In any game where strategy makes a difference, there are fine points and there are players who struggle with small differences.
One such game is Mississippi Stud Poker, in which players must ante to start, then may raise by betting one to three times their ante after seeing their first two cards, again after seeing the first of three community cards and a third time after the second community card is exposed.
The object is to make a five-card hand of a pair of 6s or better, with payoffs ranging from a push with a pair of 6s through 10s to 500-1 on a royal flush.
There is a basic strategy for betting or folding at each opportunity. For this time, let’s focus on strategy after the second community card is exposed, because that’s the point that drew a recent email from a reader.
The reader noted that strategy calls for you to raise three times your ante if you have a paying hand or if you have four parts of a flush or four parts of an outside straight, 8 high or better.
“I assume the four parts of a flush includes four parts of a royal or straight flush,” he wrote. “My question is on the straight. Why the 8 or high provision? Why should I raise with 5-6-7-8 but not 4-5-6-7?”
On the flush issue, the reader was correct. Raise 3x on any four cards of the same suit. Royal or straight flush possibilities make the hand even more valuable.
As for the straights, the choice is with the amount of the raise, not a decision between raising and folding. You raise 3x your ante with 5-6-7-8, but basic strategy also calls for you to stay in the game with a bet equal to your ante with 4-5-6-7 or other low straight draws.
The reason is that the 8-high open-ended straight includes three cards that are 6 or higher, with the 7-high hand includes only two such cards. If you don’t complete the straight, the 8-high hand has three chances to pair up a 6 or better for a paying hand while the 7-high hand has only two such chances. That makes the 8-high open-ended straight draw more valuable and worthy of a larger bet.
