Video Poker Guide: How to Play and Choose the Right Machine
Video poker is the digital version of five-card draw: you’re dealt five cards, choose which to hold, discard the rest, and get replacements. Unlike slots, your decisions genuinely affect the outcome – which is exactly why paytables and strategy matter so much more here than on a typical reel game.
How a Round Works
- Insert credits and place your bet – typically 1 to 5 coins.
- You’re dealt five cards.
- Choose which cards to hold and which to discard.
- New cards replace your discards.
- Your final hand is scored against the machine’s paytable.
Common Variants
The most common and beginner-friendly variant – you win with a pair of jacks or better. On a full-pay “9/6” paytable (9x on full house, 6x on flush) with optimal play, RTP reaches approximately 99.5%.
All four 2s are wild. Payouts start at three of a kind rather than a pair, and hands made using wild deuces typically pay less than natural equivalents.
Played with a 53-card deck including a joker as a wild card. Depending on the variant, winning hands may start from a pair of kings.
Boosted payouts on specific four-of-a-kind hands, generally at the cost of lower payouts elsewhere on the table – higher variance in exchange for bigger occasional wins.
Why the Paytable Matters More Than the Machine
Two machines running the same game name can have meaningfully different paytables – and therefore different long-run returns. “Full-pay” 9/6 Jacks or Better machines are the ones worth seeking out; “short-pay” versions (8/5 or 6/5, referring to reduced full house and flush payouts) quietly shift the return to player several percentage points lower. Always check the posted paytable before you sit down – it tells you far more than the machine’s cabinet design or theme.
Basic Strategy: Jacks or Better
This hold/discard order (from strongest to weakest starting hand) is a standard, verified reference for full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better:
| Hand Before Draw | Hold | Discard |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush / Straight Flush / Full House / Flush / Straight | 5 | 0 |
| Four of a Kind | 4 | 1 |
| Four-Card Royal Flush | 4 | 1 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 | 2 |
| Four-Card Straight Flush | 4 | 1 |
| Two Pair | 4 | 1 |
| Pair of Jacks or Higher | 2 | 3 |
| Three-Card Royal Flush | 3 | 2 |
| Four-Card Flush | 4 | 1 |
| Pair Lower Than Jacks | 2 | 3 |
| Four-Card Straight | 4 | 1 |
| Three High Cards / Two High Cards / One High Card | 3 / 2 / 1 | 2 / 3 / 4 |
| No Pair, No Draw Potential | 0 | 5 |
Bet the maximum coins (usually 5) whenever your bankroll allows it. On most Jacks or Better machines, the royal flush payout jumps disproportionately at max coin – often 800x your per-coin bet instead of 250x – which is where most of the game’s long-run return actually comes from.
Playing Well
- Follow a hold/discard strategy chart rather than guessing – it’s the single biggest factor in your long-run return.
- Seek out full-pay paytables and avoid short-pay machines.
- Every hand is independent – the machine’s random number generator has no memory of past results.
- Bet within a bankroll you’ve set in advance, and treat losses as the cost of entertainment, not as “due” for a turnaround.
The “Double or Nothing” Side Feature
Some machines offer a double-up feature after a win: guess the color of a hidden card for a 2x payout, or the exact suit for a 4x payout. This is a pure coin-flip (or worse) side bet layered on top of the base game – it doesn’t improve your overall return, and repeatedly doubling up eventually erodes a win back toward zero. Treat it as an optional, higher-variance choice rather than a strategy.
Where Video Poker Sits Between Slots and Skill Games
Video poker sits between pure-chance slots and skill-based table games: the payout table is fixed and the draws are random, but your hold decisions genuinely change your expected return. With a full-pay paytable and correct strategy, some Jacks or Better variants offer among the best return-to-player figures of any game on the casino floor – though, like every casino game, the house retains a mathematical edge even under optimal play.
