Video Poker 9/6 DDB VP Strategy

On my last trip to Vegas (downtown) I played 80% DDB at the $ level for about 3 and half days. I came home a winner with an extra $800. I have been using the VP Pocket app, on my Android tablet as my training aid. According to the app, I am playing with 98-100% accuracy.

Is this app providing sound and accurate strategy? Is $800 profit a respectable outcome for 3+ days of "work"?

Also, there are a couple of hands that come up I have difficulty with. One of them is 4 high cards (i.e Tc Qh Kh Ad 3h) sometimes the app says you should hold all the high cards and go for the straight, other times it will just have you hold the suited pair. What is the rule? I can't seem to figure out why one hand is played differently from the other. Does it really matter or am I just spitting hairs.

If VP Pocket is not the best trainer, what app should a buy? I have a copy of Wolf Video Poker, but there are a lot of settings in that program that I do not understand.

 

I'm sure Tring, or someone else much smarter than I am, will give you better advice. But I'll take a stab at a few points in the meantime.

Is $800 profit respectable? I don't know. But you "should" have lost roughly 1% of everything you bet on 9/6 DDB, assuming perfect strategy. Of course variance comes into play, which is why sometimes you come out ahead and some times you get your ass handed to you. But in the long run, 9/6 DDB returns a shade under 99%. You experienced positive variance/good luck.

As far as the "4 high cards" question - I think it's one of those where the best play and the next best play are so close in expected value that the card(s) you throw away can actually determine the proper play. In the example you gave, you would have been throwing away a heart, reducing the chance of you hitting a flush. So you would keep all four. If there was no other suited card, you would usually keep the suited bigs as your chances of hitting a flush would be higher.

 

The general rule for this scenario in DDB is hold four to an inside straight with two or three high cards with a ten UNLESS you have two high cards to a royal flush. If you have AKQJ (all four high cards), then hold that over any two to a royal.

If you're playing JoB/Bonus then you never hold an inside straight draw with just 2 high cards, hold the two high cards always instead.

As far as general accuracy, 98%+ if all dealt hands isn't bad, but I would measure based on accuracy based on return, which weights accuracy based on the severity of each error. With this basis, 99.5% or better of perfect return is the minimum accuracy I'd suggest.

and $800 profit is more than respectable at three days of dollars. I'd say it's pretty fortunate.

 

Indeed. But any hand analyzer will tell you to hold all four in the OP's hypothetical.

 

Argh. Four beers in my system, now going on a fifth...forgive me. Thanks for catching that, thecarve.

Apparently, in 9/6 and 9/5 DDB this is a "penalty situation" that I wasn't aware of. It also apparently exists in my TAG Lounge bartop game of choice, Triple Bonus Plus. Dammit. This doesn't exist in 9/6 JoB/Boner Deluxe or 8/5 Bonus. But it also exists in 8/5 Boner Deluxe. In particular, a "flush penalty", a card one discards that reduces the chance of a flush/straight flush being made.

high card = Ace, King, Queen, Jack

Generally in DDB, if two suited high cards exist in AKQT or AKJT you hold the two suited high cards UNLESS the fifth card of the hand (which you would always discard) matches the suit of the two suited cards (aka a "flush penalty"). If the "flush penalty" exists, then hold AKQT/AKJT instead of the 2 suited high cards.

 

It always pays to catch such threads at 8:20!

 

8:20 Atlantic time with what I'm drinking, *coughs*.


Should have started with "Jordan".

Hi GChrome! [emoji6]

 

Thanks to all for the info!