If you’ve made it through the wilds of the internet to find your way here, you probably know all about basic strategy for Jacks or Better video poker already.
- Jacks Or Better Video Poker Strategy Chart
- Jacks Or Better Strategy Card
- Jacks Or Better Video Poker Strategy
Let’s look at a sample of a video poker strategy chart. Here is a partial view of a strategy chart for a full pay (9/6) Jacks or Better game. VIDEO POKER STRATEGY CHARTS #1: As you can see, there are many different combinations of cards that can be held. Depending on the type of video poker game, there can be as many as 60 or 70 lines of.
With basic strategy guidelines out of the way, many Jacks or Better players mistakenly believe that their tutelage on video poker’s foundational game has come to an end. While it is true that learning basic strategy is an essential first step in a quality Jacks or Better education, it is just that – a first step.
Once you’ve mastered the ins and outs of playing your five-card draws with optimal precision, you’re definitely in business and there’s no doubt about that.
- Jacks or Better optimal strategy Introduction. The following strategy is for full pay Jacks or Better video poker. 'Full Pay' designates the following paytable, per coin based on five coins bet, which returns 99.54% of money bet assuming optimal strategy.
- Video poker is one of the most successful and popular games ever invented. After 30 years, the original Jacks or Better variety is still a favorite, probably because the house edge is less than half of a percent! Video poker came about in the 1970s when Si Redd’s little company in Sparks, Nevada, introduced Draw Poker.
Nonetheless, the best Jacks or Better players out there – world-renowned professionals like Bob Dancer who consistently beat the house by playing at an expert level – never rest on their laurels.
I don’t believe Jacks or Better enthusiasts should ever limit themselves to the confines of basic strategy. Learn it, by all means, but always follow through by enhancing your basic strategy knowledge with supplementary skills and strategies designed to extract every possible edge from Jacks or Better’s basic rules and gameplay.
To that end, the list below highlights four rules and strategies for Jacks or Better video poker that most players simply don’t know enough about.
1 – Betting the Maximum of 5 Coins Is the Only Way to Score Premium Payouts on a Royal
![Guide Guide](https://www.silveroakcasino.com/images/blog/2009/06/jacks-or-better-video-poker-strategy-card-176x300.jpg)
If you’ve been spending time in video poker parlors or you’ve gambled on online video poker sites, you’ve probably heard regulars admonishing rookies who don’t bet all five coins:
“Hey, whaddya doin’ there guy? You’re only helpin’ the casino out by bettin’ less than the max.”
Unfortunately, while these self-styled mentors are quick to dole advice like that out, they seldom back it up with a real explanation as to exactly why maximum bets are the best play.
I’ve got you covered though, so scan at the standard 9/6 full pay Jacks or Better pay table show below:
Jacks or Better Full Pay Table (by Coins Bets)
HAND | 1 COIN | 2 COINS | 3 COINS | 4 COINS | 5 COINS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Royal Flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
Straight Flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
4 of a Kind | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
Full House | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
Flush | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
Straight | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
3 of a Kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
Two Pair | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
Jacks or Better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Payback | 98.3% | 98.3% | 98.3% | 98.3% | 99.54% |
This pay table can be fund flashing in yellow print from hundreds of thousands of Game King machines found in casinos all over the world.
I want you to focus on how the payouts for each hand, except the best hand, escalate according to a steady pattern. No matter the size of your bet, making two pair is always good for a 2 to 1 payout in terms of coins. In other words, bet 1 coin and get 2 back for two pair; bet 2 coins and get 4 back, etc.
This pattern holds up even for a straight flush, which pays out at 50 to 1 for each coin wagered. You can bet 4 coins and get 200 back for a straight flush, or 5 coins for 250 back, but it all boils down to the same 50 to 1 payout.
But get a load of that Royal Flush payout, which starts at 250 to 1 for a 1-coin bet. Royal payouts climb according to the same pattern for 1-4 coins bet, until you hit that 5-coin max bet level. There, landing a Royal Flush is good for a whopping 4,000 to 1 payout.
