Al, it's not a proper French deck according to this:
http://www.commercecasino.com/gameDe...&gameType=
As played at Commerce, it has 8's, 9's, T's removed, so it's 40+Joker.
I play french deck games(including 'French' 5-stud), but have never played this game. I will follow the discussion, and contribute where i can.
First I would say that you should rarely be exposing your down card, unless you have a str8/flush draw on 4th.
Your starters should probably be similar to French-deck 5-stud. High pairs or live Ace-paint, or of course (Joker)-x.
Thoughts??