What the “simple strategy” really costs
Every video poker book teaches a short ordered list for 9/6 Jacks or Better and calls the gap to optimal 'small'. We measured it exactly — every one of the 2,598,960 possible deals, solved — and then found the cheapest way to close half of it.
The headline numbers
Method: instead of simulating, we enumerated. All 2,598,960 deals collapse to 134,459 suit-equivalence classes; each was solved exactly (all 32 holds, every draw counted), and a “list player” — first matching line wins — was scored against the solver. The same enumeration reproduces the published 99.5439% optimal return to seven decimals, which doubles as an end-to-end proof of the evaluator.
Where the 0.085% actually lives
Three patterns carry three quarters of the loss. Ablation confirms every one of the 16 classic lines earns its place (removing any costs 0.02%–13.6%), and the classic ordering is near-perfect — the leak is what the list doesn’t say, not what it says.
The two lines that close half the gap
Testing ten candidate lines at every possible position (exactly — a per-hand line-EV matrix makes any chart variation scoreable in milliseconds), two additions dominate the ROI table:
The residual 0.036% is provably unreachable by any flat pattern list — it lives in penalty-card contexts, which is exactly why “full” professional charts stop being simple. Eighteen lines is where the simplicity-vs-return curve bends.
Try it
The Simple+ chart is what the trainer teaches, line by line. The classic miss this study found:
A-K-Q-J unsuited — see why all four beat any two →Or drill hands with exact-EV feedback — the trainer names the chart line you missed on every mistake. Related: the Double Bonus chart study · the classic dilemmas, answered exactly.