Video poker pay tables: two numbers set the price.
Find the game’s name, then the lines that set its price: in Jacks or Better and the bonus games, what a full house and a flush pay for one coin. 9/6 Jacks or Better pays back 99.54% with every hand held correctly; 8/5 pays back 97.30%, and 6/5 only 95.00%.
Playing the 9/6 strategy on an 8/5 game costs 0.01% of every bet. The pay table itself costs 2.24%. Choose the table first, then learn its game.
A few numbers name the version.
Every video poker pay table lists the same hands, best first, with what each pays for one to five coins. Most of it is identical from one version of a game to the next. The price is set by a few lines in the middle.
| Hand | 1 coin | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 4,0003 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 250 |
| Four of a kind | 25 | 125 |
| Full house | 91 | 45 |
| Flush | 62 | 30 |
| Straight | 4 | 20 |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 15 |
| Two pair | 2 | 10 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 5 |
- Full house: 9. What it pays for one coin is the first number in the version’s name.
- Flush: 6. The second number. Together they make 9/6, and they are where versions of the game differ.
- Royal flush at five coins: 4,000. That is 800 for 1, the payout every return on this page assumes. Bet fewer coins and the royal pays 250 for 1.
What to read in each game
The same two numbers can name different games
9/6 Jacks or Better pays two pair 2 for 1 and pays back 99.54%. 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe pays two pair only 1 for 1, makes it up on four of a kind, and pays back 99.64%. Read the game’s name first, then its lines, and compare like with like.
What is this version worth?
Pick the game, then the numbers on its pay table. Every version here has been solved exactly, every deal held the best way, so the figure is what that table pays back over the long run.
The full-pay version of Jacks or Better.
With every hand held correctly it keeps 0.46% of every bet: about $5.75 an hour at $1.25 a hand and 1,000 hands an hour.
On the pay table Full house 9, flush 6
Five coins a hand, so the royal flush pays 800 for 1. Hourly figures use $1.25 a hand and 1,000 hands an hour, an assumption rather than a measured pace, and are worked from the returns as shown. Versions that pay back more than 100% do so only with every hand held correctly.
The lines that name a game are not the most valuable.
Take one coin off any line of 9/6 Jacks or Better and the game pays back less. How much less depends on how often the hand turns up, not on how big the payout is.
Two pair
2 → 1 for 1 · 1 in 7.7 hands12.83% of every bet
The most valuable line on the table. Games that pay two pair only 1 for 1, such as Double Bonus, pay far more for four of a kind to make up for it.
Three of a kind
3 → 2 for 1 · 1 in 13.4 hands7.43% of every bet
Common enough that one coin is worth more than the full house and flush together.
Royal flush, fewer than five coins
800 → 250 for 1 · 1 in 40,391 hands1.17% of every bet
Bet fewer than five coins and the royal pays 250 for 1 instead of 800. The other lines pay the same per coin.
Full house
9 → 8 for 1 · 1 in 87 hands1.15% of every bet
The first of the two numbers that name the version: this is 9/6 against 8/6.
Flush
6 → 5 for 1 · 1 in 91 hands1.09% of every bet
The second number: 9/6 against 9/5.
Straight
4 → 3 for 1 · 1 in 89 hands1.08% of every bet
Worth about as much as a coin on the flush. Standard Jacks or Better tables keep it at 4.
Four of a kind
25 → 24 for 1 · 1 in 423 hands0.23% of every bet
Rare enough that one coin barely moves the game.
Straight flush
50 → 49 for 1 · 1 in 9,148 hands0.01% of every bet
Worth almost nothing on its own.
Each change re-solves the whole game, so the strategy adapts to it as it would on a real pay table; “1 in” is how often you finish on the hand at 9/6. Versions of a game almost always differ on the full house and flush, which is why those two numbers are used to name them.
Same name, different price.
The name of a game tells you which strategy to play. Only its pay table tells you what it pays back, and within one name the spread is wider than most players expect.
Each dot is one version on the checker above, on a scale from 94% to 101%; the upright line marks 100%, where a game would pay back exactly what you bet. “Pts” are percentage points of every bet.
Change the pay table, keep the strategy?
Within one game, nearly. Between games, never. Here is what each borrowed strategy costs, with every one of the 2,598,960 deals held the way the borrowed strategy says and paid by the pay table you are actually playing.
9/6 Jacks or Better strategy on 8/5 Jacks or Better
97.29% instead of 97.30%
Jacks or Better strategy on 8/5 Bonus Poker
99.16% instead of 99.17%
Jacks or Better strategy on 9/6 Double Double Bonus
98.44% instead of 98.98%
Jacks or Better strategy on full-pay Deuces Wild
61.71% instead of 100.76%
So the order matters. Moving from 8/5 to 9/6 Jacks or Better is worth 2.24% of every bet, and you keep almost all of it with the strategy you already know. Moving to a different game means learning its strategy first; choosing a hold explains how every strategy is built.
Questions about pay tables.
What does 9/6 mean in video poker?
It is what a full house and a flush pay for one coin on a Jacks or Better pay table: 9 and 6. Those two lines are where versions of the game differ, so they are used as its name. 9/6 pays back 99.54% with every hand held correctly; 8/5 pays back 97.30%.
Which video poker pay table is best?
Of the versions on this page, Deuces Wild at 15/9/5/3/2 pays back the most: 100.76%, played correctly. In Jacks or Better, the game most often learned first, 9/6 is the version to look for. A table only pays what it says if you play its strategy; a game you play badly costs more than its pay table suggests.
Can a pay table pay back more than 100%?
Yes. Of the versions here, Double Bonus at 10/7, Double Double Bonus at 10/6, Deuces Wild at 15/9/5/3/2 and Joker Poker at 20/7/5 all do, with every hand held correctly. Over the long run the player comes out slightly ahead. Over a single session the swings are far bigger than that edge, so it shows only over a great many hands.
Do I need a new strategy for every pay table?
Not within one game. Playing the 9/6 Jacks or Better strategy on an 8/5 game costs 0.01% of every bet. Between games you do: Jacks or Better strategy on Double Double Bonus costs 0.54%, and on Deuces Wild 39.05 percentage points.
Does betting fewer than five coins change the pay table?
Only the royal flush line. It pays 250 for 1 instead of 800, and 9/6 Jacks or Better falls from 99.54% to 98.37%. Every other line pays the same per coin.
Where is the pay table in an online game?
Usually above the cards, with the column for your current bet lit up. Some games keep it behind a pays or help button. It is worth reading before the first hand, every time you open a game you have not played before.
Find the two numbers, then play.
What this page comes down to.
The name is not the price
Jacks or Better pays back anything from 99.54% at 9/6 to 95.00% at 6/5, played the same way. Only the pay table tells you which one you are playing.
Two lines set it
The full house and flush name the version. 9/6 against 8/5 is worth 2.24% of everything you bet.
Table first, strategy second
The 9/6 strategy played on an 8/5 game costs 0.01%. Jacks or Better strategy on Deuces Wild costs 39.05 points. Pick the table, then learn its game.