The Basics
What is Video Poker?
Video poker is a casino machine game based on five-card draw poker. Unlike table poker, you are not playing against other players or a dealer — you are playing against a pay table. There is no bluffing, no reading opponents, no social pressure. Just you and a mathematically defined set of payouts.
What makes video poker exceptional is that your decisions matter. The hold/discard choice you make on every hand directly changes your expected return. On a full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better machine, perfect strategy returns 99.54% RTP — a house edge of only 0.46%. Poor decisions on the same machine might yield 96% or less. No other casino machine rewards skill like this.
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Video Poker vs Slots: Slots have secret, undisclosed RTP and zero player decisions. Video poker has a published pay table from which the exact RTP can be calculated, and every hand has a correct mathematical play. If you find a 9/6 full-pay machine and use this strategy chart, you know your exact expected return before you sit down.
Step by Step
How to Play Video Poker — Round by Round
1
Check the pay table first — always
Before placing a single bet, verify the pay table shows 9 for Full House and 6 for Flush. This is 9/6 full-pay Jacks or Better — 99.54% RTP. Any other numbers mean a short-pay table with worse odds. If you see 8/5 or 7/5, find a different machine.
2
Always bet maximum coins — 5 coins
The Royal Flush pays 250 coins per coin bet at 1–4 coins, but 800 coins per coin bet at 5 coins. This Royal Flush bonus is so valuable it shifts the RTP from ~98.4% to 99.54%. Never bet fewer than 5 coins. If you can't afford 5 coins per hand, move to a lower-denomination machine.
3
Receive your 5 cards
Press Deal. You receive five cards from a standard 52-card deck (no wild cards in Jacks or Better). These cards are your starting hand. Evaluate them against the hand rankings and pay table.
4
Choose which cards to Hold
Select the cards you want to keep (hold). You can hold all five, none, or any combination. The cards you don't hold are discarded and replaced with new cards drawn from the remaining 47-card deck. This is the only decision in the game — and it's everything.
5
Draw and collect
Press Draw. Discarded cards are replaced. Your final 5-card hand is evaluated against the pay table. Hands ranking Jacks-or-Better pair and above are paid. Anything lower is a loss.
Example Hand
You are dealt: K♠ K♥ 7♦ Q♠ J♠. You hold the pair of Kings and the Q♠ J♠ (4 to a Straight? No — hold just the pair plus the two suited Broadway cards? No — actually hold the pair and the suited Q♠ J♠ for 3 to a Royal? Check the strategy chart). The correct play is to hold the pair of Kings alone and discard the rest.
A High Pair (K-K) outranks both a 3-card Royal draw and suited connectors in the strategy chart. Holding the pair gives the best Expected Value here.
The Most Important Section
The 9/6 Full-Pay Table — Memorise These Numbers
The pay table is everything in video poker. The same game name with different pay tables can have RTP ranging from 94% to 99.54%. The full-pay 9/6 table below is what you are looking for. The two critical numbers are the Full House (9) and Flush (6) — all other payouts are typically standard across variants.
👑 Royal Flush
250
500
750
1,000
4,000
Straight Flush
50
100
150
200
250
Four of a Kind
25
50
75
100
125
Three of a Kind
3
6
9
12
15
Jacks or Better (Pair)
1
2
3
4
5
All other hands
0
0
0
0
0
⚠️
The Royal Flush bonus is not subtle: At 1–4 coins the Royal Flush pays 250× per coin. At 5 coins it pays 800× per coin — a 3.2× bonus. This single difference shifts the RTP by over 1%. Betting 4 coins instead of 5 is mathematically equivalent to playing a short-pay machine. Always max bet.
Pay Table Comparison — Why the Numbers Matter
9 / 6
Full House / Flush
99.54%
House edge 0.46%
✓ Full Pay
9 / 5
Full House / Flush
98.45%
House edge 1.55%
Acceptable
8 / 6
Full House / Flush
98.39%
House edge 1.61%
Acceptable
8 / 5
Full House / Flush
97.30%
House edge 2.70%
⚠ Avoid
7 / 5
Full House / Flush
96.15%
House edge 3.85%
⚠ Avoid
6 / 5
Full House / Flush
95.00%
House edge 5.00%
✕ Never play
Hand Rankings
Jacks or Better Hand Rankings
Jacks or Better uses standard 5-card poker hand rankings. The critical minimum is a pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings, or Aces — lower pairs (2s through 10s) pay nothing. This is why the game is named Jacks or Better.
👑 Royal Flush
800× ★
A-K-Q-J-10 same suit. Max coins only.
