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Video Poker

Introduction to video poker

One of the most exciting casino games that players can enjoy in a mobile casino is video poker. As is the case with most casino games, it was developed for land-based gaming venues such as pubs and casinos, but just like slots, it has successfully been transferred online and now, with wireless network technologies, to mobile devices as well.

Generally, video poker games are based on the classic five-card draw poker; however, instead of competing against other players, the player uses a machine. Similarly to slots, the player does not need to worry that other, more seasoned players are going to take advantage of his or her lack of experience. On the contrary, with this type of casino game you bet against “the house”. This is what makes this game particularly appropriate for players on the go who do not need to worry that they are going to lose money to other players due to a lack of concentration.

So, how exactly does one play video poker? Even though there might be different game variations, the rules are quite simple and easy to grasp. First, you need to bet a certain amount of money or credits and then you click on the “deal” button. You are then given cards from a virtual deck. Just like in a regular poker game, you need to look at the cards that you have been dealt, and make a decision whether to substitute one or more of those cards for other cards from the virtual deck. Naturally, the purpose is to build the strongest card combination possible, since the game will pay out if the hand or hands played match any of the winning combinations in the game.

Video poker games

Even though the rules of the different video poker games are quite similar, there are nevertheless different variations, with “Deuces Wild” and “Jacks or Better” being the most common ones.

In “Deuces Wild”, the main rule is that all twos can be used as wildcards, meaning that you can use them as a substitute for any other card in the deck that you might need so as to form a better winning combination. As for “Jacks or Better”, which is also called “Draw Poker”, the payoffs in the game begin at a pair of jacks.

How to play video poker in a mobile casino

If you have decided to try some video poker games in a mobile casino, you basically need to register at that casino (if you are a new player, that is) and then check whether you need to download the casino software or whether you are able to use the flash casino option.

Usually, mobile casinos offer a demo mode for video poker as well, which will help players get acquainted with the game rules and learn more about the different game variations and combinations that can potentially bring them more winnings. This is quite important, since the player needs to make certain decisions which will have an impact on the outcome of the game.

Video poker myths

Who Spreads These Superstitions, Anyway?

One of the aspects of video poker that people enjoy is the solitary nature of the game. If you’re looking for camaraderie, you’d probably be better off playing craps or roulette, where there’s a decided social aspect to playing. But sure enough, if you hang out long enough in the video poker section of a casino, some well-meaning but foolish person will start sharing video poker myths and misconceptions with you.

I’ve listed some of those myths here.

Video Poker Myths & Misconceptions

Higher denomination machines have better payouts. There is a kernel of truth in this one, because higher denomination machines will usually have a better pay table. But the pay table is what determines the payout percentage, not the denomination of the machine. So don’t make the mistake of thinking that two machines with different denominations but the same payback table will pay out differently, because they will pay out exactly the same.
Quarter machines are cheap action. At first it would seem that this is true, and they certainly offer cheaper action than dollar machines. But consider this: you’re going to play the max bet each hand, which means you’ll be betting $1.25 per hand. And you’ll probably play close to 600 hands per hour. That’s $750 worth of action in an hour!
There are “good” machines which offer more royals than typical, and there are “bad” machines which offer fewer royals than is typical. This is conspiracy thinking. The truth of the matter is that once every 40,000 hands or so, you’ll see a royal flush. The machines have tightly controlled random number generators (RNG’s), and they’re licensed and regulated. The casino gets its advantage from the payback table of the machine, not from tricks with machines that don’t pay out correctly.
A machine that just hit a royal is “cold” and not due for a royal anytime soon. And a machine that hasn’t hit a royal in a while is “due” and is a better bet than a cold machine. The RNG (random number generator) shuffles and deals from its virtual deck every hand, regardless of what the payout on the previous hand was. There’s no such thing as a cold or hot video poker machine, unless you’re referring to the pay tables.

Why Does It Matter?

Being aware of what the truth about the odds are in video poker make you a better player. If you’re spending your time and effort on something futile like finding a hot machine that’s “due”, or you’re playing high denomination machines just because you think they’ll pay out better based on the stakes, then you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage.

You’ll gain an advantage by learning what are good pay tables, and by learning how to play with perfect strategy. Focusing energy away from that is going to cost you more money in the long run.

