3-Card Straight Flushes and Deuces Wild

            

            I love getting together with friends.  Invariably, I get asked questions about casino games that becomes fodder for a column.  This past week, I got several possible topics based on some questions I was peppered with.  One dealt with 3-Card Straight Flushes.  Another dealt with which High Cards to hold and when.  Lastly, I was 'informed' that Deuces Wild is a bad game to play because of poor payback.  Admittedly, these came from friends who will openly state that they are not expert Players.  One of these friends also asked me what benefit there was to the casino to offer games with a Player advantage.  The simple answer to this is that so few people play these games correctly, that they're willing to allow 1% or 0.1% or maybe 0.01% of the people to make a few dollars at the expense of the other 99+%.  The rest of the questions I was asked only proves the point.  If you don't know when to hold a 3-Card Straight Flush or which High Cards to hold, the odds are (no pun intended) is that you're not going to play the 100+% game at 100+%.

            So, I'll use this week's column to answer their questions and hopefully educate some of you on how to move a few steps closer to Expert Strategy.  The first question dealt with 3-Card Straight Flushes.  Normally, Straight Flushes are the black sheep of hands.   They should occur every 9000+ hands, but because so many people ignore the 3-Card Straight Flushes, they tend to be even more rare.  The person who asked the question actually spoke of how often he hit them, which was surprising.  But, not after he told me that he tends to throw Low Pairs in favor of 3-Card Straight Flushes.   This is not such a good idea.

            While 3-Card Straight Flushes tend to be forgotten, you don't want to over value them either.  A Low Pair outranks EVERY 3-Card Straight Flush (NOT 3-Card Royals, however).  When you consider that in jacks or better, every 3-Card Straight Flush, even Inside and Double Inside ones are playable, this can lead to a lot of mistakes if you throw away the Low Pair.  When you consider that a large percentage of 3-Card Straight Flushes are also Low Pairs, this error will prove to be very costly to your bankroll.  I don't have the space here to list out all the strategy for 3-Card Straight Flush, but for now, let's go with, they are below a Low Pair and every one of them is playable.  You also play 4-Card Straights (not Inside) over the comparable 3-Card Straight Flush.  The critical part is that you play even the most awful looking 3-Card Straight Flush over a single High Card, except for the Double Inside with 0 High Cards, which only outranks the Razgu.

            Next up in the question bin was how to play High Cards.  Generally speaking, the goal is to keep the suited High Cards.  So, if dealt 3 High Cards and 2 are the same suit, those are the two we play.  If all 3 cards are of a different suit, but one is an Ace, we play the 2 High Cards that are not an Ace.  If it is J-Q-K all of different suits, we hold all 3 cards.   If you have 2 unsuited High Cards and one is an Ace, then you keep both.   That describes which ones to keep.  As for when to keep them, see the earlier part of this article and you learn that we frequently keep a 3-Card Straight Flush made up of 3 Low Cards over a High Card,  So, if dealt 3-4-5 suited and JQ (off suit), we hold the 3-4-5. 

            That brings us to the last question regarding Deuces Wild.  Should it be avoided due to low payback.  I'm not sure where my friend got this notion.  Perhaps he some bad experiences playing it.  If he tried to use his jacks or better strategy on a Deuces Wild game, things would not be pretty.  In reality, Deuces Wild can offer some of the highest paybacks in the casino.  However, like all version of video poker, you have to check the paytable.  Sometimes, different variations of video poker are given different unique names and sometimes, they just scramble the paytable a bit and still call it Deuces Wild.  So, pay attention to the paytable and make sure you are using the right strategy for that paytable.

            While I do my best to give tips out in my column, the only way you're really going to become an expert Player is by learning the complete strategy for the games.  I continue to offer our 3 best selling video poker books for $5 each (includes shipping and handling) to my loyal Gaming Today readers.  You can choose from Expert Video Poker for Las Vegas, which explains everything about the game from start to finish, Winning Strategies for Video Poker, which contains the strategy tables for 60+ video poker variations or Video Poker: America's National Game of Chance, which contains over 200 pages of my father's best columns, stories and quizzes.  If you like to learn from anecdotal stories, this is the book for you.  Just send a check or money order to Gambatria, P.O. Box 36474, Las Vegas, NV 89134.

House Money Breaks the Mold

            As most of you know, I wear two hats in the gaming analysis world.  There are some that might see my two roles as being opposed to each other.  Quite frankly, at first, so did I.  Over the years, however, I realize that they are more complementary than anything else.  On one hand, I analyze games already created and write about them, with the goal being to educate the Player to become the best possible Player he can be.  On the other, I help invent games.  Some may think I do this using my knowledge of how Players act to create games designed to trip them up.  This simply is not the case.  Even when working with inventors, I do my best to steer the game in a direction that offers the highest paybacks possible.

