Dream Card Video Poker

Dream Card Poker is an interesting way to use a wild card that isn’t really a wild card in video poker. The strategy is relatively easy, too—always bet max coins, always take the dream card option, and go with the hand that’s most likely to provide you with the greatest expected return. Drawing to four aces in Dream Card video poker.

Video poker games, for the most part, all follow the same pattern. You put money into a gambling machine and get credits. You’re then given the option of betting 1 to 5 credits per hand. You’re dealt a 5 card hand on the video screen, and you have the option of keeping or discarding any combination of those cards. (This gives you 32 options to choose from, total.) You get paid off based on the poker hand ranking of your final combination.

The most basic of these games is called Jacks or Better, so named because the lowest paying hand is a pair of jacks or higher. Other common variations include Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild, and Joker Poker. Bonus Poker is just a variation of Jacks or Better with bonus payouts for a 4 of a kind. Deuces Wild is more or less the same game as Jacks or Better, but deuces are treated as wild cards, and the payoffs for the hands vary based on that. And Joker Poker is played with a 53 card deck, which includes a wild card—the joker.

The reason you need to understand these other variations in order to learn how to play Dream Card Poker is because Dream Card Poker isn’t a standalone game. It’s a variation or option that’s layered on top of an existing game like Jacks or Better or Bonus Poker.

Here’s how the “dream card” works:

It’s like a wild card, but it’s chosen on the deal, and it stays as whatever card you chose at that point. The game suggests what it thinks is the most appropriate card in your situation, but you can choose any of the other 48 cards in the deck that you like.

You’re dealt a hand with a queen as your highest card and no likely alternatives. The rest of the cards are low and unsuited, so you don’t have a decent probability of getting a flush or a straight. So you decide to make the dream card a queen of another suit.

The other 3 cards are discarded, and the dream card counts as that queen regardless of which other cards are dealt. There’s no way, in this situation, for example, that you could improve to a royal flush or even a flush. If you were playing with a wild card, you could, and that’s the difference.

It makes for an interesting variation to have an “almost” wild card in play.

The other thing to understand is that you don’t get a dream card on every hand. The dream card comes randomly.

• Appendices
• Strategies
  • Jacks or Better
  • Deuces Wild
  • Quick Quads
  • Ultimate X
• Miscellaneous

Introduction

Dream Card Video Poker Laughlin

There has been some debate about whether the best card is offered to the player when he gets the Dream Card. In his article A Look at DreamCard — Part II of II , Bob Dancer says, 'I've played the game for many hours and I've never seen a case where the DC isn't perfect — or at least tied for being the best. ' However, at VideoPoker.com, sometimes the advice is incorrect. As an example, the following is a screenshot from the 9/6 jacks game at videopoker.com.

In the game above I was offered the Q♣, giving me three to a royal. It would have been better to pick any jack or king for a high pair. Here is the expected value of the suggested play and a correct play:

9♥ J♣ K♣ 4♥ Q♣: expected value = 7.5902 coins
9♥ J♣ K♣ 4♥ J♠: expected value = 7.6827 coins

The game usually does give correct advice, however. Bob Dancer's article A Look at DreamCard — Part I of II says that when two more or cards are tied, the game will sometimes tease the player with a card that might lead the player to play incorrectly. Take the following two screenshots of VideoPoker.com as examples. In the one on the left, the game correctly gave me a card to complete the straight. However, any six or jack would do. I don't think it was random that it gave me a heart, tempting me to go for the straight flush. In the hand on the right, the game was correct to complete the flush with any spade. However, it gave me the jack of spades, as a temptation to go for the royal.

Following are some more bad suggested Dream Card examples at VideoPoker.com.

In the game above I was offered the Q♥, giving me a high pair. It would have been much better to pick either the 5♠ or 6♠ for four to a straight flush.

8♠ 4♠ Q♣ 7♠ Q♥: expected value = 7.6827 coins
8♠ 4♠ Q♣ 7♠ 5♠: expected value = 11.7021 coins

In the game above I was offered the Q♥ again, giving me a high pair. It would have been much better to pick any spade, for a pat flush.

Q♠ 7♠ 3♠ 2♠ Q♥: expected value = 7.6827 coins
Q♠ 7♠ 3♠ 2♠ A♠: expected value = 30.0000 coins

In the game above the card offered was the 2♠ for a pat straight or four to a straight flush draw. The better card would be the ten of clubs, for four to a natural royal.

Dream Card Video Poker Locations

J♣ K♣ Q♣ A♠ 2♠: expected value = 18.8298 coins
J♣ K♣ Q♣ A♠ 10♣: expected value = 99.6809 coins

Dream Card Video Poker Wins

In the game above the card offered was the Q♠ for three to a natural royal flush or high pair. The better card would any two or jack for a pat straight.

Dream Card Video Poker Machine For Sale

K♠ 10♠ 9♥Q♥ Q♠: expected value = 7.0490 coins
K♠ 10♠ 9♥Q♥ J♣: expected value = 10.0000 coins

Internal Links

• Main Dream Card page.

External Links

• VideoPoker.com has a nice demo of Dream Card. Registration is required to play.

Soruces

Dream Card Video Poker Jackpots

• A Look at DreamCard — Part I of II by Bob Dancer.
• A Look at DreamCard — Part II of II by Bob Dancer.

Written by: Michael Shackleford