Why Play Video Poker

Like blackjack, video poker involves making decisions that affect the profitability or lack of profitability in your play. If you’re playing on an appropriate machine, and if you can play perfectly, you can get the house edge down to 0.46% or lower. Blackjack players who are really good might be able to beat those odds, but that ain’t easy–have you tried counting cards? That’s the only way to get a better payout percentage playing blackjack as opposed to video poker.

Video poker is dead easy, and I can play it by myself. When you’re playing blackjack and you want to think about a decision, you might have a whole table full of people staring at you while you make your decision. I can’t stand that kind of pressure. Give me the solitude and comfort of a video poker parlor any day, thanks.

Video Poker Payback Percentages

Different video poker games have different payback percentages, but even the worst games with the worst paytables usually have better payback percentages than slot machines. It’s more exciting to talk about the really great payback percentages that are available. Jacks or Better, with a 9/6 pay table, offers a payback percentage of 99.5%. Some Deuces Wild games offers payback percentages of just over 100.1%. And one of the easiest video poker games to learn perfect strategy for, Pickem Poker, offers a 99.95% payout.

When you add back the value of the comps and rewards available through the slots club, even negative expectation video poker games become positive plays. If a casino is paying out 0.4% of your play back in comps and slot club rewards, and you’re playing a game that already pays back 99.95%, your total payout percentage becomes over 100.3%. (And that doesn’t include the free drinks you can order while you’re playing. If you like premium liquors, you can increase the value of those free drinks even more.)

Video Poker Strategy

Video poker is similar to slot machines and has something in common with poker besides just the name. The decisions you make affect how much you win or lose. That’s the biggest difference between a video poker machine and a slot machine, by the way–no matter what decision you make while playing a slot machine, it has no effect on the mathematical outcome of the game.

This site aims to teach you how to play video poker. There are two reasons we recommend playing video poker – one is that it’s a lot of fun! The other is that we think video poker is your best chance of winning against the casino in the long run. No other casino game gives you the chance to win with less effort than video poker.

Jacks or Better Video Poker Strategy

Full Pay Jacks or Better Video Poker

Step one in an optimal strategy for jacks or better is finding a game with the best possible pay table. The pay table is simply the list of returns on different video poker hands. When you’re looking for a jacks or better pay table, you’re looking for what is called 9/6 jacks or better. This is also called a “full-pay” machine.

“Full pay” does not mean that the machine pays back at 100%. A 9/6 jacks or better game will return about 99.5% to a skilled player. Full pay simply means that you’re getting the highest standard pay table for a specific game or machine.

Pay Table for Full Pay 9/6 Jacks or Better

Hand	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Straight flush	50	100	150	200	250
4 of a kind	25	50	75	100	125
Full house	9	18	27	36	45
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
3 of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
2 pair	2	4	6	8	10
pair of jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

On a jacks or better game, you should focus on the payouts for the full house and the flush. The 9/6 refers to a payout of 9 coins on a full house when you’ve bet 1 coin, and a payout of 6 coins on a flush when you’ve bet 1 coin. Most online casinos offer full-pay jacks or better, but land-based casinos are often full of “short-pay” game, like 8/5 jacks or better. An 8/5 game pays back only 97.3%, which is a big difference from a full pay game.

Different Payback %’s for Jacks or Better Games

Version	Payback %	Est. $ Played per Hour	Expected Loss/Hour
9/6	99.54%	$750	$3.45
8/5	97.3%	$750	$20.25
7/5	96.15%	$750	$28.88
6/5	95%	$750	$37.50

How Jacks or Better Strategy is Determined

To figure out the perfect strategy for jacks or better, you have to determined what the optimal decisions are given certain combinations of hands. And to determine that, you have to understand how frequently certain hands will come up, what the payout is when they do come up, and what the return for that particular hands is. You don’t actually have to do those calculations, because they’ve already been done by people smarter than me, but it’s important to understand that those numbers are “behind” the correct strategic decisions.

