Mickey wrote:
I recently got the Bob Dancer VP disc installed and I have been
practicing. I want to make sure I understand the logic and math
behind this scenario. I was dealt the King and Queen of Clubs, a 3
of diamonds and a 5 and 4 of spades. The "cheat sheet" I have been
using indicates to hold the K and Q, but his book and the CD
indicate taking 5 new cards since the potential for a paying hand is
improved due to the 3-4-5- all being low. Am I interpretting all
this correctly?
Mickey,
I want to take advantage of your post (concerning a FP deuces hold) to
note a distinct pitfall to the Dancer software/books when it comes to
the relatively new player.
Don't get me wrong -- these resources are top notch, but of best value
to the fairly experienced player who has their basic game down solid.
For the more novice player, these materials have the potential to
lead a player to (twisting at a common saying) lead a player to focus
on pruning a single tree while half the forest is blazing away.
ยทยทยท
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Take your example above. As Howard explained in his post, the optimal
play in this case is a 5 card toss. Actually, most basic (simple)
FPDW strategies advise never holding suited KQ in any case. But
Dancer's materials will advise holding the KQ under some alternate
circumstances.
Make the 3d (3 of diamonds) in your example an 8d and Winpoker will
now advise holding the KQ. Make the 8d a 9d and we're back to tossing
all 5 card (as we also are if the 8d is instead an 8c). These very
subtle changes in strategy will leave most new players chasing their
tail trying to understand what's going on and when to hold the KQ or not.
The disturbing thing is that when the KQ is the favored hold, it's
only favored by about .015 coins. Playing quarters? ... that about a
$.004 difference. You'll understand if I suggest that most players
have much bigger fish to fry in nailing DW strategy. My advice:
Never hold a suited KQ!
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As I've said, the Dancer materials are the best to be found ... but of
key benefit to players who have a very good grasp of a game and want
to really refine their play.
For the introductory to intermediate player, the ideal tools are a
basic strategy that still realizes 99.95%+ of a game's optimal ER and
software that treats errors fully consistent with that strategy (in
other words, for example, always discards suited KQ in FP deuces).
The software tool that fulfills this ideal to the max is Frugal Video
Poker (FVP). In addition to practice software, akin to winpoker, it
provides basic strategy for many games that can be printed in a very
easy-to-reference format.
Unleashing my wife on FVP was refreshing. For the first time I wasn't
saying to my wife when she encountered a hold such as the discussed
suited KQ, "Oh, that's one you can ignore" ... or being drawn into a
discussion of the reason the flagged hold was different that the
strategy from which she was playing.
If you want to check out FVP, hit the following link to explore the
Frugal Gambler website, where you can purchase it.
http://frugalgambler.biz/
- Harry