Video poker is the one casino game that shows you its odds before you play: the pay table is right there in the game. Read it, hold the right cards, and the best games pay back more than 99% of what you bet, the best versions of a few more than 100%. Everything here is solved by our engine rather than copied from a chart, from the return of each pay table to the best way to hold a dealt hand.
Three ways in, depending on how well you know the game.
Video poker shows you its odds before you play. Played perfectly, 9/6 Jacks or Better returns 99.54% of every bet. The same game paying 8 for a full house and 5 for a flush returns 97.30%, and nothing you do with the cards wins the difference back.
Jacks or Better games are known by two numbers: what a full house and a flush pay for each coin. The rest of the pay table is the same on all six below, so those two numbers set the price of the game.
“Keeps” is what each pay table holds back of every bet over the long run, with every hand played correctly. At $1.25 a hand and 1,000 hands an hour, that is $5.75 an hour at 9/6 and $62.50 at 6/5.
Mostly from small wins. Two pair and a pair of jacks or better come up in a third of all hands and pay back 47.31 of every 100 you bet between them. The royal flush, 1 in 40,391 hands, pays back 1.98.
9/6 Jacks or Better, every hand played correctly, five coins a hand; “pays back” is out of every 100 bet. The royal’s share is why the fifth coin matters: bet fewer and the royal pays 250 for 1 instead of 800, and the same game returns 98.37%.
Every figure in this section was solved by our engine: all 2,598,960 possible deals, each one held the best of its 32 ways and drawn against every card left in the deck. It matches the long-published returns for these games to the last decimal shown.
Five cards can be held 32 ways. Pick a hand below or deal one, and every hold is priced in your browser against every possible draw, for the game you choose. The same five cards are often played differently from one game to the next.
The solver needs JavaScript, because every hold is worked out here rather than stored. Four decisions it settles, for 9/6 Jacks or Better, with the return of each hold for every 1 you bet:
No email, no signup. Each one works the maths out in your browser, with the same engine as the solver above.
These tools are being built. Until they land, the solver above prices every hold of a dealt hand in three games.
Six things worth knowing before the first hand.
In order: the pay table first, then the game you play, then the money.
Six games, six different strategies. Each figure is that game’s return at the pay table named, with every hand played correctly.
The strategy guides are being written. Until they land, the solver above plays three of these games for you, hand by hand.
Casinos whose reviews cover video poker, ranked by our games score. Pay tables differ from casino to casino and game to game, so read the full house and flush lines before you play: 9/6 against 8/5 is worth 2.24% of everything you bet.
Casino-focused offering; coin-specific withdrawal fees and limits.
Casino games with coin-specific banking; support handles account restrictions.
Casino games with a crypto welcome offer; payment limits depend on the coin and approval comes before transfer.
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