            Let me be clear.  Games are created with a house edge.  If you consider that to be 'rigged', then there isn't much more to discuss.  No casino is going to purposefully put a game on the floor that has a Player edge.  The one and only exception, to the best of my knowledge, is video poker, where there still remains some full-pay machines that pay over 100%.  However, as most of these are at too low of a denomination to really do harm to the casino, they are content to let the very few profit at the expense of the overwhelming majority. 

            In the last several years, I have the pleasure of helping to develop Mississippi Stud and Ultimate Texas Hold'em.  These two games boast paybacks in the mid to high 98% range and up.  Part of the reason they are able to do this is because they require intricate strategy in order to achieve these theoretical paybacks.  This is also one of the reasons why video poker can offer such high paybacks.  To achieve these paybacks require that a Player play using a robust strategy that most Players do not bother to learn.  Slot machines in contrast offer absolutely no strategy.  As a result, the casinos cannot rely on human error for any part of their profits and they must offer lower paybacks.

            The same is true of sidebets for table games.  For the most part, it has pained me when I see the paybacks on sidebets.  It is not uncommon for them to be the mid 80% to low 90% range.  Some, go even lower into the high 70's.  Some sidebets, especially Progressives, offer huge payouts for the Player and so Players are willing to trade this low payback for the remote chance of the life-changing payout.  Like slot machines, casinos must offer these lower paybacks because the sidebets offer no strategy and they cannot rely on any human error to drive profits.  The problem with attempting to offer sidebets with strategy is that the strategy almost assuredly works against the basic strategy of the underlying game.  This is a 'no-no' because the combined payback will now be lower than the two separate paybacks AND it can require the Player to learn some new hybrid strategy that may be more trouble than it is worth.

            Less than a year ago, one sidebet broke this model completely.  I've written about it before, and I have to admit that it is the only sidebet that actually gets me excited.  On the one hand, it is definitely a sidebet.  On the other, it is almost an entirely new game within a game.  Yet, if a Player chooses not to play it, it does not impact the base game.  Quite frankly, even if he does choose to play it, it doesn't affect the base game.  But, it does require learning a strategy for the sidebet.  The game is called House Money , and it is a sidebet to blackjack.

            The game is really quite simple.  If you make the House Money sidebet, you will get paid if the first two cards you are dealt for blackjack are a Suited AK, a 2-Card Straight Flush, a Pair or a Straight.  This works out to be about 21.5% of the time.  The most common payouts are 9,4,3,1 respectively (although there are multiple paytables).   Now, the fun begins.  After you are paid for your sidebet, you have the option to take all of your winnings from your sidebet (which includes the original sidebet wager) and you can add it to your base blackjack wager.  This is AFTER you have seen your two cards and AFTER you have seen the Dealer's upcard.   So, if you're dealt a 10-J suited, you will win 4 to 1 for your sidebet.  Assuming you wagered $5, you will now have the right to take the entire $25 (the $20 you won plus the $5 sidebet wager) and add it to your base blackjack wager. 

            In the case of the 10-J you would ALWAYS want to do this.  The Dealer will check for blackjack prior to you making this additional wager, so you are not risking your winnings if the Dealer has blackjack.  Imagine have a $5 wager on the base game and $5 on the sidebet when dealt this hand.  Dealer turns a 7 up and then flips over a 10.  Your $5 sidebet becomes $25, which turns your base wager into a $30 wager.   When you win this, you just won $50 for being dealt a suited 10-J and winning the blackjack hand.

            One strange fact about House Money is that the payback of the sidebet actually goes UP with more decks.  This is because some of the winning hand are more frequent with more decks.  With 6 or 8 decks, House Money pays 97+% and it makes absolutely NO IMPACT to the base game of blackjack.   That said, it is imperative that you choose to let your winnings ride (i.e. cap your wager) at the right times AND that you play proper blackjack strategy.  If you are dealt a 5-6 against a 7 and choose not to cap your wager OR cap your wager but then 'chicken out' and not Double Down (which requires doubling the ENTIRE wager), then you will not achieve the 97+% payback.

            Below is a matrix that shows the proper strategy for House Money for 6 and 8 deck shoes when the Dealer hits a soft 17.  There are some minor modifications if you are playing with less shoes or if the Dealer sticks on all 17s.  As for basic blackjack strategy, you can find that almost anywhere on the internet or in a book on blackjack.

Hand	Dealer Upcard
	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	A
A-2	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N
2-3	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N
3-4	N	N	N	N	Y	N	N	N	N	N
4-5	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N
5-6	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
6-7	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
7-8	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
8-9	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
9-10	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
10-J/J-Q/Q-K	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
K-A	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
2-2	N	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	N
3-3	N	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N
4-4	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	N
5-5	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
6-6	N	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N
7-7	N	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N
8-8	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	N
9-9	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N
10-10/JJ/QQ/KK	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
A-A	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y

Y - Cap the wager                   N - Take the winnings

            House Money can now be found in Las Vegas at the following casinos - The Cannery, Fiesta Las Vegas, Green Valley Ranch, Jerry's Nugget, Monte Carlo, Palace Station, The Palazzo, Santa Fe Las Vegas, Sunset Station, Texas Station and The Venetian.