Frequencies and Paybacks on 9/6 Jacks or Better Hands

Hand	Odds	Probability	Payout	Return
Royal flush	1 in 40,391	0.002%	800	1.98%
Straight flush	1 in 9148	0.011%	50	0.55%
4 of a kind	1 in 423	0.236%	25	5.91%
Full house	1 in 87	1.151%	9	10.36%
Flush	1 in 91	1.101%	6	6.61%
Straight	1 in 89	1.123%	4	4.49%
3 of a kind	1 in 13	7.445%	3	22.33%
2 pair	1 in 8	12.928%	2	25.86%
Jacks or better	1 in 5	21.459%	1	21.46%
Nothing	1 in 2	54.543%	0	0.00%

The odds are rounded to the nearest whole number, and the 800 payout on the royal flush assumes a max bet. If you don’t make the max bet, you don’t get a payout of 800 on that bet.

Really Simple Jacks or Better Strategy for Beginners and Casual Players

This is a simple strategy that will give you a decent return, but at the same time is easy to learn and play.

Rule #1 – Hold any paying combination unless you have 4 to a royal flush, or unless you have a high pair and 4 to a straight flush. In those cases, draw to the royal or straight flush.

Rule #2 – Start at the top of this list, and stop when you get to a hand you can hold:

3 cards to a royal flush
4 cards to a straight flush
low pair (any pair lower than jacks)
4 cards to an outside straight draw
JQKA offsuit
2 suited high cards (jacks or better)
3 cards to a straight flush
JQK offsuit
2 unsuited high cards
high card + 10 of the same suit, excluding ace-ten
any high card
nothing, draw 5 new cards

The Complete 9/6 Jacks or Better Strategy Table

The way this strategy table works is that you start at the top and go down. Once you find a match, those are the cards you hold.

The combinations that you can hold are listed in order of which ones have the best return.

An inside straight is a straight with a gap in the middle of it, so that only 1 card can complete the straight. For example, 4578 would need a 6 to complete the straight. An outside straight draw would be something like 4567, because any 3 or any 8 would complete the straight, doubling your chances of hitting it.

Royal flush
Straight flush
4 of a kind
4 cards to a royal flush
Full house
Flush
3 of a kind
Straight
4 cards to a straight flush
2 pair
Pair of jacks or better
3 cards to a royal flush
4 cards to a flush
10JQK, unsuited
Pair of 10’s or less
9-10-J-Q, unsuited
8-9-10-J, unsuited
9JQ, suited
9-10-J, suited
9-10-Q, suited
4 cards to an outside straight with no high cards
3 cards to a straight flush, with 2 gaps and 2 high cards
3 cards to a straight flush, with 1 gap and 1 high card
3 cards to a straight flush, no high cards
JQKA, unsuited
2 cards to a royal flush, 2 high cards
4 cards to a straight with 1 gap and 3 high cards
3 cards to a straight flush with 2 gaps and 1 high card
3 cards to a straight flush with 1 gap and no high cards
JQK, unsuited
2 high cards, unsuited (don’t keep an ace if you have 3 high cards)
2 card royal flush with a 10 and no ace
1 high card
3 card straight flush with 2 gaps and no high cards
Nothing – draw 5 new cards

Full Pay Deuces Wild Video Poker

The first step in a coherent deuces wild video poker strategy is to find a “full pay” game. In video poker, “full pay” doesn’t mean that the game pays back at 100%, it just means that you’re getting the best standard pay table for that particular game. But in Deuces Wild, if you can find an actual full pay machine, the payback percentage is 100.76%, which makes it one of the best bets in any casino, if you play correctly. In fact, it’s an example of positive expectation video poker.

Pay Table for Full Pay Deuces Wild

Hand	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	800	500	750	1000	4000
4 deuces	200	400	600	800	1000
Wild royal flush	25	50	75	100	125
5 of a kind	15	30	45	60	75
Straight flush	9	18	27	36	45
4 of a kind	5	10	15	20	25
Full house	3	6	9	12	15
Flush	2	4	6	8	10
Straight	2	4	6	8	10
3 of a kind	1	2	3	4	5

It should probably be noted that full pay deuces wild is not a common offering, and most places offer what the Wizard of Odds calls “not so ugly” Deuces Wild, and some places offer faux full pay Deuces Wild. (This is the part where the Texas Holdem dealer tells me, “English only at the table, sir!”)

In the “not so ugly” version of Deuces Wild, 5 of a kind pays 16 instead of 15, and a straight flush pays a 10 instead of a 9. This might make you think the return would be better on this version of the game, but it’s not. Because the return on the 4 of a kind is reduced to 4…and that particular hand makes up 1/3 of your expectation in this game, so reducing the payout for that hand by 20% has a big effect on your expectation. Although the game still has a 99.7% payback, even with that change.

