Video Poker Strategy — Jacks or Better Guide

Understanding Pay Tables

The pay table is everything in video poker. It determines the game's RTP and tells you whether a machine is worth playing. For Jacks or Better, the "full pay" or "9/6" version is the one to look for:

* Royal Flush pays 800-for-1 at max bet (5 coins). At fewer than 5 coins, it pays 250-for-1. Always play max coins — the disproportionate Royal Flush payout accounts for approximately 2% of the total RTP.

The name "9/6" comes from the Full House (9) and Flush (6) payouts. Dropping to 8/5 costs you 2.24% in RTP. That might sound small, but over thousands of hands it's a significant amount of money.

Simplified Jacks or Better Strategy

Optimal Jacks or Better strategy involves ranking every possible hand combination and holding the one with the highest expected value. The full chart has dozens of entries, but this simplified version covers the vast majority of situations correctly:

Hold Priority (From Highest to Lowest)

1. Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind — hold all five cards.
2. 4 to a Royal Flush — hold the four Royal cards, discard the fifth (even breaking a made flush or straight).
3. Full House, Flush, Straight — hold all five cards.
4. Three of a Kind — hold the three, discard the other two.
5. 4 to a Straight Flush — hold the four, discard one.
6. Two Pair — hold both pairs, discard the kicker.
7. High Pair (Jacks or better) — hold the pair, discard three.
8. 3 to a Royal Flush — hold the three Royal cards, discard two.
9. 4 to a Flush — hold the four suited cards, discard one.
10. Low Pair (2s through 10s) — hold the pair, discard three.
11. 4 to an Outside Straight — hold the four, discard one.
12. 2 suited high cards — hold the two, discard three.
13. 3 to a Straight Flush — hold the three, discard two.
14. 2 unsuited high cards — hold the two (prefer lowest two if three high cards), discard three.
15. One high card (J, Q, K, or A) — hold it, discard four.
16. Nothing — discard all five.

Common Mistakes

These errors cost the average video poker player 2–5% in RTP — turning a near-even game into a solidly losing one:

• Not playing max coins. The Royal Flush bonus at max bet adds roughly 2% to the RTP. Playing 1 coin on a 9/6 machine drops you from 99.54% to about 97.3%.
• Holding a kicker with a pair. If you have a pair of Queens and an Ace, discard the Ace. Keeping it doesn't help — you want three fresh cards for a chance at trips, full house, or quads.
• Breaking a flush to chase a Royal. This is one of the few counterintuitive correct plays: if you have four to a Royal Flush plus one non-Royal suited card, break the made flush. The expected value of chasing the Royal exceeds keeping the guaranteed flush payout.
• Ignoring the pay table. Playing an 8/5 or 7/5 machine at max coins is worse than playing a 9/6 machine at reduced coins. The pay table matters more than max bet in unfavourable games.

Other Jacks or Better Variants

Once you're comfortable with standard Jacks or Better, you may encounter these related games:

• Bonus Poker — higher payouts for four-of-a-kind hands, but reduced full house/flush payouts. Slightly higher volatility, similar overall RTP if you find a good pay table.
• Double Bonus Poker — even bigger quad payouts (especially four Aces), but two pair pays only 1:1 instead of 2:1. More volatile, and the strategy changes significantly.
• Deuces Wild — all 2s are wild cards. The strategy is entirely different from Jacks or Better, and the best pay tables offer an RTP above 100% with optimal play (though these machines are extremely rare).

Each variant requires its own strategy chart. Don't apply Jacks or Better strategy to Deuces Wild or Bonus Poker — the optimal holds are different.