th card<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purple – if 5th card is unsuited w\/other 3 ST4, else deuce<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A friend and I were discussing 4-card straights with one deuce in NSU. The ones that are ever held are in the range of W567 \u2013 WTJQ. Each of the six possible ranges (i.e., W567, W678, W789, W89T, W9TJ, WTJQ) have different rules on which fifth cards require you to hold the deuce by itself, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[558,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":913269,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913267\/revisions\/913269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}