There are lots of other pay tables for Deuces Wild, and the payback percentage just keeps going down for these games. The hands and paybacks to look at are the 4 of a kind – you want to get paid at least 5 to 1 on this hand if at all possible, since it’s the biggest source of your return.

Strategy for Full Pay Deuces Wild

Like the jacks or better strategy, you start at the top of the deuces wild strategy table and work your way down. The strategy is actually divided into 4 strategy tables, which are determined by how many deuces you have. (Also, if you’re looking for a quick and dirty intro to strategy, check out our deuces wild tips article.)

4 Deuces

This is a great hand. Draw a card if you want to, but you pretty much have five of a kind here no matter what you draw.

3 Deuces

Not much to complain about here.

Wild royal flush.
5 of a kind, with a pair of tens or better in addition to your 3 deuces.
3 deuces only, draw 2 cards.

2 Deuces

Wild royal flush.
5 of a kind.
Straight flush.
4 of a kind.
4 cards to a wild royal flush.
4 cards to an open-ended straight flush.
2 deuces only, draw 3 cards.

1 Deuce

Wild royal flush.
5 of a kind.
Straight flush.
4 of a kind.
4 cards to a wild royal flush.
Full house.
4 cards to an open-ended straight flush.
3 of a kind.
Flush.
Straight.
4 cards to a straight flush with a gap.
4 cards to a straight flush with 2 gaps.
A deuce + A34, or A35, or A45, any of which are suited.
3 cards to a royal flush with no ace.
3 cards to an open ended straight flush.
3 cards to a royal flush with an ace.
Deuce only, draw 4 cards.

No Deuces

Royal flush.
4 cards to a royal flush.
Straight flush.
4 of a kind.
Full house.
3 of a kind.
Flush.
Straight.
4 cards to a straight flush.
3 cards to a royal flush.
A pair.
4 cards to a flush.
4 cards to an open-ended straight EXCEPT for 3456.
3 cards to a straight flush.
456 suited.
345 suited.
TJ suited.
3 cards to a straight flush with 2 gaps.
TQ suited or JQ suited.
346 suited or 356 suited.
4 cards to a straight with one gap EXCEPT A345.
Nothing, draw 5 cards.

Just go down the chart until you find something that matches what you have in your hand, then hold that and either get paid or draw. The first part of each chart matches the payout schedule for the machine, since those are the highest hands, so they’re easy to remember. You don’t even have to memorize them unless you want to. (And if you play video poker much, you’re probably already somewhat familiar with hand rankings anyway.)

Deuces Wild Tips

If you’re one of those people who aren’t interested in a complete strategy chart for a game like deuces wild, then you’ll be interested in this plain-talking simple deuces wild tips page. It’s just a list of strategy suggestions that will help you minimize your losses and maximize your winnings at Deuces Wild video poker.

There’s no such thing as a single high card in Deuces Wild. The ONLY time you’ll hold a single card in Deuces Wild is when you have a deuce.
NEVER discard a deuce. If you have a draw to a natural royal flush, you might think about it, but don’t actually do it, because it’s a mistake.
Never hold a single high card along with your deuce. Holding a high card with a single deuce only hurts your chances of making a good hand.
Always keep a pair over 4 to a flush or 4 to a straight.
Never hold 2 pairs. Always hold one pair and draw 3 cards.
It doesn’t matter which of the 2 pair you throw away.
Don’t kick yourself over your decision after the fact either.
Avoid a Deuces Wild machine that pays less than 5 to 1 on four of a kind.
Four of a kind accounts for over 1/3 of your total return in Deuces Wild. That will help you understand why you don’t hold 2 pairs or 4 to a flush or a straight.
You’ll throw away everything in your hand about once in every 5 hands. (Compare that with one in every 30 hands or so in Jacks or Better.)

I’ll repeat some of the advice and tips from the jacks or better tips section too. Remember to have fun – this is a game, after all, and the whole point is to enjoy yourself. Take advantage of the slots club and comps to increase your returns.

Deuces Wild is one of the most exciting and interesting video poker games available, and if the tips on this page help you have more fun with the game, then I’ve done my job.