Keep the winner — except for a royal draw

When the five cards you were dealt already pay — a straight, a flush, a full house — the safe play is almost always the right one. Keep a made hand and draw nothing.

There is one exception, and it is worth knowing cold. If four of your cards are ten through ace in the same suit, throw the fifth one away and go for the royal flush. Four to a royal is the only draw good enough to break a paying hand for. Three royal cards is not enough, and the four cards have to be the royal ones — four to an ordinary flush is nowhere near enough.

Example: You are dealt T♠ J♠ Q♠ K♠ 9♦ — a made straight, worth 4 coins for every coin bet. Throw the 9♦ away and hold T♠ J♠ Q♠ K♠. That draw is worth close to 20 coins per coin bet, because one card in the deck turns it into an 800-for-1 royal.

Two hands never get broken. A full house is already big money, and a straight flush pays 50 — more than any draw is worth. And if the made hand is only a straight or flush with three royal cards in it, that is not the exception: 9♦ T♥ J♥ Q♥ K♠ is a straight, and a straight it stays.