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How to play video poker

Video poker is five-card draw against a paytable, not against other players. You get five cards, keep the ones you want, replace the others once, and the machine pays your final hand from the table printed on the screen. The rules fit in five steps; the skill is in what you hold.

On this page
  1. How video poker works
  2. Try it on the table
  3. The winning hands, from best to lowest
  4. How to read a paytable
  5. What to hold: the rules of thumb
  6. Jacks or Better and the other machines
  7. How to play video poker: questions

How video poker works

  1. Choose a coin value and bet 1 to 5 coins.
  2. Press Deal: five cards come face up from a shuffled 52-card deck.
  3. Tap the cards you want to keep; they are marked Held. You can keep all five, or none.
  4. Press Draw: every card you did not hold is replaced from the same deck.
  5. Your final hand is paid from the paytable. On Jacks or Better, a pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces is the smallest win and gives your bet back.

Try it on the table

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Jacks or Better 9/6
Coins12345
Royal Flush2505007501,0004,000
Straight Flush50100150200250
Four of a Kind255075100125
Full House918273645
Flush612182430
Straight48121620
Three of a Kind3691215
Two Pair246810
Jacks or Better12345
Balance
5,000
Bet
5
Win
0

Choose your bet, then Deal. With 5 coins the royal flush pays 800 a coin instead of 250.

Your session

Play a hand: your return and your strategy score will show here.

Keyboard: 1 to 5 hold a card, Enter or Space deals and draws.

Play video poker for real money

The winning hands, from best to lowest

Video poker uses the poker hand rankings. On Jacks or Better these nine hands pay, and everything else loses. Payouts per coin on the full-pay 9/6 machine:

  • 10♥J♥Q♥K♥A♥Royal flush10 to Ace in one suit: 800 with 5 coins, 250 with fewer
  • 5♠6♠7♠8♠9♠Straight flushfive in a row, one suit: 50
  • 9♣9♦9♥9♠3♦Four of a kind25
  • K♠K♦K♥4♣4♠Full housethree of a kind and a pair: 9
  • 2♦7♦9♦J♦K♦Flushfive of one suit: 6
  • 6♣7♦8♠9♥10♣Straightfive in a row, mixed suits: 4
  • 7♣7♥7♦K♠2♥Three of a kind3
  • J♣J♦5♠5♥A♣Two pair2
  • Q♥Q♠3♣8♦6♠Jacks or bettera pair of J, Q, K or A: 1, your bet back

An Ace can be high (10-J-Q-K-A) or low (A-2-3-4-5) in a straight. A pair of 10s or lower pays nothing on Jacks or Better.

How to read a paytable

Machines that look alike can pay differently, and the difference is in two lines: the full house and the flush. A “9/6” machine pays 9 for a full house and 6 for a flush; an “8/5” pays 8 and 5. That single change moves the return with perfect play from 99.54% to 97.30%.

Check the royal flush line too. It pays 250 per coin with 1 to 4 coins but 800 per coin with 5 coins: 4,000 instead of 1,250 on the fifth coin. Playing fewer than 5 coins drops a 9/6 machine to 98.37%, so if 5 coins is too much, pick a smaller coin value rather than fewer coins.

Paytable (full house / flush)Return, perfect play
9/699.54%
9/598.45%
8/698.39%
8/597.30%
7/596.15%
6/595.00%
Jacks or Better with 5 coins, computed over all 2,598,960 possible deals.

What to hold: the rules of thumb

The machine never decides for you. These rules, each checked hand by hand against the exact calculation, settle most choices on Jacks or Better:

  • Keep two pair or better, except when you hold four cards to a royal flush: break a flush, a straight or a high pair for them.
  • Keep four to a straight flush rather than a high pair.
  • Keep a high pair (J, Q, K, A) alone, without a kicker, and rather than three to a royal flush.
  • Keep four to a flush rather than a low pair, and a low pair rather than four to an open straight or two high cards.
  • With nothing, keep two high cards of the same suit; with no high card and no draw, throw all five away.

The free machine on this page has a coach that works out the exact best hold on every hand and shows what each choice costs.

Jacks or Better and the other machines

  • Jacks or Better: the classic, and the machine on this page. The smallest win is a pair of Jacks.
  • Bonus Poker, Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus: the same hands, with bigger payouts for some four of a kinds, paid for elsewhere in the table, often by a lower full house, flush or two pair.
  • Deuces Wild: every 2 is wild and can stand for any card, so the smallest win becomes three of a kind and new hands appear, such as five of a kind.
  • Joker Poker: a 53rd card, the joker, is wild.
  • Whatever the machine, the paytable is the game: the same hands on a meaner table can cost several times as much.

How to play video poker: questions

Is video poker luck or skill?

Both. The cards are random, but what you hold changes the return: perfect play on a 9/6 machine returns 99.54%, and every mistake takes some of it away.

What does 9/6 mean?

The payouts per coin for a full house (9) and a flush (6) on Jacks or Better. It is the full-pay version; 8/5 and lower return less.

Why bet 5 coins?

The royal flush pays 800 a coin with 5 coins but 250 with fewer, which is worth more than a point of return on a 9/6 machine. Lower the coin value instead of the number of coins.

Does the machine know which cards I will hold?

No. Each hand is dealt from a single shuffled 52-card deck, and the replacement cards come from the rest of that deck, like a real dealer.

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