Video Poker strategy
Pick the best payout table
The most important aspect of video poker strategy is to
select a game with the best possible payout table. You need to learn how to
distinguish between "good" and "bad" video poker payout schedules. As a good
example, you can compare "full pay" with "short pay" video poker games, as in
the following tables.
| Hand |
"Full pay" |
"Short pay" |
| Royal flush |
800 |
800 |
| Straight flush |
50 |
50 |
| 4 of a kind |
25 |
25 |
| Full house |
9 |
8 |
| Flush |
6 |
5 |
| Straight |
4 |
4 |
| 3 of a kind |
3 |
3 |
| 2 pairs |
2 |
2 |
| Pair of Jacks or Better |
1 |
1 |
The second column lists the payouts for full pay, or 9/6 Jacks or
better video poker, while the third column lists the payouts
for short pay, or 8/5 Jacks or better variants of
the game.
9/6 Jacks or better video poker has a house edge
of 0.5%, while 8/5 Jacks or better video poker has a house
edge of up to 1%? - note that some online casinos actually have
even better payouts tables for 9/6 Jacks or better,
but most online casinos actually have worse payout tables. A good
example of full pay Jacks or better can be found at
Roxy Palace Casino. In fact, all
Playtech online casinos and
Microgaming
online
casinos have full pay Jacks or Better video poker.
Always bet the maximum coins
As a rule of thumb we suggest that you always bet maximum coins. The
simple reason for this is that you will typically get a much higher payout if
you hit a royal flush
Always play the highest possible jackpot
Some video poker online casinos offer video poker jackpots. We
strongly recommend that you play the machine with the biggest jackpot. However,
you will find that in some instances, the Royal Flush may pay out more that the
standard 9/6 Jacks or Better payout table. This amount is sometimes bigger than
the jackpot amounts so be sure to double check.
About the Royal Flush
As mentioned, 9/6 Jacks or better video poker has a house edge of 0.5%.
Be aware that when not counting the Royal
Flush, the house edge is actually much higher. The probability of
getting a Royal
Flush is about 1 in every 40,000 hands. Most players will never play
tha many hands, so you should always take into account the actual higher
house edge when comparing video poker to other online casino games.
Average game return vs. Variation
The ave. return for 9/6 Jacks or better? is 99,5%.
Some video poker games actually offer an even higher potential average return,
but this comes at
the expense of a bigger variance. The ave. return for Deuces
wild video poker is above 100%, but the variance is much higher. The
average return for Joker's wild video poker is even higher,
with the variance increasing even more. A higher variance implies
that you
have to kick off with a bigger bankroll if you want to get a
Royal Flush. You can play Deuces Wild and Jokers Wild at
Golden
Riviera Casino.
"9/6 Jacks or better" video poker - The strategy chart
There are too many variations of 9/6 Jacks or better video poker
to list different video poker strategy tables for each,
but you can find a
basic
9/6 Jacks or Better video poker strategy here.
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