Unlike traditional slot machines, players can determine a video poker game’s payout by looking at the paytable. In games without wild cards, the payback is usually determined by the flush and full house payouts. When a Jacks or Better is described as 9/6, that means a full house pays 9 for every one wagered. A flush pays 6. In most cases, the rest of the paytable is identical between all Jacks or Better games. However, always ensure that a five-coin royal flush pays 800 coins for each one wagered, which equals 4000 on a five-coin bet.
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An easy way to approximate a video poker return is to memorize the full-pay version of the game. Here are the common full-pay versions of popular games with paybacks.
- 10/7 Double Bonus: 100.17%
- 10/6 Double Double Bonus: 100.06%
- 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe: 99.64%
- 9/6 Jacks or Better: 99.54%
- 8/5 Bonus Poker: 99.17%
When a full house or flush pays one less than full-pay, that usually takes a little over 1% off the return for each downgrade. Here are some paybacks of lesser paytables of these same games:
- 9/7 Double Bonus: 99.11%
- 9/6 Double Double Bonus: 98.98%
- 8/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe: 98.49%
- 9/5 Jacks or Better: 98.45%
- 8/6 Jacks or Better: 98.39%
- 7/5 Bonus Poker: 98.01%
And the next step down:
- 9/6 (straight pays 5) Double Bonus: 97.81%
- 9/5 Double Double Bonus: 97.87%
- 8/5 Bonus Poker Deluxe: 97.4%
- 8/5 Jacks or Better: 97.3%
- 6/5 Bonus Poker:.96.87%
You don’t have to memorize these payouts as long as you know each reduction to a flush or full house is just over 1%. Here is a video guide we recently filmed on a full-pay machine at the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas:
9/6 does not always mean full-pay
There are some impostor 9/6 paytables to avoid. The most common, and worst example, is 9/6 Double Bonus, where a straight only pays 4 coins. This game only returns 96.38% on five coins using perfect strategy. A 9/6 Double Bonus game returns 97.81% when a straight pays five coins. The 9/6 Triple Double Bonus game returns 98.15%.
Wild card games have too many variations to use this rule
Full-pay Deuces Wild is dead in Las Vegas and probably everywhere else. The best version of this game returns 99.73% when betting five coins and using perfect strategy. Five of a kind pays 16 coins, while a straight flush pays 10. The rule of thumb for bad Deuces Wild games is that a full house pays 3 coins instead of 4, unless you discover a full-pay version.
Joker Poker has three types of paytables. The full-pay version at Plaza and some 99.29% versions at a handful of other casinos have a pair of kings as the lowest payout. A version where two pair is the lowest payout is available on the East Coast. Some offer paytables that return around 100%. Five of a kind is the top payout in these games.
No full-pay versions of the two pair version are available in Las Vegas. If a Joker Poker game only pays on a pair of aces or better, avoid it, as this game holds at least 3%. All Joker Poker games have a difficult perfect strategy.
Bad rules reduce payouts
There are two common bad rules we found that increase the house edge. One is when a five-coin max bet pays the same as one coin. We have seen this on 9/6 Jacks or Better in Colorado casinos. These games, found in Black Hawk at Ameristar and some smaller casinos, pay 400 coins for each one bet. Betting the maximum does not change that. This lowers the payout by about 0.8% to 1.2%, depending on how short the royal flush is.
Another is when 10, 25, or even 100 coins are required to get paid 800 for each one bet on a royal flush. We have found this on some tavern games. Avoid both of these paytables.
Learning the strategy is most important
If you play inferior paytables and have fun, there is nothing wrong with that. However, ensure that you know the proper strategy. As the paytable changes, so do the cards you hold in certain situations. Lower paytables will have you draw at higher hands more often, increasing the variance.