A-K-Q-J Unsuited: Hold Four or Three in Jacks or Better?
Dealt: A♣ K♦ Q♥ J♠ 4♣
Best play: Hold A♣ K♦ Q♥ J♠.
Hold all four. Any ten makes a Broadway straight, and every card held can pair for a paying hand. That beats dropping the ace to keep K-Q-J.
Every hold that matters, exactly
Expected return per coin bet on 9/6 Jacks or Better, averaged over every possible draw. A return of 1.000 gets your bet back on average.
| Hold | Return | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| A♣ K♦ Q♥ J♠ | 0.5957 | best |
| K♦ Q♥ J♠ | 0.4977 | 0.0981 |
| Q♥ J♠ | 0.4857 | 0.1101 |
| K♦ Q♥ | 0.4699 | 0.1259 |
| K♦ J♠ | 0.4699 | 0.1259 |
| A♣ K♦ | 0.4580 | 0.1377 |
Getting this hand wrong costs 0.0981 coins per coin bet, or 9.8% of your wager on this hand. Over thousands of hands, mistakes like this are what separate a 99.5% game from a 97% one.
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More hands: Every Jacks or Better hold decision · Video poker strategy · The 9/6 paytable
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