Video Poker Forum

I did a little testing of QQ DDB and found out what is needed for QQ half kickers. For the most part the answer is always keep a half kicker with 3oak. What's a little more surprising is you should keep a QQ 3oak (eg. TH TC 4C 8D 6S, keep everything but the 8D).
 
Let me know any specific examples and I will tell you what to keep and the average paybacks.

Excellent!
 
I'm curious in Double Double how things change when you are down in the 2's-4's plus kicker.
 
I would like to see:
2 4 4 4 J 
2 2 4 4 J
2 4 4 9 J 
2 2 2 4 4
 
You can hold the 2 as both a kicker and part of a quick quad.
 
 

Excellent!
 
I'm curious in Double Double how things change when you are down in the 2's-4's plus kicker.
 
I would like to see:
2 4 4 4 J 
2 2 4 4 J
2 4 4 9 J 
2 2 2 4 4
 
You can hold the 2 as both a kicker and part of a quick quad.  
 
Keep:
 
2 4 4 4
2 2 4 4
4 4
2 2 2 4 4
 
In addition, here's a tricky one ...
 
9 9 4 5 5 .... Keep .... 9 9 4 5
 

Here's some eye openers.
 
TD TS 4S 6S KS ... keep ... T T 4 6 ... instead of 4 for the flush.
5 5 4 3 2 ... keep ... 5 5 3 2 ... over 4 for a straight 
 
Also, never keep 4 low cards for an inside straight. Throw 'em all.

Are you able to do the average paybacks for those?

2 4 4 4 J ...  2 4 4 4 ... 39.57
                      4 4 4 ... 35.82
2 2 4 4 J  ... 2 2 4 4 ... 23.62
2 4 4 9 J  ... 4 4       ...  4.76
                   4 4 2    ...  4.37
2 2 2 4 4 ... 2 2 2 4 4 ... 45.0
                   2 2 2 4    ... 37.23
5 5 4 3 2 ... 5 5 3 2 ... 11.70
                   5 5       ...  4.17
 
Numbers to the right are the average return. I should mention that I only put about 30 minutes into building this program ... there might be some errors but so far everything looks right 

Here's another one that might surprise a few.
 
1 1 9 9 8 ... keep ... 1 9 9 8 ... 11.60
                                1 1       ... 10.15

Just ran into another subtle play:
 
3d 4d 7d 2h 1s ...  3 4 7 ... because it's also a pair of QQ sevens.
 
Qc Jc 9c Ts Th ... T T ... because tens are the most powerful pair with all the low cards that add up to ten. On regular DDB the ST4 would be the correct play

Very nice.  I was wondering how close that second hold was on 4,4 vs 4,4,2.  Pretty close I guess.
Another one I was wondering on...
Ah 2h 3h 3d 4d
Ah 2h 3h 3d 4h
Ah 2d 3c 3s 4h
 
Not sure if the suits matter much on this one, mostly wondering about the numbers but figured I'd throw in the suit changes to mix up the odds a bit.

You're right, it doesn't matter about the suits. It's always ...
1 2 3 3
 
Even beats 4 to a straight flush by 17.66 - 12.02