A. Four-of-a-kind is an extremely important hand in Deuces Wild. A pair of 2s with another pair is four-of-a-kind. If you have three cards of one denomination, one of another and a 2, the 2 doesn't pair with the singleton for a full house; it completes the four of a kind.

The effect is that you get four-of-a-kind more often than you get all four hands you mentioned combined.

Full-pay Deuces is marked by a 5-for-1 payoff on quads vs. 4-for-1 on NSU. On the other hands you mention, the NSU edge per coin wagered is 16 vs. 15 on five of a kind, 10 vs. 9 on straight flushes, 4 vs. 3 on full houses and 3 vs. 2 on flushes.

Given expert strategy at full-pay Deuces, you'll get four-of-a-kind once per 15.4 hands, while flushes happen once per 60.3, full houses once per 47.1, straight flushes once per 242.7 and five of a kind once per 312.3.

There are some strategy adjustments to be made when playing NSU, but even there quads occur far more often that the other hands mentioned. There, you'll get four-of-a- kind once per 16.4 hands vs. once per 48.2 on flushes, 38.3 on full houses, 194.7 on straight flushes and 321.7 on five of a kind.

The bottom line is that full-pay Deuces is a 100.8 percent game with expert play, while NSU Deuces is a 99.7 percent game.

As in any video poker game, there will be sessions that drain your bankroll. And there are adjustments to be made. An NSU player used to holding two pairs might not know to hold just one pair to maximize quad chances in full-pay 2s. Another difference: An NSU player will hold four parts of a flush instead of a pair; a full-pay player will hold the pair.

A. Given basic strategy for a single-deck game, the house edge is about 2.5 percent. If you got the full 3-2 payoff on blackjacks, it would be a 0.24 percent game, but even-money pays on two-card 21s add 2.27 percent to the house edge.

That's equivalent to a slot payback percentage of 97.5 percent, so yes it's a higher payback than on penny slots. Returns vary from game to game, casino to casino and jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but penny slot paybacks almost always are less than 90 percent.

A word of caution: Video blackjack plays a lot faster than table blackjack. The video game doesn't need time for dealing cards to other players, settling bets, stacking chips in trays, buy-ins and cash outs of multiple players, shuffles or cuts.

As a video player, you can play just as fast as you can make decisions and hit the buttons.

At a full table, you might play only 50 to 60 hands per hour. If you're betting $10 a hand, you're risking $500 to $600. At your video blackjack game, it's easy to get in 500 hands per hour, and nearly 1,000 for q quick, focused player. Even at the slower speed, with $1 bets, you're betting $500 per hour.

Your hourly wager total is right up there with the $10 table players, and you're playing against a house edge that probably is much higher than the table edge.

A. You are correct on the flush issue. Raise 3xs on any four cards of the same suit. Royal or straight flush possibilities make the hand even more valuable.

As for the straight issue, the choice is with the amount of the raise, not a decision between raising and folding. You raise 3x your ante with 5-6-7-8, but you stay in the game and raise an amount equal to your ante with 4-5-6-7 or other low straight draws.

The reason is that the 8-high open-ended straight includes three cards that are 6 or higher, with the 7-high hand includes only two such cards. Mississippi Stud paybacks start at a pair of 6s, so higher straight draws have more possibilities of generating winners than do lower ones.