A more Coherent UTH Strategy

Thought after practicing UTH at WoO that I'd share a more coherent, straight-forward strat. No I haven't done the math. 4x is correct, with a listing of general rules for each situation of 2x Raise Pocket and Board, and the 1x Raise Pocket & Board. Because its not a technical breakdoen of situations using rather cryptic language, it reads easier.

Enjoy and criticise freely. 98Clubs

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1.) 4x Raise: All decisions involving 2x or 1x raises presume the CORRECT 4x strategy
..........A.) Raise any pair 33 or better.
..........B.) Raise any two cards ranked as 10-low or better.
..........C.) Raise any Ace or King EXCEPT off-suit K2, K3, K4.
..........D.) Raise any Q8 Q9, and Suited Q6 Q7 J8 J9 .
....CHECK all others including off-suit K2, K3, & K4
2.) 2x Raise: one or both pocket cards
..........A.) Raise any Pocket 2-2 with a Board 2, 2-2, or ANY Rule below
..........B.) Raise ANY HAND One Pair of 3's or better if the flop is not suited.
..........C.) Raise any 4-to-a-Straight-Flush.
..........D.) Raise any 4-flush if you have a suited Jack or better, include 10 if a suited J or Better on flop.
..........E.) Raise any paired 4-flush or paired open-ended Straight.
..........F.) Raise any 4-Flush that is also an open-ended Straight.
..........G.) Raise any 9 or better that fills to an open-ended 4-Straight Jack-high or better.
3.) Board 2x Raises- including Suited Flops
..........A.) If you hold a suited Jack or better to any suited flop, include 10 if suited J or better on suited flop.
..........B.) If you hold a Middle or Best pair to any suited flop.
..........C.) If you hold the Bottom Pair AND an off-suit 10 or better when the flop is suited
..........D.) If you hold a Queen or King to a 3-of-a-Kind or One Pair flop.
....CHECK all others
4.) Raise (Call): including pocket 2's
..........A.) Raise any One-from-Hand + One-from-Board hand ranked 5's or better, otherwise
..........B.) Raise 4-4 or 3-3 if NOT a bottom pair, OR
..........C.) Raise Pocket 2-2 or any bottom pair 4-4 or 3-3 if NO 4-Flush and/or open-ended Straight on board.
5.) Board Raises (Calls)
..........A.) All BOARD Straights, Flushes, Full Houses, and Straight-Flushes.
..........B.) ANY board in which all the best possible board kickers (Ace included) exist.
..........C.) A Two Pair Board that is 10-low OR ANY 2-pair board when holding a Q or K.
..........D.) Any One Pair Board when you hold a Queen or King, include a Jack if Ace, King, or Queen on the board.
..........E.) Any Trips board when you hold a Jack or better.
..........F.) Any Quads board when you hold a 10 or better (rare...pocket analysis used)
....NO 4-STRAIGHT OR 4-FLUSH ON THE BOARD
..........G.) ANY board when holding a King: a Queen when an Ace or King is present: a Jack if AK, AQ, or KQ.
..........H.) ANY BOARD that your card(s) make 9-low or better, OR make the kicker(s) 10-low or better.
....NO STRAIGHT IS POSSIBLE
..........I .) A Two pair Board when all 5 cards are ranked 10 or less AND you hold a Jack, OR
if all 5 cards are 9-low or better (Ace-Ace-9, or Ace-9-9 must appear on the board including A-A-9-9).
.......FOLD ALL OTHERS

EDITED with NEW decisions and CORRECTED decisions 09/12/13... I forgot the 1x Trips & Quad Rules (sigh).

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Original Post updated today with new and corrected decisions. Nothing taken from other sources except the 4x decisions which seem to be very much "universal" among strategies presented. This is all based upon game-play concepts after playing many thousands (small sample) of rounds. I get very few strategy warnings from WoO fine javagame simulator, but 2x warnings do not work for some reason. As such, it is heads-up play without additional information known.

GLnGG

This is strictly from my experience, and I don't doubt you're closer to the math than this is. However, I have been tracking it as I've played a few thousand hands.

On Q or J with less than 10 in hand, playing them as kickers (no straight or flush through river, no pair from hand), I only bet the queen with a minimum of either 2 overcards or 1 overcard + 1 small pair. I only play the jack w/ 2 lower pair or 3+ overcards on the board. Otherwise I fold. And it's been right about 80% of the time, maybe a little more. The math, especially on the Q, shows otherwise. Other people seem to do well playing Q kickers. It's my personal curse. But I've learned a painful amount of times, and once I changed this one thing, my win percentage increased quite a bit, so I thought I'd share it.

Thanks for that. It seems to matter how many ranks can beat you. I see others have distilled it to number of cards. I generate very few 1x errors... this last correction above (corrected / simplified) took two 1x decisions and merged into one. The boards like 5Q562 with J7 pocket kept stating FOLD was not correct. There is a Straight draw (34), no 4-Flush, and six ranks beat a Jack kicker. (256QKA). Even J-other looks to beat since my other card is a 7 (J+ 89Ten is a loss: J+ 43 a win)

Major upgrade to the 2x decisions (the ones Javascript error-notice won't work upon). Still all trial and error, as I play.
A word here that the handling of Flushes are divided in to Suited Pokets, and Board Flush Flops (1 from Pocket).

