My favorite question from Bob Dancer.

Years ago I attended one of Bob Dancer's free seminars. It was at a casino in North Las Vegas and I found it very informative at the time because I was "new" to video poker and I was just learning about the strategies at various games.

Bob Dancer's class was about video poker basics, and he asked this question:

If you are dealt a straight flush, king high, with four to the royal flush (like the photo below) do you hold the straight flush or try for the royal?

Most of us in the class, including me, said "hold the straight flush." But that was the wrong answer. The correct answer was: "it depends on the game." Dancer pointed out that in deuces wild a straight flush pays too little to sacrifice the 1/47 chance at a royal.

Now some might argue dropping the suited-9 for a shot at a royal when a big progressive is at stake.

However, once I saw a player break up a dealt king-high straight flush and draw the royal on double-double bonus. Yes, there was a progressive, but the progressive was small.

So that's my question to you: would you break up the dealt straight flush in a non-deuces game for a shot at a royal? How about when there is a progressive? And how big must the progressive be for you to pull the trigger? And what about when there is a jackpot for a sequential royal and the cards are "just right" in the king-high dealt straight flush?

I was dealt a 9-k str. flush on a 3 line Super Times and I pulled the 10 times bonus. $1850 vs. three chances at $10,000. After ten minutes I kept the flush. It was at Paris.