jimnkelli wrote:
I should clarify. by 'low pair' I was referring to 'low value pair'
250/280 not 2,3,or 4. I just went back to WP and it definitely
prefers a single Ace or Jack over a pair of 7s. I was just playing
with WP a little bit more and it seems that with a single Q and a
pair of 7s, it matters whether or not you have Flush penalties, with
none the Q is better, but with 2 the 7s are better. I ran the VPSM
charts as Basic, so this may be the heart of the matter since the
values of the single high card and the 55-TT pairs are very close.
Jim, you've essentially answered your own question. On the first
level of 9/7 DB MultiStrike, the optimal (or "perfect play") decision
between holding a lone high card vs. a low pair is one that is
dependent upon penalties. But it turns out that while flush penalties
can influence the decision, straight penalties are far more important.
As you note, the basic VPSM strategy isn't of much use in this case.
But even the advanced strategy fails to address to yield the "perfect
play" choice. This isn't because of any true shortcoming in VPSM but
simply because the interplay of straight and flush penalties is far
more complex than would be advisable to detail in a strategy.
Frankly, this is a case where Winpoker rather poorly serves someone
trying to learn MultiStrike strategy. Keep in mind that with 3 levels
(plus the standard-play 4th level) to master, it's beneficial to keep
strategy as straightforward as possible. Taking into account low
consequence penalties in your practice will only frustrate your goal
of getting a handle on key basic strategy holds.
Unfortunately, Winpoker will call your attention to every minor
penalty consideration unless you tweak the error setting to adjust the
cost point at which errors are flagged. However, inevitably in
attempting to fine tune this setting it's very likely that the
software will now fail to flag basic (non-penalty related) strategy
errors.
I definitely favor Frugal Video Poker (FVP) for MultiStrike practice.
It'll keep you focussed on basic, non-penalty related, strategy
errors. Plus, the software much more readily accomodates storage of
adjusted MultiStrike paytables for multiple levels of multiple games.
- Harry