Optimal player strategy:

There are a substantial number of borderline hands in this game, where folding or playing would depend on not only the exact cards, but the exact suit composition, meaning that the exact strategy could only be given by an exhaustive list of hands.  However, the player may approximate the optimal strategy extremely closely by playing, and only playing, the following hands:

1.    Any hand with three or more unique cards Six or higher,

2.    Any pair of Sixes with two or more cards higher than a Six, or

3.    Any pair of Sevens or better.

If the player wishes to play a risk averse strategy, one could fold the hands in the first group at relatively little cost – the best of that bunch is 3-5-6-7-J with four cards of the same suit, returning -0.9873 bets.

 

Introduction and general procedure:

1.    Spanish Poker is played with a 41-card deck, created by adding one Joker to, then removing the Eights, Nines and Tens from a standard 52-card deck of playing cards. This deck is hereafter referred to as a “Spanish Poker Deck”.

a.    For purposes of this game, the Joker acts as a full wild card, capable of becoming any other card in the Spanish Poker Deck not already in that specific hand.

b.    For purposes of this game, four cards of the same rank plus the Joker is a separate hand rank, hereafter referred to as “Cincos”, which is the highest ranking hand in the game.

c.    For purposes of this game, the Seven cards and the Jack cards are considered to be “connected” – for example, a hand of “Five-Six-Seven-Jack-Queen” of different suits would be a Queen-high straight.

d.    For purposes of this game, a Flush is a higher ranking hand than a Full House.

2.    To begin play, players make a wager on the main bet (hereafter referred to as the “Ante Bet”), and any or all of the following optional bets:

a.    A paytable-based sidebet , hereafter referred to as the “Dos Pares Bet”.

b.    A sidebet that the player will be dealt the joker, hereafter referred to as the “Joker Bet”.

c.    A jackpot bet, hereafter referred to as the “Progressive Bet”.

3.    The dealer will then deal one five-card hand to each player, and one to the dealer.

4.    Each player then decides whether to fold their hand, or continue play by making a bet equal to exactly double the Ante Bet, hereafter referred to as the “Raise Bet”. N.B.: Players who choose to fold a hand that would win on the Dos Pares bet, Joker Bet or Progressive Bet will not be paid on those bets.

5.    Once all players have decided to play or fold, the dealer will then reveal his hand.

a.    If the dealer does not have at least a pair of Sixes (hereafter referred to as a “Qualifying Hand”), then the dealer pays each player’s Ante bet, and all Raise bets are pushed.

b.    If the dealer does have a Qualifying Hand, then each player’s hand is compared to the dealer’s hand in turn.

                                          i.    If the dealer has a higher ranking hand than the player, that player’s Raise and Ante bets are collected.

                                         ii.    If the player has a higher ranking hand than the dealer, then the player’s Raise Bet is paid even money and the Ante Bet is paid according to the paytable supplied in the Appendix.

                                        iii.    If both the player’s and the dealer’s hands have identical rankings, both the Raise and Ante bets are pushes.

6.    Next, any player who made either a Dos Pares or Progressive Bet are either paid or taken, according to the paytables supplied in the Appendix.

 

Methodologies:

1.    A computer program was created to iterate through all possible combinations of hands the player may be dealt, for purposes of calculating the house expectation on the Dos Pares and Progressive Bets.

2.    A second computer program was created to boil down all Five-Card combinations into equivalency classes based on their overall rank among poker hands, as well as whether these hands contained the wild card or not.

3.    From this computer program, the player’s optimal strategy for playing the Raise Bet versus forfeiting the Ante Bet was calculated.

4.    Finally, the results of this second computer program were verified by running a simulation of 500,000,000 hands, which agreed with the calculated results to within 0.01%

Results:

1.    For purposes of the Ante and Raise bets, these results assume the player employs the optimal strategy; As a result, the player will make the Raise Bet 72.69% of the time, meaning that the player’s total bet will be, on average, 2.45 times as large as their Ante Bet.

a.    With Ante Paytable #1, the house will win, on average, an amount equal to 5.93% of the Ante Bet, or 2.41% of all money wagered.

b.    With Ante Paytable #2, the house will win, on average, an amount equal to 4.97% of the Ante Bet, or 2.02% of all money wagered.

