Video
Poker Basics and an Easy Jacks or Better Strategy
Video poker is a
slot machine style game similar to five card stud.
It is a very fast game with several different variations like
Deuces Wild, Jacks or Better, and Joker Poker.
Each version has slightly different rules, payouts, and strategies.
Most machines allow a player to play from one to five units per
hand (1x-5x). Typically the
maximum payouts are associated with the maximum number of coins. This is important because in order to bring the odds into the
best light 5x should be played on every hand.
What this means is that players should decide what is a comfortable
unit bet and find a machine to match.
If $5 per hand were the desired level of play the player should be
playing on a $1 machine with $5 played on every hand, thereby taking
advantage of the best odds while at the same time staying within a
predetermined spending limit.
Payouts
for each poker hand are labeled right on the front of the machine and they
are significantly different for every variation.
It is important to pay close attention if switching between
machines with different payouts because a winning hand in one game may not
pay off in another. As well,
the actual payouts will not necessarily correspond to the true odds of any
given card combination. Another
important thing to note is that variation also exists from table to table
on the same game. Be sure to
play tables that are FULL PAY.
This
is a table showing the payouts on a FULL PAY Jacks or Better Video poker
machine:
|
Royal Flush
|
800 - 1
|
|
Straight Flush
|
50 - 1
|
|
4 of a Kind
|
25 – 1
|
|
Full House
|
9 – 1
|
|
Flush
|
6 – 1
|
|
Straight
|
4 – 1
|
|
3 of a Kind
|
3 – 1
|
|
2 Pair
|
2 – 1
|
|
Jacks or Better
|
1 - 1
|
The table below lists the best possible combination of cards to
hold, in decreasing order, when playing FULL PAY Jacks or Better. Start at
the top and go down the list until you find the first description that
matches your hand. Keep these cards and discard the rest. Perfect (not one
single deviation from the chart) play on a FULL PAY Jacks or Better
machine yields 99.5% long term payout.
When using this chart remember that a straight with only one rank of card needed to complete the
straight is referred to as an "inside straight" or "1
gap".
Royal flush
Straight flush
4 of a kind
4-card royal flush
Full house
Flush
3 of a kind
Straight
4-card straight flush
2 pair
Pair of Jacks or Better
3-card royal flush
4-card flush
K,Q,J,10 (different suits)
Pair of 10s or less
Q,J,10,9 (different suits)
J,10,9,8 (different suits)
Q,J,9 (same suit)
Q,10,9 (same suit)
4-card open straight (no high cards)
3-card inside straight flush (2 gaps, 2 high cards)
3-card inside straight flush (1 gap, 1 high card)
3-card open straight flush (no high cards)
A,K,Q,J (different suits)
2-card royal flush (2 high cards)
4-card inside straight (1 gap, 3 high cards)
3-card inside straight flush (2 gaps, 1 high card)
3-card inside straight flush (1 gap, no high cards)
K,Q,J (different suits)
2 high cards (different suits, if 3 high cards discard Ace)
2-card royal flush (10 and no Ace)
1 high card
3-card inside straight flush (2 gaps, no high cards)
Nothing (discard all 5 cards)
Good luck!
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