Suboptimal Strategy Return

Does anybody know by roughly how much playing optimal DDB strategy on 3 line 9-6 Ultimate X Poker would decrease one’s return over optimal UX Poker near perfect strategy?
Thanks.

Quote: Gorillanoah

Does anybody know by roughly how much playing optimal DDB strategy on 3 line 9-6 Ultimate X Poker would decrease one’s return over optimal UX Poker near perfect strategy?
Thanks.
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I know if you are playing 5 coins per line there would be no strategy differences.

I’m pretty sure there are at least subtle strategy differences that arise because of the impact those decisions have on futures hands: two pair is superior in UX because it confers a 3:1 rather than a 2:1 multiple onto the next hand.

Huge difference in EV if you are playing 10-coin, no difference if you are playing 5-coin.

Thanks! I definitely mean when the bonus lines are played.
And huge difference meaning 0.3 % or 3.0 %? I really don’t have a sense of how much those borderline hands would affect the return.

Looks like someone answered this several years back. 0.6 percent off of optimal. Sounds about right.

The WoO has a workup for 8-6 JOB. He claims "On average, the player will have a multiplier of 2.0095." and "a final return of 98.573%." https://wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/tables/ultimate-x-single-line/

If I calculate what the average multiplier would be for standard strategy, I get average multiplier = 1.992134 and EV = 0.9800572151.

You lose about 0.57% for 8-6 JOB. Every game will be slightly different.

Thanks! And I’m guessing there would be a strategy that enhances the multiplier even more but that would compromise the general bonus play by too much to warrant it?

Quote: Gorillanoah

Thanks! And I’m guessing there would be a strategy that enhances the multiplier even more but that would compromise the general bonus play by too much to warrant it?
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Sure, if you go overboard chasing flushes and straights, you will reduce the numbers of pairs, trips, etc, that contribute to the base game return.

When I played single-line UX, I always played 5-coins when I had a multiplier and ten coins when I had no multiplier. This switching slows the game down and reduces coin in, but I only had to memorize one new strategy. I rarely played UX and would not want to spend much time practicing the multiple strategies. This makes it easy to balance the hands with multipliers versus the hands with immediate payoffs. The ROI for my method is also slightly higher for some games versus playing 10-coins all the time. Note that if you have a +EV play, then the lower coin in offsets the higher ROI.