Video Poker Strategy: Guide to Winning Charts, Cards, and Tactics

Whether you play video poker online or in real Las Vegas casinos, your winning chances are higher than in online slots for one simple reason — video poker is a game of skill. Well, the program does determine your draw and replacement cards, but at the end of the day, it’s your decision that prevails.

Playing video poker machines is, therefore, unlike online slot games where only the RNG determines your fate. In video poker games, you also get to use a strategy that could turn the tables around in your favor. Of course, you need to master the rules, payouts, percentages, and charts before utilizing a strategy properly.

Don’t worry, though — our team will present you with the main tips and tricks on getting the most out of your video Deuces Wild and Jacks or Better experience.

Basics of Video Poker

A video poker game is an RNG-operated machine based on a similar program to online slots. It’s very popular in both land-based casino venues and online gambling sites. However, there’s one major difference compared to slots — in a round of a video poker game, you get to make your own decisions based on dealt cards.

Video poker screen showing typical game interface with dealt cards

The game usually starts with five cards being dealt to players, and from there, you get to decide which ones you wish to keep and which ones to discard. This is where video poker game variations come into play since it all depends on the game version. You’ll most commonly find Deuces Wild or Jacks or Better being played, so let’s say that you decide to play online video poker of the latter type.

In Jacks or Better, the goal is to get at least a pair of Jacks, which qualifies you for a winning hand, so based on your drawn cards, you can decide to keep or discard some of them. Every video poker machine has different payout rates, and that means you can combine your knowledge of game rules with payout rates and come up with an optimal strategy.

To get there, you’ll naturally have to know poker hand rankings, so we’ll explain these with the main poker types in mind.

Poker Hand Rankings Explained: From Pairs to Royal Flush

Explanation of poker hand rankings from pairs to royal flush for video poker strategy

It goes without saying that the pay table affects your video poker odds and payouts, directly affecting your strategy. Besides the payouts, you’ll also need to know hand rankings. Here’s a quick overview of the rankings:

Pair — Two Jacks are the least you would hope to get in a round of Jacks or Better, while two pairs are already a base of a good hand.
Two Pairs — Two pairs relate to having two separate pair cards in a five-card hand.
Three-of-a-kind — Three-of-a-kind means you’d have three of the same cards ordered.
Four-of-a-kind — A four-of-a-kind means you have four jacks or better or four other matching cards.
Straight — A straight is any combination of five cards ordered from lowest to highest.
Flush — A flush has five cards of the same suit.
Full House — A full house is a combo of a three-of-a-kind and a pair in one hand.
Straight flush — A straight flush also pays decently here and it’s a combination of suited cards in a sequential order.
Royal Flush — A royal flush is a combo of 10, Js, Qs, Ks, and an ace, all suited in the same manner. It’s the best hand in the game.

While rankings are the same for Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild, they contribute to your winning potential differently. For example, twos are wilds in Deuces Wild, and that leads to a higher probability of forming four-of-a-kind wins. In theory, that leads to one four-of-a-kind win every 15 hands, but the pay table is also affected by this change.

Understanding Paytables

Not only do payouts depend on the game type, but also on a particular variant and its payouts. With the expected value of video poker machines to reach $177 billion by 2023, there are plenty of options to choose from. We’ll show you what we mean in a bit, but first, let’s assume you are playing a good old round of the 976-9-6 Jacks or better. Here are the payouts ranked from highest to lowest:

Royal flush pays 976 to 1
Straight flush pays 50 to 1
Four-of-a-kind pays 25 to 1
Full house pays 9 to 1
Flush pays 6 to 1
Straight pays 4 to 1
Three-of-a-kind pays 3 to 1
Two pairs pay 2 to 1
Jacks or better pays 1 to 1

Anything else outside these lines results in your bet being lost, so you need at least two Jacks to qualify. This is where things get messy — to beat video poker machines, you will need to know the payout rates. In a round of 976-9-6 poker, the first number reflects the royal flush payout, while the second and third numbers are related to the full house/flush payouts.

In other words, winning with a royal flush, in this case, pays 976 to 1, while a full house pays 9 to 1. A flush pays the least out of the three — 6 to 1. However, there are other variations like the 90-9-6 Jacks or Better, where the payout for a royal flush is reduced to 800 to 1. Or, full house payouts could be 8 to 1 or even 7 to 1 in some cases, while the flush payout could get lowered to 5 to 1.

Reading these three numbers will help you understand the pay tables for different games. So, before you start playing at the machine you’ve spotted first, take a look at other video poker games and their pay tables.

