Video Poker Strategy Guide
Video poker offers some of the highest RTPs in the casino — up to 100.76% with perfect play. Here's exactly what to hold.
Jacks or Better (9/6)
99.54% RTPThe standard. Named for the 9× full house and 6× flush payouts. Best widely available version. RTP of 99.54% with perfect play.
Prioritise: Royal Flush > Straight Flush > Quads > Full House > Flush > Straight > Trips > Two Pair > High Pair > 4 to Royal > everything else.
⚠️ Avoid 8/5 or 7/5 "short pay" machines — these drop RTP to 97.3% and 96.1% respectively.
Deuces Wild (Full Pay)
100.76% RTPAll 2s are wild cards. With perfect strategy, full-pay Deuces Wild actually gives the player a slight edge over the house. Rare to find in full-pay form online.
With 4 deuces: hold all. With 3 deuces: hold if you have Royal Flush, Five of a Kind, or Wild Royal. With 2 deuces: hold 4 to Royal, 4+ of a kind, and straight flush combos.
⚠️ Non-full-pay versions can have RTPs as low as 94%. Verify the pay table before playing.
Double Bonus Poker
99.11% RTPEnhanced payouts for four Aces (160:1) and other quads. Strategy shifts to aggressively pursue quads, especially Aces.
Hold 3 Aces or 3 2s/3s/4s (small quads pay bonus). Breaking two pair for trips is often correct here.
⚠️ Full house pays only 8× and flush 5× (vs 9/6 standard) — the bonus quad payouts compensate for lower base payouts.
Double Double Bonus
98.98% RTPEven bigger bonuses for specific quads + kicker combos. Four Aces + 2/3/4 kicker pays 400:1. Very high variance.
Strongly chase Aces + kicker combinations. The kicker card is critical — hold A-A-A + 2/3/4 kicker over breaking for a draw.
⚠️ Very high variance — bankroll swings are extreme. A $1 machine can swing $400 on a single hand.
Bonus Poker (10/7/5)
99.17% RTPA Jacks or Better variant with bonus payouts for quads. Four Aces pay 80:1, four 2s/3s/4s pay 40:1, other quads pay 25:1 — all above the JoB standard of 25:1.
Follow Jacks or Better priority, but elevate trips of Aces, 2s, 3s, and 4s over two pair when the low pairs conflict. Low quads are now worth breaking standard hand structure to pursue.
⚠️ Full-pay version is 10/7/5 (Full House pays 10×, Flush 7×, Straight 5×). Short-pay 8/5 Bonus Poker drops RTP to 97.5% — check the pay table before playing.
Joker Poker (Kings or Better)
100.64% RTPA 53-card deck with one Joker acting as a fully wild card. Requires Kings or Better to win (Jacks/Queens don't pay). A genuine player edge exists with perfect strategy — if the full-pay table is available.
With the Joker: always hold it. Prioritise Royal Flush > Five of a Kind > Joker Royal > Straight Flush > Quads. Without the Joker: play Kings or Better strategy — only "high pairs" are Kings and Aces.
⚠️ Full-pay Joker Poker is extremely rare online. Most versions are short-pay with RTPs of 96–98%. Verify the Five of a Kind and Joker Royal payouts before assuming player-edge applies.
Tens or Better
99.14% RTPA Jacks or Better variant where a pair of Tens also qualifies for a payout. Increases hit frequency by lowering the qualifying pair threshold, making sessions feel less volatile than standard JoB at the cost of slightly reduced upper-hand payouts.
Apply the Jacks or Better priority chart but treat Tens as high cards alongside Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces. A single Ten is worth holding over any lone low card when no other draw is present.
⚠️ Full-pay Tens or Better pays 6× Full House and 5× Flush. Short-pay versions (lower Full House or Flush payouts) are common and drop RTP considerably below 99% — always verify the pay table before playing.
Jacks or Better — Full Hold Priority List
Apply the highest-priority rule that matches your hand. If none apply, discard everything.
7 Rules Every Video Poker Player Must Know
Video Poker Strategy FAQ
What is the optimal hold strategy for Jacks or Better?
