4 to an inside straight with two high cards — keep it?
No — keep the two high cards. Q♥ J♦ is worth 0.4990 per coin on 9/6 Jacks or Better; the Q-J-9-8 inside straight draw only 0.4681.
The exact numbers — Q♥ J♦ 9♠ 8♣ 3♦
EVs are exact — every possible draw enumerated, not simulated — at max bet on 9/6 Jacks or Better. Check it yourself: the analyzer runs the same solver in your browser.
See all 32 holds of this hand ranked →Why
An inside straight has four outs where an outside one has eight, and it pays 4. Keeping it means spending a draw slot on the 9 and the 8, two cards that can never pay by themselves. Add one more high card and the arithmetic reverses — A-K-Q-J is worth 0.5957 on this paytable and earns its own chart line — but at two high cards the straight draw drops below simply keeping the queen and jack. The cost of getting it wrong is small, 0.0309, but this hand comes up constantly.
Chart line #14 of 18 is '4 to an inside straight, 3+ high cards'. With only two high cards there is no line for it: you fall through to line #15, two unsuited high cards. See the full solver-optimized strategy chart, or drill hands with exact-EV feedback until plays like this are automatic.