Key Strategies for Winning at Video Poker Games

The best video poker strategy depends on the game type you are playing, its pay table, and the return. Of course, you should be able to read through the cards and know which ones to discard and which ones to keep, but that’s just the start of it.

Choose the Best Table and Payouts

Before you start playing at the first table you spot, try to find the one with the highest return. In other words, look for those as close to the 976-9-6 payout as possible. While the level of risk you are taking might not be changed, your payout certainly would.

Think about it — if an unlikely scenario happens and you fortunately win with a royal flush, you’d get an 800 to 1 payout on a low-return table, compared with a 976 to 1 payout on a high-return one. While that still sounds like you’d win massively, imagine you’ve made 850 bets prior to that win.

This seemingly insignificant difference would lead to a whole other outcome. Taking your chances with a lower-return game version means you are accepting a higher house edge.

Why Betting Maximum Coins is Crucial

In most versions of Jacks or Better video poker, betting max coins is the only way of landing the bonus payout and hitting a grand jackpot with a royal flush. While it’s an extremely rare case to win with a royal flush, doing it theoretically is what turns the odds in your favor.

If you don’t bet with max coins, you are eliminating this chance, and that means you are increasing the house edge.

When to Break and Hold Hands: Key Decisions

One of the main video poker tips is to know when to break and hold hands. It depends on the situation you are in, and this is where strategy charts come in handy. They tell you when you have the highest chance of winning by keeping your hand together and when it’s best to discard certain cards and hope for the best.

Avoiding Common Video Poker Mistakes

Tips for avoiding common mistakes in video poker for better strategy and winning

If you decide to play a video poker game, make sure to avoid some common mistakes. These include not betting max coins for the jackpot prize, playing at your own hunch in contrast with strategy charts, or playing the wrong game type for your strategy chart.

Using Strategy Charts

Out of a single 52-card deck, there are more than 2.5 million five-card combinations in video poker. It sounds like a lot, and it is unless you are using a strategy chart. These are available for different video poker variants, including Jacks or Better, Double Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild, and other common VP types.

In a nutshell, the chart contains most of these possible combinations and tells you exactly what to do depending on your five-card draw.

How to Read and Use Strategy Charts Effectively

Reading a strategy chart properly is your first step towards winning your expected return in a video poker game. The ground basis of it is to know the poker hand rankings, as we discussed above. Once you’ve learned the rankings, you will be able to figure out which cards separate you from a flush, a full house, or a straight.

Now that you know that based on your drawn cards, it’s time to use the chart. Depending on what you need, take a look at the appropriate scenario and your cards. For example, if you have King of Hearts, Queen of Hearts, or Jack of Hearts along with ten of Spades and Jack of Clubs, you would be two cards away from a royal flush but also one card away from a straight or a regular flush.

The estimated probability will tell you that you should go for a safer option and move on with a straight, while there is one “Straight Penalty” here. That means that there’s a chance of drawing one card that ruins your straight combination, so you should count that in.

Practical Examples of Video Poker Strategy Charts

Statistics on the best starting hands for poker strategy

Here’s another example of playing Jacks or Better with a strategy chart. Imagine you’ve got ten of Clubs, ten of Hearts, six of Hearts, four of Hearts, and two of Hearts. Here, you’d have two possibilities — keep the tens or go for a flush.

If you take a look at the chart, you’ll see that the expected value is much higher if you go with the flush. In other words, you are more likely to discard a ten of Clubs and hope for a flush of Hearts when compared with sticking with two tens and hoping for a full house by getting another ten and a pair. Plus, the flush pays more than a three-of-a-kind that you would be left with if the full house doesn’t hit with another ten.

The bottom line is — reading the expected value of certain cards and their rankings and taking into account the estimated hand probability could give you an upper hand in video poker.

Advanced Video Poker Strategies

Different video poker machines offer different gaming conditions, especially in online casinos, and that’s something that traditional poker games can’t offer. So, you should make use of advanced tips like the following ones alongside making chart-based decisions to win big:

Managing Variance and Return in Video Poker

Just like with online slots, managing variance is crucial in this gambling game. How can you do that, you may wonder? The easiest way would be to calculate the expected return and determine the game’s variance by taking a look at high-value hands and their payouts.

For example, the highest-return Jacks or Better is a 976-9-6 with an RTP of around 99.54%. Of course, this depends on the casino, but one thing is for sure — with every point lower in terms of the payout, your RTP gets reduced by around 1.1%. In other words, if you play the game version with an 8 to 1 payout for a full house instead of 9 to 1, your RTP would be somewhere in the range of 98.5%.