The core Jacks or Better hold strategy in priority order: (1) Always keep a made hand of Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, or Three of a Kind. (2) Keep four cards to a Royal Flush over anything except a made Straight Flush. (3) Keep Two Pair. (4) Keep a High Pair (Jacks, Queens, Kings, or Aces). (5) Keep three cards to a Royal Flush. (6) Keep four to a Flush, four to an Outside Straight, or Low Pair. (7) Keep two high cards (J, Q, K, A) or suited high cards. (8) Keep one high card. (9) Draw five new cards if nothing qualifies. The full strategy table has around 30 decision rules — print and use it while playing until memorised.
What does "full pay" mean in video poker?
Full pay refers to the highest-paying version of a specific video poker variant — the pay table that produces the maximum theoretical RTP. For Jacks or Better, the full-pay (also called 9/6) table pays 9 coins for a Full House and 6 coins for a Flush per coin wagered. Inferior pay tables (8/5, 7/5, 6/5) pay less on these hands, reducing the RTP from 99.54% (9/6) to as low as 95.5% (6/5). Always check the Full House and Flush payouts before playing — these two hands occur frequently enough to significantly impact RTP. Online casinos often list the full pay table but may offer reduced pay tables on some machines.
Is video poker better than slots?
Video poker typically offers significantly higher RTP than slots. Full-pay Jacks or Better (99.54% RTP) and Full-Pay Deuces Wild (100.76% with perfect strategy) far exceed most slots (94–97% average). The key differences: video poker requires strategy knowledge to achieve its listed RTP — without correct play, the effective RTP drops significantly. Slots require no skill. Video poker has lower volatility than high-variance slots. For players willing to learn optimal strategy, video poker is mathematically superior. Bonus clearing rules often disadvantage video poker (10–20% contribution vs 100% for slots), which may affect the optimal game choice when wagering bonus funds.
Does playing maximum coins matter in video poker?
Yes — always play maximum coins (usually 5) in video poker. Most video poker games pay a disproportionately large Royal Flush jackpot only when you bet 5 coins. Standard 9/6 Jacks or Better: Royal Flush pays 250:1 per coin at 1–4 coins bet, but jumps to 800:1 per coin at 5 coins bet. The Royal Flush occurs approximately once every 40,000 hands — the large bonus at 5 coins is calculated into the published 99.54% RTP figure. Playing fewer than maximum coins on a Royal Flush-jackpot machine means you achieve a lower effective RTP than published. If maximum coins exceeds your comfort stake, move to a lower denomination machine.
What is "short pay" in video poker?
Short pay refers to a video poker machine that offers reduced payouts on one or more common hands compared to the full-pay standard. In Jacks or Better, the benchmark is 9× for Full House and 6× for Flush (9/6). Short-pay versions reduce these to 8/5, 7/5, or even 6/5. The impact is substantial: 9/6 has a 99.54% RTP; 8/5 has 97.30% RTP; 6/5 drops to 95.00% RTP. Always check the pay table before playing — look at the Full House and Flush rows specifically. Online casinos often display the full pay table in a menu or by hovering over the pay table. Short-pay machines are significantly more common online than full-pay variants, especially at sites offering video poker as a secondary product rather than a specialist focus.
Can I use a strategy card while playing video poker online?
Yes — using a printed or on-screen strategy card while playing video poker online is completely permitted. Unlike card counting in blackjack (which physical casinos prohibit), video poker strategy is entirely legitimate. Many online casinos explicitly support strategy play by including optimal strategy guides in the game help section. You can print the Jacks or Better hold priority list, have it next to you while playing, and refer to it for every hand. The strategy chart improves your effective RTP from a typical uninformed player's ~96–97% to the published optimal 99.54%. Once you've played several thousand hands, most decisions become instinctive and you'll refer to the chart only for edge cases.
Why does Deuces Wild have an RTP over 100%?
Full-pay Deuces Wild has a theoretical RTP of 100.76% because the pay table was designed with four wild cards (2s) improving hand frequency substantially, and the mathematician who created the pay table set the payouts slightly above the break-even point across all hand combinations with perfect strategy. This means that with optimal play, the player has a mathematical edge of 0.76% over the house. In practice, this edge is rarely captured because: (1) most online versions are not full-pay (reducing RTP to below 100%); (2) perfect Deuces Wild strategy is significantly more complex than Jacks or Better due to the wild card permutations; (3) most casinos will not offer games with a genuine player edge or will add restrictions such as lower maximums or bonus exclusions to limit exploitation.