Aces & Eights

Every figure is per credit with five credits in, so the royal's 800 means 4,000 credits. The second column trims three lines, the full house to 7, the flush to 4 and the ordinary quads to 20, and leaves both bonus lines alone.

The royal, straight flush and both bonus lines are the same on all five tables. Taking five credits off the ordinary quads costs a little less than a credit off the full house: 7/5 with quads at 20 still finishes just above 6/5. A standard deviation of 4.66 credits per hand on 8/5, against 4.42 for 9/6 Jacks or Better, means the bonus quads add only a modest amount of swing.

Habanero’s Aces & Eights is the only game of this variant in our library, and every hand-count version runs 7/4 with the ordinary quads at 20: 7 for a full house, 4 for a flush and 20 for four of a kind outside aces, eights and sevens. The 80 and 50 bonus lines are intact. Against 8/5 that is short pay, 96.68% under perfect play instead of 99.78%, and 95.39% below a five-credit bet.

Over 2,000 simulated hands of perfect play, 18.8% of sessions on this 7/4 table finished ahead and the median session ended 107 credits down, against 35.2% ahead and a median of 44 down on 8/5.

With perfect play on 8/5 the three quad lines carry 2.98%, 0.88% and 4.55% of the return, where 9/6 Jacks or Better has a single quad line worth 5.93%. The aces-and-eights line on its own carries more of the return than the royal flush does, 2.98% against 1.99%. Three of a kind, two pair and the paying high pair still supply most of the return, so the bonus changes a handful of holds rather than the whole strategy.

The 80-credit line gives a pair of eights a value that a pair of nines or tens never has, although neither pair pays anything on its own. Each figure below is the average return of a hold per credit bet, counted over every possible draw.

• A pair of eights against four to a flush flips with the table. Dealt 8♠ 8♦ 4♠ 9♠ K♠ on 8/5, keep the four spades: worth 1.02, against 0.97 for the eights. On our 7/4 table the same deal goes the other way, 0.96 for the eights against 0.83 for the spades, because a completed flush pays 4 there instead of 5.
• Three eights with two side cards. Dealt 8♠ 8♦ 8♣ K♠ Q♦, keep the three eights and draw two: worth 6.58, against 4.96 with either side card kept and 3 for standing pat. With no kicker in the game, keeping a side card only leaves one draw instead of two for the fourth eight.
• Two pair that includes a bonus rank. Dealt 8♠ 8♦ K♠ K♦ 5♣, keep both pairs: worth 2.51, against 1.53 for the kings alone. Sevens up and aces up come out at the same 2.51, so no bonus rank justifies breaking two pair here, unlike aces up in Double Double Bonus.

Away from hands like these the game plays much like its parent: playing 8/5 Aces & Eights with perfect 9/6 Jacks or Better strategy gives up just 0.008 points of return, and the strategy guide compares that with the price of other borrowed strategies.

Read down from the first line and hold whatever the earliest matching line describes. High cards are jacks through aces, so an ace counts both as a high card and as a bonus rank.

1. Royal flush, straight flush or four of a kind.
2. Four to a royal flush, which outranks a made flush, straight or high pair.
3. A full house, two pair, flush, straight or three of a kind of any rank (keep the three alone).
4. Four to a straight flush.
5. A pair of aces or eights.
6. A pair of jacks, queens or kings.
7. Three to a royal flush.
8. Four to a flush.
9. Any other pair, twos through tens, sevens included.
10. Four to an outside straight.
11. Three to a straight flush with two high cards.
12. Four to an inside straight with four high cards.
13. Two suited high cards.
14. Three to a straight flush with one high card.
15. Four to an inside straight with three high cards.
16. Two unsuited high cards.
17. A ten with a high card of the same suit.
18. One high card.
19. Three to a straight flush with no high card.
20. Nothing: draw five new cards.

Followed strictly in order, the list returns 99.73% on 8/5, 0.054 points short of the 99.78% of perfect play. The pair-of-eights hand above is one of its compromises: the list ranks aces or eights paired above four to a flush, while perfect play takes the flush draw on 0.069% of deals, a cost of 0.005 points.

On our 7/4 table, shift a pair of sevens and then four to an inside straight with four high cards above four to a flush, leaving the other low pairs below it. Two suited high cards also rise above four to an inside straight with three high cards, three to a straight flush with one high card drops below two unsuited high cards, and the suited ten line goes. That version plays at 96.63% against 96.68%.