SmartHold
9 / 7 / 5
ACES MOVE UP
Double Bonus
Strategy guide
The large quad awards pull Aces, 2s, 3s, and 4s upward. Two Pair pays only even money, while the 7-for-1 flush and 5-for-1 straight make draw conflicts unusually important.
Built for 9/7/5 Double Bonus; full-pay 10/7 strategy is different.
REMEMBER THESE
The three rules that move the game
01
Treat Aces as their own rank
Trip Aces rise above a full house, and a pair of Aces rises above ordinary Two Pair in the learning hierarchy.
02
Low pairs are not equal
Pairs of 2s–4s carry more quad upside than pairs of 5s–10s, so rank matters even before the hand is made.
03
The 5-for-1 straight rewrites the middle
An unsuited outside straight with no high cards returns 0.85 per coin. It can beat even a low bonus pair: 3
3
4
5
6
keeps 3-4-5-6 over the pair, worth 0.82. This reverses the usual low-pair preference in 9/6 Jacks or Better.
DECISION LADDER
Start at the top; compare overlapping choices.
CORE ORDER
“Pat” means keep all five. “Four to” or “three to” counts the held cards, including any wild cards. An outside straight such as 5-6-7-8 can finish at either end; an inside straight such as 5-6-8-9 needs one rank. A-2-3-4 and J-Q-K-A also have only one completing rank. Discarded cards stay out of the draw and can weaken a competing hold.
01
Royal, straight flush, or four of a kind
Keep the premium made hand.
02
Four to a royal flush
The royal draw comes before every non-premium made hand.
03
Three Aces
Draw two; the 160-for-1 quad award drives the value.
04
Full house, flush, or straight
Keep these made hands pat.
05
Trips, 2s through Kings
Draw two for full house or enhanced quads.
06
Four to a straight flush
Keep the connected suited draw.
07
Pair of Aces
It outranks ordinary Two Pair on this schedule.
08
Two Pair and strong four-flushes
A four-flush can beat both a paying pair and the three-card royal inside it. With A
K
Q
5
3
, keep four hearts at 1.53 per coin versus 1.41 for A-K-Q.
09
Three to a royal and paying pairs
Q-J-10 can beat its own four-flush, while weaker three-card royals can lose to a paying pair. Check the ranks and discarded cards.
10
Four-card outside straight
At 5-for-1 an unsuited outside straight outranks a competing low pair, unlike the usual 9/6 Jacks play.
11
Low pairs
Pairs of 2s–4s have more quad upside than pairs of 5s–10s. Check for a competing suited draw first.
12
High-card fragments or draw five
Use the solver for the close suited and inside-straight cases.
Why this isn’t an exception chart
Suits, gaps, discarded cards, and custom payouts can move close hands. This is a compact learning guide, not a complete first-match chart. For wild games, use only the branch for the wild cards actually dealt. SmartHold Practice compares all 32 holds for the exact deal. EV means average total return, including the stake, per coin wagered; it is not profit or the chance of winning. The examples use the schedule named above.
WORKED EXAMPLES
The deals that split from 9/6 Jacks or Better
7
HOLD
8
HOLD
9
HOLD
10
HOLD
7
DRAW
Break the pair for the straight draw
Jacks or Better keeps the pair of 7s without a second thought. Here the 5-for-1 straight makes the open-ended draw worth 0.85 per coin against 0.73 for the pair. The straight payout reverses the usual Jacks or Better pair preference.
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
6
DRAW
6
DRAW
4
DRAW
Keep the Aces, throw the second pair
Two Pair returns only the bet, and Four Aces pays 160. Splitting Aces-up down to the pair of Aces is 1.75 per coin against 1.68 — the opposite of the Jacks or Better rule, where keeping both pairs wins by a full credit.
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
A
HOLD
K
DRAW
K
DRAW
Break a full house built on Aces
Nine credits are already sitting on the felt, and you throw the Kings anyway: three Aces drawing two is 10.05 per coin against the 9.00 you would keep. Only Aces do this — trips of any other rank keep the full house.
COMMON TRAPS
Mistakes worth recognizing on sight
Treating every pair alike
Aces, 2s–4s, 5s–10s, and Jacks–Kings occupy different parts of this strategy.
Assuming Two Pair pays like Jacks
It returns only the bet here; that changes pair-versus-Two-Pair conflicts.
Using 10/7 Double Bonus memory
This is the 9/7/5 schedule. Small pay-table changes move close hands.
TURN THE LADDER INTO INSTINCT
Practice Double Bonus
Every miss comes back through Review until the correct hold is automatic.