Hold a high pair or four to a flush?

Keep the high pair. It beats a four-card flush draw.

Average return per coin on Jacks or Better 9/6: Hold the pair 1.5365 · Hold four to a flush 1.1915.

Open this hand in the analyzer Jacks or Better 9/6 strategy chart

The hand

Play	Cards held	Return per coin
Hold the pairBest	J♥ J♣	1.5365
Hold four to a flush	J♥ 8♥ 4♥ 2♥	1.1915

Average coins back per coin bet on a five-coin bet, where a royal pays 4,000, counting every possible draw from the 47 cards left. Above 1.0000 the hold wins money on average.

Why

A pair of jacks or better already pays even money, and drawing three cards to it makes two pair, trips, a full house or quads often enough to push its value well above the bet. The flush draw misses about four times in five and then usually pays nothing.

Does the paytable change the answer?

The answer is the same on all 6 paytables below.

Paytable	Hold the pair	Hold four to a flush
Jacks or Better 9/6	1.5365	1.1915
Jacks or Better 8/5	1.5264	1.0000
Bonus Poker 8/5	1.5264	1.0000
Bonus Poker Deluxe 9/6	1.5293	1.1915
Double Bonus Poker 10/7	1.4562	1.3830
Double Double Bonus Poker 9/6	1.4461	1.1915

Average coins back per coin bet on a five-coin bet, where a royal pays 4,000, counting every possible draw from the 47 cards left. Above 1.0000 the hold wins money on average.

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The hand

Why

Does the paytable change the answer?

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