every strategy i have seen says hold only the ace unless it is suited with another pay card example 3c 5h 7d Jh Ac from what i have seen hold only the ace, but past experence it seems the pay card i discard ends up showing again in another suit on the draw where i would then have a pair of jacks or queens or kings, does anyone know the reasoning for this play
The dramatically increased payout on 4A's or 4A's w/ kicker makes up for all the pairs of Js, Qs, and Ks that you sacrifice.
So if you consitently play the single Ace and you get 4A's with kicker once in less than 400 tries, you are ahead of where you would be by pairing the J, Q, or K on every try. Its different if they are suited because then you are in royal territory.
Two ways to play Long term, short term. Many advocate you should "Play to the Royal" even though is doesn't follow the correct basic strategy to the tenth of one percent. I keep the ace, and in doing so I've hit the 4 aces and a kicker several times, where otherwise I might have held 4 to an outside straight, or even a small pair. Once I held three to a straight flush by throwing away a king of two and hit it. Now I don't advocate this behavior unless you are as cavalier or as drunk as I am, but if your playing to the short term such as a tourist might do rather than a long term local investing countless hours playing full pay only VP at your favorite locals joint then I say " Wouldn't it be better to take a chance on getting the Royal Flush just once in your life rather than being crushed by the variance over and over again?" It's your money. .
As others have said, it's because you get a gigantic payout when you hit 4 Aces. Last trip to the casino, I watched a lady get AAA3 to go with her sole Ace she held at Triple Double Bonus for 4000 credits. Also remember that you only get paid a push in DDB when you make 2 pair, unlike JoB or Bonus Poker. Overall holding the Ace is only marginally the best play in DDB, on an 8/5 machine, holding AJ offsuit vs. an Ace here costs you 2 cents on a quarter machine on average every time you do it. But if you really want to hold AJ over an Ace, you really should bother to play JoB or Bonus Poker, in my opinion. A much more common error in DDB that I see is when people break 2 pair that contain either Kings, Queens, or Jacks. You should always go for the full house here, especially on better paytables that pay more for full houses.
Keep those aces ! The correct strategy here is to keep the three aces and discard the kicker, given that there is only one ace but twelve 2,3,or 4's. Hold two aces of two pair even if high cards. Just hold that ace. Don't overlook the small card straight flush, watch out for 2,3,4,suited or the like. How many times have I had 4 to the royal and not hit it? lost count at a thousand.....