Straight Flush
50×
5 consecutive cards, same suit
Four of a Kind
25×
4 cards of the same rank
Full House
9×
3 of a Kind + a Pair
Flush
6×
5 cards same suit, non-consecutive
Straight
4×
5 consecutive cards, any suits
Three of a Kind
3×
3 cards of the same rank
Two Pair
2×
Two separate pairs
Jacks or Better
1×
Pair of J, Q, K, or A only
Low Pair / No Pair
0×
Pair of 2–10 or no pair: no payout
Optimal Strategy
Jacks or Better Strategy Chart — Ranked by Expected Value
This is the complete hold strategy for 9/6 Jacks or Better, ranked from highest to lowest Expected Value. Find the highest-ranked hand type that matches your dealt cards — hold those cards, discard the rest. Work down the list until you find a match.
The list is split into three groups: Made Hands you never break (except for the one Royal Flush exception), Drawing Hands where you break a made hand, and Pure Draws with no made hand.
1👑 Royal FlushMadeHold all 5. Never break.
2Straight FlushMadeHold all 5.
3Four of a KindMadeHold the 4. Discard 5th card.
4Full HouseMadeHold all 5.
54 to a Royal FlushBreak OKBreak Flush, Str, Trips, 2P, Hi Pair for this.
6FlushMadeHold all 5.
7StraightMadeHold all 5.
8Three of a KindMadeHold the 3. Discard 2 kickers.
9Two PairMadeHold both pairs. Discard 5th card.
10High Pair (J-J through A-A)DrawHold the pair. Discard 3 kickers.
113 to a Royal FlushDrawHold 3 suited Broadway cards. Beats Low Pair.
124 to a FlushDraw4 suited cards. Hold all 4, discard 1.
13Low Pair (2-2 through 10-10)DrawHold the pair. Beats most single draws.
144 to an Outside StraightDraw4 consecutive cards open on both ends (e.g. 5-6-7-8).
152 suited High Cards (J+, same suit)DrawHold 2 suited J/Q/K/A cards.
163 to a Straight FlushDraw3 suited consecutive cards.
172 unsuited High Cards (J–A)DrawHold 2 high cards. If 3 high cards, keep lowest two.
181 High Card (J, Q, K, or A)DrawHold 1 high card. Draw 4.
19No matching cardsDrawDiscard all 5. Draw a completely fresh hand.
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The three rules most players get wrong:
(1) Low Pair beats 2 unsuited high cards — hold 7-7 over J-Q unsuited, every time.
(2) 4 to a Royal Flush beats everything below a Straight Flush — break a Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, or High Pair to chase the Royal.
(3) Never break Two Pair for a 3-card Royal — Two Pair (rank 9) beats 3 to a Royal Flush (rank 11).
Core Principles
The 5 Rules That Make the Difference
1
9/6 or walk away
The Full House and Flush payouts determine everything. A 9/6 table gives 99.54% RTP. An 8/5 table gives 97.30%. The strategy is identical — only the table changes. Identify the Full House payout and the Flush payout before betting anything. If it's not 9/6, find another machine or a different game entirely.
2
Always bet 5 coins
The Royal Flush bonus at max coins (800× vs 250× per coin) is worth approximately 1.17% RTP by itself. Playing 4 coins instead of 5 is voluntarily giving away over 1% of your expected return on every hand. If the denomination is too high, switch to a lower denomination — a $0.25 machine at 5 coins ($1.25 total) beats a $1 machine at 1 coin.
3
Never keep a kicker with a pair
In table poker, kickers matter because they break ties against other players. In video poker there are no other players — you're evaluated against the pay table alone. Holding A-A-K costs you a draw card with no mathematical benefit. Hold only the pair, discard the other three cards, and draw to improve.
4
A Low Pair outranks two unsuited high cards
This is the most common error new players make. You're dealt 8-8-J-Q-K. The instinct is to keep J-Q-K for Straight or Flush potential. The correct play is to hold 8-8 — a Low Pair has a higher Expected Value than three unsuited high cards. The Low Pair is rank 13 on the strategy chart; 2 unsuited high cards are rank 17.
5
The Royal Flush is worth chasing — from 4 cards
4 to a Royal Flush ranks 5th on the strategy chart — above Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, and High Pair. If you have 4 suited Broadway cards (e.g. A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ + 2♦), break any of those made hands to draw the Royal. However, 3 to a Royal Flush only beats a Low Pair and below — do not break Two Pair or better for a 3-card Royal draw.
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House edge comparison: Video Poker 9/6 (perfect strategy) 0.46% · Blackjack (basic strategy) ~0.5% · Craps Pass Line + Max Odds ~0.37% · Baccarat Banker ~1.06% · European Roulette ~2.70% · Slots 2–15%. Video poker and blackjack are the two skill-based games that genuinely reward learning. Unlike blackjack, video poker requires zero social interaction and has no time pressure from dealers or other players.