How to Read a Strategy Table
By Elliot Frome

The key to expert strategy is learning how to use a strategy table. A strategy table lists the playable hands and the expected values for each hand. It is not important to learn the specific values but rather the order of the hands. This article is Part 1 of a 3 Part series that will walk you through the strategy table for full-pay jacks or better video poker.

This week, I'm going to review the first 14 items on the strategy table, which are all net winners for the Player. That means that the EV is greater than 1.0, or that in the long run, we can expect to win back more than we put in to the machine. Since we're starting at the top, many of the hands will be pat hands in which no draw is necessary and/or hands that have very obvious solutions as to how to play. For those of you who are newer to the game, you may still find a few surprises in store, even at the top of the table.

The top eight entries in our table should be no surprise at all. The majority of these hands can be found on the paytable, and only 1 is not a sure winner. They are as follows:

Hand	Expected Value
Royal Flush	800.00
Straight Flush	50.00
Four of a Kind	25.00
4-Card Royal	18.66
Full House	9.00
Flush	6.00
Three of a Kind	4.30
Straight	4.00

The only hand out of these eight that is not a sure winner is the 4-Card Royal. Nonetheless, the ability for the 4-Card Royal to turn into a Straight, a Flush, a Straight Flush or, of course, the elusive Royal makes this hand a potentially very profitable one. One thing that can be learned from this portion of the strategy table is that we DO discard Straights or Flushes when we have a 4-Card Royal, but we do NOT discard a Straight Flush to go for the Royal Flush.

The other interesting point to note within these first eight entries is that the Three of a Kind outranks the Straight even though Trips pay less than the Straight. The ability for the Trips to turn into Full Houses and Quads, increases its value beyond the paytable value of the Trips and even beyond the paytable value of the Straight. With the exception of the 4-Card Royal, none of the other hands on this part of our table overlap. Thus, deciding what is the proper play should be relatively easy.

The next six entries consist more of partial hands and sure winners that do not use all five cards, which is what makes video poker so interesting. The next entries are as follows:

Hand	Expected Value
4-Card Straight Flush	3.55
Two Pair	2.60
4-Card Inside Straight Flush	2.39
High Pair	1.54
3-Card Royal	1.41
4-Card Flush	1.22

There is much to learn from this part of the strategy table. Whereas, we discard a Straight or a Flush in favor of a 4-Card Royal, the same cannot be said if we are only going for a Straight Flush. The difference in payback between the two (800 vs. 50) is more than enough to convince us to keep the Straight or the Flush if dealt to us. Also, we begin to introduce the idea that there is a vast difference in EV between straights that are 'outside' or 'open ended' and those that are 'inside'. An inside Straight (or Straight Flush) has a gap on the inside and can only be completed with that specific card. An outside Straight has no gaps and thus can be completed TWO ways (one at either end). This makes the outside Straight much more valuable. It should also be noted that an A-2-3-4 or a J-Q-K-A Straight is to be considered an Inside Straight because it can only be completed one way. In the case of 4-Card Straight Flushes, whether it is inside or open ended does not change our strategy.

The next hand is a High Pair, which is also the most frequently dealt winning hand (pre-draw), accounting for roughly half of the guaranteed winning hands (pre-draw). From our strategy table, we learn that we will discard the High Pair in favor of any 4-Card Straight Flush (including, of course, a 4-Card Royal). We will NOT discard a High Pair for a 4-Card Flush (or a 4-Card Straight which hasn't yet been shown) or even a 3-Card Royal Flush.

The next hand is the often forgotten 3-Card Royal. In most versions of Video Poker, we don't play 3-card Straights or 3-Card Flushes. 3-Card Straight Flushes, however, are probably the most misplayed hand in all of Video Poker. 3-Card Royals with the extra benefit of having a chance of turning into a Royal Flush are more valuable than many other hands, and are in fact, winners in the long run. As the table shows, we will discard a 4-Card Flush in favor of a 3-Card Royal.

The last hand is the 4-Card Flush, which is the lowest ranking hand that is still a long-term winner. These hands occur 3-4% of the time, and catching the Flush is an important part of a winning session. As we have not listed the Low Pair on the table yet, we learn that we discard Low Pairs in favor of the 4-Card Flush.

Next week, we'll review the next portion of the table, which are the long-term losing hands.