2.    On the Dos Pares bet:

a.    With Dos Pares Paytable #1, the house will win, on average, an amount equal to 4.78% of the Dos Pares Bet.

b.    With Dos Pares Paytable #2, the house will win, on average, an amount equal to 5.28% of the Dos Pares Bet.

3.    On the joker sidebet:

a.    The house will win, on average, an amount equal to 2.44% of the Joker Bet.

4.    On the progressive bet:

a.    With a value of $0 in the jackpot, the house will win, on average, an amount equal to 56.24% of the Progressive Bet.

b.    With a value of $26,340 in the jackpot, the expectation for the player is break-even.

c.    Procedures for initial jackpot seeding, determining jackpot growth rate, secondary jackpots, or any other issues related to the jackpot are to be handled by each individual casino and/or gaming jurisdiction.

 

Paytables:

Table #1a: Ante Bet Paytable #1

Hand	Payout
Cincos	200
Royal Flush	100
Straight Flush	40
Quads	25
Flush	10
Full Boat	7
Straight	6
Trips	3
Two Pair	2
One Pair	1

 

Table #1b: Ante Bet Paytable #2

Hand	Payout
Cincos	200
Royal Flush	100
Straight Flush	40
Quads	25
Flush	10
Full Boat	8
Straight	7
Trips	3
Two Pair	2
One Pair	1

 

Table #2a: Dos Pares Bet, Paytable #1

Hand	Count	P(Occur)	1-in-X	Payout	Value
No Pair	250920	0.334829	2.986601	-1	-0.33483
One Pair	369180	0.492635	2.029899	-1	-0.49264
Two Pair	51840	0.069176	14.45598	2	0.138351
Trips	57600	0.076862	13.01038	5	0.384308
Straight	12420	0.016573	60.338	7	0.116013
Full Boat	3780	0.005044	198.2534	9	0.045396
Flush	1724	0.002301	434.6856	10	0.023005
Quads	1800	0.002402	416.3322	25	0.060048
Straight Flush	100	0.000133	7493.98	50	0.006672
Royal Flush	24	3.2E-05	31224.92	100	0.003203
Cincos	10	1.33E-05	74939.8	200	0.002669
SUM:	749398	1			-4.78%

 

Table #2b: Dos Pares Bet, Paytable #2

Hand	Count	P(Occur)	1-in-X	Payout	Value
No Pair	250920	0.334829	2.986601	-1	-0.33483
One Pair	369180	0.492635	2.029899	-1	-0.49264
Two Pair	51840	0.069176	14.45598	2	0.138351
Trips	57600	0.076862	13.01038	5	0.384308
Straight	12420	0.016573	60.338	7	0.116013
Full Boat	3780	0.005044	198.2534	8	0.040352
Flush	1724	0.002301	434.6856	10	0.023005
Quads	1800	0.002402	416.3322	25	0.060048
Straight Flush	100	0.000133	7493.98	50	0.006672
Royal Flush	24	3.2E-05	31224.92	100	0.003203
Cincos	10	1.33E-05	74939.8	200	0.002669
SUM:	749398	1			-5.28%

 

Table #3: Joker Bet

Hand	Count	P(Occur)	Payout	Value
Without Joker:	658008	0.878049	-1	-0.87805
With Joker:	91390	0.121951	7	0.853659
SUM:	749398	1		-2.44%

 

 

Table #4: Progressive Bet Paytable, base condition.

Hand	Count	P(Occur)	1-in-X	Payout	Value
No Pair	250920	0.334829	2.986601	-1	-0.33483
One Pair	369180	0.492635	2.029899	-1	-0.49264
Two Pair	51840	0.069176	14.45598	-1	-0.06918
Trips	57600	0.076862	13.01038	-1	-0.07686
Straight	12420	0.016573	60.338	-1	-0.01657
Full Boat	3780	0.005044	198.2534	-1	-0.00504
Flush	1724	0.002301	434.6856	75	0.172538
Quads	1800	0.002402	416.3322	100	0.240193
Straight Flush	100	0.000133	7493.98	150	0.020016
Royal Flush	24	3.2E-05	31224.92	(25% of Jackpot)	0
Cincos	10	1.33E-05	74939.8	(100% of Jackpot)	0
SUM:	749398	1			-56.24%

 

 

Game security:

1.    As with any poker-themed game where a substantial number of cards are dealt before the player makes a strategy decision, care must be taken to ensure that the players do not exchange information among themselves regarding the contents of their hand.