1.) 4x Raise: All decisions involving 2x or 1x raises presume the CORRECT 4x strategy
snip
......B.) Raise any two cards ranked as 10-low or better.

Just write: "raise any two cards ranked 10 or higher". Throwing the word "low" in the statement could mislead people.

Heck, I think this is easy enough (s=suited, o=offsuit):

4X Raise:
33+
A2s+, A2o+
K2s+, K5o+
Q6s+, Q8o+
J8s+, JTo

Check all others.

Flop decision points look pretty good I think though.

I was trying to keep a consistent wording, but yes, normally I would do so. See the final few 1x Raise board decisions, where one aims to raise if the Player's pocket card make the board 10-low, or if certain boards are made 9-low. Personally, I found it easier to decide based upon that language.

BTW I keep getting tripped up on the 1-Pair boards when a Q, K, A are present... I keep wanting to fold a Jack-x. Still need the "rules" on separate screen... lol.
I have no idea how accurate the new 2x raises are... early on in the testing variance may have disguised this change, as it seemed any Suited 6+ was catching a break. Lately, they've been a dog-loser and I corrected by making a Suited Jack (to allow a miss and yet have a kicker or pair as backup) as minimum. I think a 10+ might work here, and additional play might help.

Right now the only puzzling errors on 1x are when sometimes I hold an 8-high pocket on a paired-board 9-low. I fold, but am warned that Raise is correct. Very infrequent and might be a hair better.

Personally I would fold 8x if the board was AAKQ9 - while there is a straight possible any J OR 10 already beats the board, so (J+10) adds no further outs for the dealer. The 9 is 3rd nut (J being 1st and 10 being 2nd) so the strategy card says fold.
Alternatively there are 19 unique cards (2xA 3xK 3xQ 4xJ 4x10 3x9) that beat you. This gives the dealer 19 outs leaving 45-19 - 26 cards that dealer plays the board. Chances of dealer have two such cards are (26*25)/(45*44) less chances of pairs = .328 - something. This isn't 1/3 - so not enough.
If the board was AAKQ10 then you would play (15 unique cards - chances (30*29)/(45*44)-x = .439-x. (If there was a flush draw, aka scare board, then don't play as this gives dealer 8 more outs, Js already beats you).

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Thanks for response charliepatrick. There was no 3-flush or 4-flush on board, just looked "wrong" to play 8-x. I have a rule that states that if your pocket cards make the board 9-low or make the kickers 10-low, then raise 1x. Since neither was true insta-fold.

Thanks - I created a simple spreadsheet (but too simple as it doesn't look for straights or flushes yet) that runs through all the permutations of quads and trips and one thing that comes out is when playing the board you need a higher hand than when your playing a bad kicker. This is because you can win with your kicker and collect 5 (win +2) or more units, whereas playing the board the decision is to fold (lose -2) or raise to lose (lose -3) or standoff (0).

For instance if the board has AAAKy and you have 82, you fold against AAAK9 but play all others. With 72 you only play AAAKQ-10.

The rule with quads is even more warped, because a winning hand pays a bonus. Against AAAAx with 62 you play AAAA+KQJ9 and AAAA+5432.

I suspect x1 bets you can do at the table by looking at single outs (kickers, or 4-flush) that beat you and double cards (pairs, straights, flushes) and coming up with a formula (accounting for penalty cards). I know in the a different version of casino Texas you had the option to make an optional raise (which only pays if the dealer has a pair or more), so are working out whether your chances are 50% or more given the dealer has a pair; so used similar logic.

You know after XX,XXX hands of UTH I don't believe I've ever seen quads on the board. So I've never had the chance to use the quads raise/fold rule. Still waiting for that royal (gotten two on the computer).

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Quote: Ibeatyouraces

I have 3 times. All 3 were 4x raises pre-flop. Lost all 3! The third one was the sickest. Pocket 7's, flop 7,8,8, turn/river 8,8 lose to 9 high!

Ibeat....that is just SICK! wow. Didn't even get the blind pay...man! You must've had a GIANT roller coaster stomach after having the 3rd nuts on a nice pay after the flop, then seeing the river make your pocket pair worthless..I've only seen one 4oak on the board and I was lucky enough to have a better kicker so got a full pay. I've seen 3 people get SF but not me yet; never seen a royal.

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Quote: Ibeatyouraces

I have 3 times. All 3 were 4x raises pre-flop. Lost all 3! The third one was the sickest. Pocket 7's, flop 7,8,8, turn/river 8,8 lose to 9 high!

This game is more frustrating than one card. I quit. Teddys has stolen all my positive UTH variance, anyway :)

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Quote: teddys

You know after XX,XXX hands of UTH I don't believe I've ever seen quads on the board. So I've never had the chance to use the quads raise/fold rule. Still waiting for that royal (gotten two on the computer).

Quads is only 1 in 4165, if you've played a lot, you should have seen it.

Quote: tringlomane

Quads is only 1 in 4165, if you've played a lot, you should have seen it.

And yet I in fact have not. Damn that variance! She'd probably throw it up when I'm all in with a pair of 3's anyway :)

Quote: teddys

And yet I in fact have not. Damn that variance! She'd probably throw it up when I'm all in with a pair of 3's anyway :)

I hit quads at MS couple nights ago but never see them at UTH .. Seem so hard to hit. Plus,
I'm done hoping the dealer don't beat my hand it seems like I can't win at this game. :(