Texas Switch odds and strategy
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If you don’t switch you might save the bet.
I see this game is in a few California casinos as well as Texas Station
- No Blind Bet as in UTH. You make an Ante Bet and an equal-size Switch Bet
- Opportunity to forfeit your switch bet wager in order to discard initial 2-card hand and be dealt 2 different cards
- max of 2x raise or call on opening bet after seeing your two inital cards. This BET is called the preflop bet.
-1 x raise or call on "preflop" when you have seen the first two flop cards. This decision is not constrained by what you did on the preflop bet.
- 1x raise or fold on "postflop" bet when you have seen a third flop card. Fold causes the loss of Ante, Switch and any preflop bet.
After all betting, the last two cards on the board are revealed and the dealer's hand is revealed. Unlike UTH, dealer does not need to qualify with a pair. All unfolded bets pay 1:1 on a winning player hand (better than the dealer) except the switch bet which pushes on a winning player hand.
So, the house edge appears to come from the switch bet which is lost when player folds or loses the hand comparison at showdown but merely pushes when player has the winning hand? Is that correct?
Here are initial 2 card hands that you should BET 2x on, rather than CHECK, in the preflop decision in Texas Switch.
22+
Ax, Kx (suited or unsuited)
Qx suited, Q5+ offsuit
J5+ suited, J7+ offsuit
T7+ suited, T9 offsuit
98 suited
This is easy to analyze and I am confident in this list.
'BET2x or CHECK' decision after switching
The above list does not straightforwardly apply to the 2-card hand that you are dealt after you have SWITCHed away from a very bad starting hand such as 3d2c because the removal from the deck of the two cards in your very bad starting hand may flip the preflop decision on some of the marginal hands.
In general, you might consider CHECK and not Bet 2x on any hand in which you switched away from a 2 card hand that had what the Wizard calls "penalty cards" -cards of the same rank.
Ex: You had 3d2c and discarded it; on the redeal you have been dealt Q2s, Q3s, K2s, K3s, A2, A3, 22 or 33. I have not yet analyzed those hands but I do not recommend BET2x on them because you have lost 1 of your 6 outs for getting paired by the 5 common cards that are yet to be dealt and these were all somewhat marginal hands to BET 2X on anyway.
Indeed, I would check the following pairs: 22, 33, 44 and 55 if you SWITCHED away from a hand that had a 2, 3, 4 or 5 respectively.
Ex: I would certainly CHECK a J7o or a T7s if you switched away from a 72o.
Ex: You had 3d2d and discarded it; on the redeal you have been dealt Qd4d: I guess that you should CHECK the Qd4d and not BET2X as shown on the list above, because your odds of getting a flush are reduced by teh removal of two cards of the same suit.
It can work the other way as well. When you have a hand that marginally should be checked and the hand you switched away from has 2 cards that would not improve your new (re-dealt) 2-card hand, then it may be optimal to BET2x.
Ex: You had 3d2c and discarded it and on the re-deal you have been dealt Th8s. The removal of the 3d2c from the deck improves the chances of pairing your Th and 8s and improves your chances of making a straight or flush with Th8s. I am pretty sure this is enough to make it optimal to BET 2x on 3d2c|Th8s.
The above are extreme examples where it is easy to guess what the right preflop decision is, but there are likely to be many other situations, some of them borderline, in which you change the 'BET2x or CHECK' decision after switching. We are on our own and must use our heads until a massive computational analysis is done and the results reported.
SWITCHING. I have not calculated which hands to switch; it is extremely complicated and requires having fully analyzed all three decision points during the play of a Texas Switch hand. My wild-assed guess is that the minimum list to switch on is:
Unsuited: 32, 42, 43, 52, 53, 62, 72
Suited: 32, 42, 52
It should be optimal to SWITCH on other 'crap' hands as well, but I lack the confidence to recommend any more than I have. I am hopeful that the above might capture a decent fraction of the EV to be gained from the SWITCH rule.
