American Casino Guide simple strategy table
Thirty-six lines from a different school: straight flush draws split by one gap or two rather than by type, and four-card straights split by how many high cards they hold. Played through every one of the 2,598,960 possible deals on a full-pay 9/6 machine, this chart returns exactly 99.5376% against 99.5439% for perfect play — a gap of 0.0063 percentage points, or $0.05 an hour at quarters and $0.19 an hour at dollars.
Source
Simple Strategy Table For 9/6 Jacks or Better, Steve Bourie, Casino Vacations Press (American Casino Guide). Transcribed 2026-09-19.
- The chart quotes no return of its own; the companion article quotes 99.54% for perfect play on the same machine.
- '4 card Straight' rows are the open-ended ones: the chart lists inside straights separately, at rows 25 and 30.
The chart
Read it top down and hold the first line your hand matches. A high card means a jack, queen, king or ace.
| # | Hold |
|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Flush |
| 2 | Straight Flush |
| 3 | 4 of a kind |
| 4 | 4 card Royal Flush |
| 5 | Full House |
| 6 | Flush |
| 7 | 3 of a kind |
| 8 | Straight |
| 9 | 4 card Straight Flush |
| 10 | Two Pairs |
| 11 | 4 card inside Straight Flush |
| 12 | High Pair (Jacks or higher) |
| 13 | 3 card Royal Flush |
| 14 | 4 card Flush |
| 15 | 4 card Straight with 3 high cards |
| 16 | Low Pair (2's through 10's) |
| 17 | 4 card Straight with 2 high cards |
| 18 | 4 card Straight with 1 high card |
| 19 | 3 card Inside Straight Flush with 2 high cards |
| 20 | 3 card Straight Flush with 1 high card |
| 21 | 4 card Straight with no high cards |
| 22 | 3 card Double Inside Straight Flush with 2 high cards |
| 23 | 3 card Inside Straight Flush with 1 high card |
| 24 | 3 card Straight Flush with no high cards |
| 25 | 4 card Inside Straight with 4 high cards |
| 26 | 2 card Royal Flush with no Ace or 10 |
| 27 | 2 card Royal Flush with Ace and no 10 |
| 28 | 3 card Double Inside Straight Flush with 1 high card |
| 29 | 3 card Inside Straight Flush with no high card |
| 30 | 4 card Inside Straight with 3 high cards |
| 31 | 3 high cards with no Ace |
| 32 | 2 high cards |
| 33 | 2 card Royal Flush with 10 and no Ace |
| 34 | 1 high card |
| 35 | 3 card Double Inside Straight Flush with no high card |
| 36 | All New Cards |
Where it differs from perfect play
13,308 deals are played differently from the exact solution — 0.51% of hands, in 8 kinds. They are listed costliest first, with the share of the whole 0.0063-point gap each one carries and the running total. The example is the single worst hand in that class.
| Chart holds | Perfect play holds | Row that fires | Deals | Cost | Share | Running |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 unsuited high cards | 2 to a royal flush | 2 high cards | 9,972 | 0.00541 pp | 86.0% | 86.0% |
| 3 to a straight flush | 2 suited high cards | 3 card Straight Flush with no high cards | 72 | 0.00020 pp | 3.2% | 89.2% |
| 3 to a straight flush | 2 suited high cards | 3 card Inside Straight Flush with 1 high card | 72 | 0.00018 pp | 2.8% | 92.0% |
| 3 to a royal flush | 4 to a flush | 3 card Royal Flush | 864 | 0.00017 pp | 2.8% | 94.8% |
| 4 to an inside straight | 2 suited high cards | 4 card Inside Straight with 4 high cards | 756 | 0.00012 pp | 1.9% | 96.7% |
| 3 to a straight flush | 2 suited high cards | 3 card Straight Flush with 1 high card | 36 | 0.00009 pp | 1.4% | 98.1% |
| 2 to a royal flush | 1 high card | 2 card Royal Flush with 10 and no Ace | 1,440 | 0.00009 pp | 1.4% | 99.5% |
| 3 to a straight flush | 4 to an inside straight | 3 card Double Inside Straight Flush with 1 high card | 96 | 0.00003 pp | 0.5% | 100.0% |
The worst hand in each class
| Dealt | Chart holds | Worth | Perfect play holds | Worth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2♠ 3♣ T♦ J♦ A♥ | J♦ A♥ | 0.4743 | T♦ J♦ | 0.5047 |
2♦ 3♦ 4♦ J♥ Q♥ | 2♦ 3♦ 4♦ | 0.5338 | J♥ Q♥ | 0.6245 |
2♥ 4♥ J♦ Q♦ A♥ | 2♥ 4♥ A♥ | 0.5375 | J♦ Q♦ | 0.6139 |
2♥ T♥ J♥ Q♦ A♥ | T♥ J♥ A♥ | 1.2692 | 2♥ T♥ J♥ A♥ | 1.2766 |
2♠ J♣ Q♣ K♦ A♥ | J♣ Q♣ K♦ A♥ | 0.5957 | J♣ Q♣ | 0.6004 |
2♥ 3♥ J♦ Q♦ A♥ | 2♥ 3♥ A♥ | 0.5375 | J♦ Q♦ | 0.6139 |
2♥ 3♣ 9♦ T♥ K♥ | T♥ K♥ | 0.4582 | K♥ | 0.4598 |
8♦ 9♦ J♣ Q♦ K♥ | 8♦ 9♦ Q♦ | 0.5227 | 9♦ J♣ Q♦ K♥ | 0.5319 |
"Worth" is the exact expected value of that hold in coins per coin bet, over all the ways the draw can come out of the remaining 47 cards. You can check any of them in the hand analyzer.
On the other standard machines
| Machine | This chart | Perfect play | Gap | Cost/hour, quarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9/6 (800-50-25-9-6-4-3-2-1) | 99.5376% | 99.5439% | 0.0063 pp | $0.05 |
| 9/5 (800-50-25-9-5-4-3-2-1) | 98.4447% | 98.4498% | 0.0051 pp | $0.04 |
| 8/6 (800-50-25-8-6-4-3-2-1) | 98.3865% | 98.3927% | 0.0062 pp | $0.05 |
| 8/5 (800-50-25-8-5-4-3-2-1) | 97.2936% | 97.2984% | 0.0049 pp | $0.04 |
| 7/5 (800-50-25-7-5-4-3-2-1) | 96.1424% | 96.1472% | 0.0048 pp | $0.04 |
| 6/5 (800-50-25-6-5-4-3-2-1) | 94.9913% | 94.9961% | 0.0049 pp | $0.04 |
The chart was written for 9/6 and is applied unchanged to the rest, which is what a player does. Cost per hour assumes 600 hands an hour at five quarters a hand.