Basic Strategy Guts Poker

[BoatLover88]

I think depending on the number of players this game has a perfect strategy for playing similar to blackjack that will be profitable as long as there are people at the table that do not play perfect, which will be nearly everyone. I was wondering if someone could come up for a perfect strategy for each amount of players from 2-10.

For example 2 players: play A high or better
3 players: A-J high or better

etc. I'm thinking flush or better is correct strategy for 10 players, but I'm sure it can be figured out mathematically based on the ante compared to how much minimum in each pot. So let's say 7 players 70 cent pot you have to have a hand that you would get 1 in 7 times. I'm not very smart so I'm probably way off, but that kind of idea I guess. Can someone whos good at math help me out here please?

Rules for guts poker:
http://www.zerorake.com/game/thegames/guts.html

[Monty Cantsin]

Coming up with a perfect strategy for any multiplayer game with hidden information is harder than you think.

The reason is that your optimal strategy changes based on the strategies being used by the other players.

You can have a perfect strategy for Blackjack because the dealer's stategy is fixed, and known.

Having said that, I'm sure you can come up with a very good strategy for this game. By "you" I mean pzhon.

/mc

[BoatLover88]

That's true, but I am still sure there is an almost optimal strategy based on the fact that the opponents are looser than you and what cards they will have a certain percentage of the time.

[MrBlini]

Optimal Guts strategy discussion here.

Heads-up, it's a fairly easy game; however, there is no single strategy that works well all of the time. Additional players and varying pay structures (with a reante each deal and maximum match amount rules, as used on zerorake.com) make the game signficantly harder to play well as well as to understand from a theoretical point of view.