It is interesting to note that the effect of switching can be catastrophic if you are dealt the same two ranks that you switched away from. Example: You have 3c2d and SWITCH and are then dealt 3d2c ! Unless you are very lucky, it will be CHECK, CHECK and FOLD.
Quote: gordonm888'BET2x or CHECK' decision on first two cards
Here are initial 2 card hands that you should BET 2x on, rather than CHECK, in the preflop decision in Texas Switch.
33+
Ax, Kx (suited or unsuited)
Qx suited, Q5+ offsuit
J5+ suited, J7+ offsuit
T7+ suited, T9 offsuit
98 suited
This is easy to analyze and I am confident in this list.
'BET2x or CHECK' decision after switching
The above list does not straightforwardly apply to the 2-card hand that you are dealt after you have SWITCHed away from a very bad starting hand such as 3d2c because the removal from the deck of the two cards in your very bad starting hand may flip the preflop decision on some of the marginal hands.
In general, you might consider CHECK and not Bet 2x on any hand in which you switched away from a 2 card hand that had what the Wizard calls "penalty cards" -cards of the same rank.
Ex: You had 3d2c and discarded it; on the redeal you have been dealt Q2s, Q3s, K2s, K3s, A2, A3, or 33. I have not yet analyzed those hands but I do not recommend hitting them because you have lost 1 of your 6 outs for getting paired by the 5 common cards that are yet to be dealt and these were all somewhat marginal hands to bet 2X on anyway.
Indeed, I would check the following pairs: 33, 44 and 55 if you SWITCHED away from a hand that had a 3, 4 or 5 respectively.
Ex: I would certainly CHECK a J7o or a T7s if you switched away from a 72o.
Ex: You had 3d2d and discarded it; on the redeal you have been dealt Qd4d: I guess that you should CHECK the Qd4d and not BET2X as shown on the list above, because your odds of getting a flush are reduced by teh removal of two cards of the same suit.
It can work the other way as well. When you have a hand that marginally should be checked and the hand you switched away from has 2 cards that would not improve your new (re-dealt) 2-card hand, then it may be optimal to BET2x.
Ex: You had 3d2c and discarded it and on the re-deal you have been dealt Th8s. The removal of the 3d2c from the deck improves the chances of pairing your Th and 8s and improves your chances of making a straight or flush with Th8s. I am pretty sure this is enough to make it optimal to BET 2x on 3d2c|Th8s.
The above are extreme examples where it is easy to guess what the right preflop decision is, but there are likely to be many other situations, some of them borderline, in which you change the 'BET2x or CHECK' decision after switching. We are on our own and must use our heads until a massive computational analysis is done and the results reported.
SWITCHING. I have not calculated which hands to switch; it is extremely complicated and requires having fully analyzed all three decision points during the play of a Texas Switch hand. My wild-assed guess is that the minimum list to switch on is:
Unsuited: 32, 42, 43, 52, 53, 62, 72
Suited: 32, 42, 52
It should be optimal to SWITCH on other 'crap' hands as well, but I lack the confidence to recommend any more than I have. I am hopeful that the above might capture a decent fraction of the EV to be gained from the SWITCH rule.
Thank you Gordon, that is certainly some excellent work on this.
Quote: Hunterhill
Thank you Gordon, that is certainly some excellent work on this.
Thanks Hunter. BTW, the BET2x list is more liberal that that of UTH because in Texas Switch raising/betting on the preflop decision point does not restrict you from raising on the next two decision points.
As the Wizard said in his video the betting is more like Texas Holdem bonus, but in THB you can’t check on the first bet you have to bet 2x or you are folding.It’s very costly to fold so you play most hands.In Texas Switch I thought you might play more hands since you can check.Quote: gordonm888Thanks Hunter. BTW, the BET2x list is more liberal that that of UTH because in Texas Switch raising/betting on the preflop decision point does not restrict you from raising on the next two decision points.
