Video Poker Basics: Where Strategy Meets a Pay Table
Video poker occupies an unusual position: it looks like a slot, plays like draw poker, and is one of the most transparent games in the casino. The pay table tells you everything you need to know about a machine’s return, and your choices genuinely affect the outcome.
How a hand plays
- You place a bet (usually one to five coins).
- The machine deals five cards from a standard 52-card deck (or 53 cards with a joker in some variants).
- You choose which cards to hold.
- The machine replaces any cards you don’t hold from the same deck.
- The pay table determines the payout for your final hand.
There’s no dealer hand and no opponent. You’re paid for making a qualifying hand, and that’s all.
Reading the pay table
Jacks or Better is the foundation variant: the lowest paying hand is a pair of jacks or higher. A “full pay” table, known as 9/6, pays 9 coins for a full house and 6 for a flush (per coin bet). With perfect strategy, 9/6 Jacks or Better returns 99.54%.
Change those two numbers to 8/5 and the return drops to 97.3%. To 7/5 and it’s 96.1%. The rest of the table is usually identical, so the full house and flush payouts are the quick test of a machine’s generosity. Online versions vary; the pay table is always visible before you play.
The royal flush and max coins
On most machines the royal flush pays 250 coins per coin bet — except at five coins, where it pays 800 per coin (4,000 total). That jump is significant enough that the quoted 99.54% assumes maximum coins. Betting fewer coins lowers the return to around 98.4%. If five coins at the current denomination is too much, lower the denomination rather than the coin count.
Strategy
Optimal strategy is a ranked list of hands to hold, from a dealt royal flush at the top down to “discard everything”. Some decisions are obvious — hold any made hand of two pair or better. Others seem counter-intuitive. For example, on 9/6 Jacks or Better, you should break a made flush to draw for a royal when you hold four cards to a royal.
A simplified strategy captures most of the value:
- Hold any paying hand (except break a straight/flush for four to a royal).
- Hold four to a royal or straight flush.
- Hold three of a kind, two pair, or a high pair.
- Hold four to a flush.
- Hold a low pair over a single high card.
- Hold three to a royal.
- Hold two high cards of the same suit; otherwise one high card.
- Discard all.
Errors in the middle of the list cost fractions of a percent; errors at the top cost more.
Other variants
Deuces Wild — twos substitute for any card; full-pay versions return over 100% in theory but are rare online. Bonus Poker / Double Bonus — enhanced payouts for four of a kind, funded by lower two-pair returns; higher volatility. Joker Poker — one wild card added.
Each has its own strategy; a chart for one doesn’t transfer.
Volatility
Jacks or Better is low-medium volatility — around 45% of hands return something, and most of the return comes from small wins. The royal flush (about 1 in 40,000 hands) accounts for roughly 2% of the total return, which is why strategy prioritises it.
Why players choose it
Low house edge, complete transparency, and a real sense of skill without the pressure of a live table. It is also slow: hands take a few seconds each, and thinking about the hold decision slows it further, which keeps turnover down.
Even at 99.5%, the return is below 100%. Video poker is a low-cost way to play — not a way to earn.
