Joker Poker K or B

[valden]

I was playing on another site and it was instructional. Was dealt a joker with 7h,8s,js,4h.  I just held the joker, but was instructed to hold the 8. As a matter of fact, everytime I got a joker with a crummy hand, I was never instructed to hold just the joker. Why not.

[shadowman]

One of the interesting aspects of joker games (and one-eyed jacks) is the best strategy often requires holding another card with the joker. Do you have any of the software tutor programs? Most of them allow one to analyze a single hand. When you do that it breaks down each possible hold and shows you the possible winning combinations. From this you can see exactly why any particular hold is better or worse than another.
 

[valden]

So what you are saying is all 52 cards in the deck has a different percentage return? How can you memorize all of them. 

[shadowman]

You don't need to memorize them all. It turns out a fairly easy concept. I haven't played in quite awhile but this is what I remember.
 
1) Hold an ace or king
2) Hold 6,7 or 8
3) hold 10
4) hold 5 or 9
 
Naturally, there are some additional complications based on the other dealt cards. You wouldn't want it easy ...

[New2vp]

The reason that you are instructed to hold a card from your hand rather than drawing four new ones is that you have a better chance at making straights with some cards and you certainly have a better chance at matching a card in your hand.  Consider the 4th card from the top of the deck, which you will get if you toss all 4 non-joker cards and you will not get if you keep a non-joker card from your hand.  If it is not a 7, 8, J, or 4, you will have the same chance at matching that unseen card as you would any card from your hand because there are 3 other cards of the same rank in the deck.  But if that 4th card is one of the other 7s, 8s, Js, or 4s, then you will have a poorer chance at matching them since that is what you threw away.  There are only 2 matching cards left in the deck for that card.  Of course, you don't know whether the 4th card will be a "fresh" rank or not, but there is at least a chance that it will be a "rank" (used) rank.  After establishing that it is often best to keep a known card, you then get to select the best card from your hand that will make points from straights, flushes, straight flushes, and royal flushes.
It depends on the pay schedule, but you might keep only the joker if your four cards are from the group {Q, J, 4, 3, 2} because these cards are so bad at making straights.  While sometimes keeping the J or 4 is the best hold (very marginally), keeping the Joker is often the better play.  Of course, this just doesn't occur that much.
 
I think it is best just to follow a set strategy like what Shadowman suggested because even though software flags these plays as errors, the expected value from all these hands are really close and you are not likely to lose much expectation, regardless of which card you select.
 
The reason that you often throw away all the cards in non-wild games is that you often have a reasonable chance that the next 5 cards will contain a paying pair of jacks, queens, kings, or aces, given that the 5 cards you are throwing away contain none of those.  And that is often your best chance at making a scoring hand in such games.

[valden]

thanks everyone. I am off to A/C for my 60th birthday. I will use the strategy above....Valerie

[scorpio2]

happy b day val.!

[BOOPSAHOY]

val make sure you check that its K or better. Most machines in AC are "AC JW" which means you need 2 pair and the top hand is 5 of a kind. Good luck and happy bday!

[faygo]

Happy Birthday Val. geez you are just a kid.

[marie meijer]

Have fun, win big, HAPPY 'DAY!