After putting a lot of work into this reply to Jim Wolf on FrugalVP, I thought that some of my friends on these other groups might like to see this; however, when I attempted to cross-post my reply to Jim, all of them somehow went to the same group -- FrugalVP -- so I'm trying this again.
I would be very interested in learning if there are other preferred approaches to arranging strategy cards; I've seen the ones which also give a numeric value of some sort to the different hands, but I don't see that as being useful since all we really need to know is which hands are higher or lower, relatively speaking.
I'd like some thoughts in general about this, please. Thanks. Anyway, please take a look at what I've been doing with my cards, below.
Jim Wolf wrote:
snip
>>>From the help file...
>>
>> When a Ranked Hand Will Not Occur
>>
>> This is an advanced topic on showing hands in the chart that would not
>> otherwise appear.
>>
>> With most strategy charts, a situation will occur where a strategy
>> combination will have a ranking, but will not actually occur with strategy
>> play. This is due to another strategy hand combination taking precedence
>> over this strategy combination, and is noted in the strategy statistics as
>> 'WNO', or 'Will Not Occur' .
Thanks, Jim. Now I understand perfectly. I've designed my own personal
strategy card which works a little bit differently and contains no
'rankings'. Instead, you just read down the card until you find the
line in which all criteria have been met; such lines are, by default,
the higher ranking hands, and there is no need to read any of the lower
lines. Accordingly, my card ranks the J-Ts higher than a single Hi-card
(which includes a lone Jack), but unless all of the criteria is met,
those lines are skipped and you then end up holding the lone-Jack and
discarding the Ten. It is actually much easier and more functional than
it sounds from the description I just gave, especially with indentations
and some color-coding that can't be shown here. Anyway, using that
technic permitted me to combine 6 different JOB pay-tables onto a single
pocket-sized card that I take to the casinos, with absolutely perfect
play -- not a single concession whatsoever for even a single penalty. I
have also made slightly simpler cards for the JOB's with a flush value
of 5 (7/5, 8/5 & 9/5), and another for flush=6 (7/6, 8/6 & 9/6).
Here are the last lines from my combined strategy card so you can see
what I mean.
29 JT-s when FL=6 ... AND no Flush-Pen ... AND no '9' except 7/6 no '7'
30 JT-s in JOB-7/5 or JOB-8/5 ... but only when no Penalties at all.
31 1 Hi-Card - including Jack split from ineligible JT-s
32 3-STFL 0-Hi 2-Gaps
You will note that lines 29 and 30 split the strategy according to flush
values of either 5 or 6, so when playing JOB-9/6, line 30 doesn't apply
at all. And because line 30 pertains only to JOB-7/5 and 8/5, neither
lines 29 nor 30 apply when playing JOB-9/5, so you would _never_ keep
the Jack-Ten in that game during short-coin play, even when there are no
penalties at all.
Here are some example hands and how the above-lines would be scrutinized
during various JOB games, SHORT-COIN:
Jh Th 9c 6d 5s -- the presence of a '9', without any other straight or
flush penalties, disqualifies the JT-s /line 29 for JOB-9/6 and -8/6;
incidentally, if the '9' was also a heart, then several different lines
which are higher on the chart and pertaining to 3-STFL hands would
apply. The result is not the same for JOB-7/6 because there is no '7'
for the required double-straight penalty, as specified in line 29, so
for JOB-7/6 you would keep the Jh-Th, even despite the '9' penalty.
Jh Th 9c 7d 6s -- same hand as above except there is now also a '7',
which is a second straight penalty with the '9'; the '7' is specified
here because there is no other card that could make a second straight
penalty and still make it down to the bottom of the strategy chart to
these lines. I.e., an A or K would make 2-Hi cards; a 'Q' or an '8'
would make a 4-Straight, and cards below a '7' are simply not a straight
penalty. This hand is to show you that with both a '9' and a '7', the
Ten is now also eliminated in JOB-7/6 -- i.e., in ALL flush=6 games.
Jh Th 8c 7d 6s -- even though both the '8' and the '7' are 'straight'
penalties when holding a J-T, they are NOT a 'flush' penalty, therefore
line 29 is NOT eliminated and you WOULD hold both the Jack and Ten
despite the double-_straight_ penalty. This is true for all three
pay-tables where the flush is worth 6 [7/6, 8/6, and 9/6]. On a short-
coin bet in 9/6, the difference in the Return for the two hands is less
than .0001 betting units, but I wanted to make my strategy 100% accurate
just for the challenge.
Jh Th 6h 5c 4s -- because the '6' is a heart, it is a _flush_-penalty;
line 29 is therefore eliminated for all FL=6 games, and line 30 is also
eliminated for all FL=5 games because this _flush_ penalty is "_a_"
penalty, and none whatsoever are permitted in line 30. You would then
proceed to line 31; the correct strategy, then, is to discard the Ten
and keep the lone Jack for this hand.
I know that bothering with such precision doesn't save me much money,
but it's nice when I'm playing WinPoker [haven't tried yours yet] and I
manage to play sessions with over a thousand hands and not even make a
single 'minor' error. When I do find an error, I check and it is always
the result of carelessness on my part -- not my strategy. I get a lot
of self-satisfaction from this.
Am cross-posting this to a couple of other groups in case anyone there
finds this useful.
Cheers.
Bill Velek