Naturally, playing a higher-return game means lower variance and that leads to more stable wins.

Leveraging High-Value Hands for Maximum Payouts

You should also learn how to leverage high-value hands for maximum payouts. For instance, a high-value hand leaning towards a flush with a high-valued pair can be leveraged for a royal flush or a straight flush. In this case, you’d need to risk it by breaking a high pair, but the payout is definitely worth it, even if you hit it once in several such hands.

Practicing Video Poker and Budget Management

If you are still new to the game, you should know that it takes years to master the payout chart and memorize some of the outcomes if you don’t have the chart in front of you. So, the best way to practice is with a welcome bonus or other casino bonuses that allow you to play for free.

Another great tip is to manage your bankroll — even if it takes you 800 hands, it’s still worth it to chase after the royal flush due to a profitable payout. Of course, we are not saying you should do that indefinitely until you hit it, but you can apply these bankroll management tips to stay afloat for a while longer:

Never use the double-up option
Set up a bet size that allows at least 100 bets
Set win and loss limits beforehand
Never go over your limit
Go with lower bets if you are chasing high-value payouts

Optimal Video Poker Game Selection

There are two things to consider when choosing the best video poker game to play — the RTP and game type. Undeniably, you should go for the video poker game with the highest possible RTP to minimize the house edge. Plus, that way, you are increasing your payouts for a full house or a flush.

However, you should also consider wild deuces, Joker’s Wild, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, and others to wage your options. Consider your payouts, rules, and return rates for each of these options to choose the best one for your style of play.

Understanding Video Poker Odds and Probability

Explanation of video poker odds and probability for better strategy and winning

Let’s deal with a few more numbers and stats and explain video poker odds next. For instance, the odds of landing winning hands on any given game variant is around 45.45%. That means you are already more likely to lose, but what’s it like in the long run?

As the odds show, the average return on video poker is around 99%, which means you can expect to win back the amount equal to 99 bet sizes on every 100 made bets. In other words, if you bet $10 and place 100 bets worth $1,000, that leaves you with $990, which means you’ve lost $10.

Of course, you can theoretically hit a royal flush on your first hand and pack a profit of $9,500, so these are all averages and estimates. Probability tables are a great representation of your odds since they express the likelihood of landing certain hands in percentage. Here’s what it looks like for Jacks or Better video poker:

No pairs with one high card — 50.1%
Any pairs — 42.25%
Two pairs — 4.75%
Three-of-a-kind — 2.11%
Straight — 0.39%
Flush — 0.19%
Full house — 0.14%
Four-of-a-kind — 0.02%
Straight flush — 0.001%
Royal flush — 0.0001%

Ensuring Security and Fairness in Video Poker

To make sure that you play responsibly and get the most out of your paying hands, we’ll give you a few tips on playing safely:

Always play the high-return version of the game
Only pick licensed online casinos
Make sure that the RNG of the game has been tested for fairness
Stick to your bankroll
Use statistical probability listed in charts to make decisions

FAQ

Is there a strategy for video poker?

Yes, there are several strategies for video poker and they include using the strategy chart and statistical probability to make in-play decisions on which cards to hold and which ones to discard.

What are the best hands to hold in video poker?

The best hands to hold in video poker are suited high-valued cards since they could form a royal flush or a straight flush. You’ll also need at least a pair of Jacks in a round of Jacks or Better.

Should you hold a low pair in video poker?

Unless you have potential for high-ranking hands in three remaining cards, you should hold a low pair in video poker since it allows you to at least win even money or profit with two pairs or four-of-a-kind.

Is it better to play video poker fast or slowly?

It’s better to play video poker slowly since that gives you time to think through your options and use the chart.

Can you consistently win at video poker?

While there are strategy charts and common win calculations, video poker still has a house edge of at least 0.5%. So, you can’t win consistently playing it.

Conclusion

So, now you’ve learned a bit more about forming a winning hand in Jacks or Better video poker or other variations. On behalf of our team, we hope this guide will help you get something more out of your next video poker journey, and remember to stick to charts and play responsibly to achieve that.

Written by Filip Gromovic

Hi there fellow casino enthusiast! My name is Filip and I’ve been riding the wave of the online casino industry since 2017. My passion for online slots blossomed after falling in love with the original Reactoonz slot. So, I’ve decided to follow my calling and become an expert in all things casino-related. Now with more than 7 years of experience, I’m more than happy to share my expertise to help you up the ante in your game and find the best casinos worth your time and money!

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