Discarding the Ace in Video Poker

How often do you hold the ace when playing online video poker? If you are like most people you hold the ace a lot. Did you know that holding the ace is not the best idea?

When you get dealt three high cards most people will hold the ace and discard the other two cards. What should be done though is to discard the ace and hold the other two. The return is better if you discard the ace and hold the other two cards. For example, let’s say you are dealt an ace, queen, jack, 6 and 4. Most people think that holding all three high cards is the way to go but it is not. You do get a slightly better chance to hit one pair holding AQJ than holding just QJ but you have no shot at a full house or four of a kind when holding the three high cards. And the only straight you can make is A through 10 while there are three possible straights if you keep QJ. The same scenario exists for hands where you have Ace, King and Queen and Ace, King and Jack hands.

Keep in mind if any of the above hands happen to be suited you would always hold all three cards to go for the Royal Flush.

The bottom line is that when you play online video poker at the online casino you should not be afraid to discard the ace.