This “jackpot” element is crucial to Jacks or Better strategy, because as the table’s bottom column clearly shows, even a 9/6 full pay game won’t offer the 99.54 percent payback rate that makes this game so great for players.
Simply put, when you bet anything less than 5 coins per hand, you’re doing the casino a massive favor. Not only does the house’s liability drop severely on Royal Flushes, but every hand you play suddenly changes from 99.54 percent payback to 98.30 percent.
Fortunately, the Game King machine – and the top-rated online casinos offering Jacks or Better – lets players choose their coin denomination. So if betting 5 coins at $1 per is too rich for your blood (and bankroll), just dial it back to the $0.25 coin denomination and max-bet for $1.25 per hand.
2 – Hunting for the 9/6 Full Pay Machines and Never Settling for Less
That 99.54 percent payback rate is what brings so many sharp gamblers out of the woodwork to play Jacks or Better.
Expressed in terms of house edge, the game only lends the casino a 0.46 percent advantage, putting Jacks or Better on par with blackjack and other popular casino games.
But that’s only when you play against the 9/6 full pay table shown below:
Jacks or Better Full Pay Table
HAND | PAYOUT |
---|---|
Royal Flush | 800 |
Straight Flush | 50 |
Four of a Kind | 25 |
Full House | 9 |
Flush | 6 |
Straight | 4 |
Three of a Kind | 3 |
Two Pair | 2 |
Jacks or Better | 1 |
All Other | 0 |
As you might have noticed by now, many video poker games out there today don’t actually offer the 9/6 full pay table.
Instead, the casinos try to get one over on players by offering machines that use one of the inferior pay tables shown below:
Inferior Jacks or Better Pay Tables (by Payback Percentage)
HAND | 9/5 | 8/6 | 8/5 | 7/5 | 6/5 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Royal Flush | 800 | 800 | 800 | 800 | 800 |
Straight Flush | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
Four of a Kind | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
Full House | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 |
Flush | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
Straight | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Three of a Kind | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Two Pair | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Jacks or Better | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Payback Percentage | 98.44% | 98.39% | 97.29% | 96.14% | 94.99% |
These pay tables are, pardon my French, pure B.S. By tweaking just a single payout downward, casinos can turn Jacks or Better into a sucker game on par with slots.
Here’s how Bob Dancer, known in the gambling world as the “King of Video Poker,” described the creeping shift away from 9/6 full pay machines:
Free flash gordon games. “The machines at Station have been getting a lot tighter. Most players think there will be no 100 percent games by the end of the year at Station Casinos.
They have 100 percent machines, but they have more at the middle of the spectrum and a whole lot near the bottom. Station appears to be catering to the less-knowledgeable player.
But no one should play at a machine that pays less than 99 percent. There are too many 99 percent machines around town.”
3 – Knowing the Odds Against Making Every Possible Paying Hand
Everyone knows a full house beats a flush or a straight in poker, so naturally, it pays out more than those hands in Jacks or Better.
But did you know it’s actually slightly more difficult to make a flush or a straight in Jacks or Better than it is a full house?
Well, that’s a fact, as the table below shows off quite clearly:
Probabilities and Odds Against for Paying Hands in Jacks or Better
HAND | PROBABILITY | ODDS |
---|---|---|
Royal Flush | 0.003% | 1 in 40,391 |
Straight Flush | 0.012% | 1 in 9,148 |
Four of a Kind | 0.236% | 1 in 423 |
Full House | 1.151% | 1 in 87 |
Flush | 1.119% | 1 in 91 |
Straight | 1.104% | 1 in 89 |
Three of a Kind | 7.439% | 1 in 13 |
Two Pair | 12.921% | 1 in 7.7 |
Jacks or Better | 21.370% | 1 in 4.7 |
Nothing | 54.647% | 1 in 1.8 |
Total | 100.000% |
As you can see, the odds against making a full house, flush, and straight are almost identical. Knowing this, when you have starting hands that allow for multiple draws to these hands, always opt for the full house and it’s juiced up payout.
4 – Playing Faster to Make Long Odds More Attainable
In that table above, you can see that landing a Royal in Jacks or Better is a huge longshot at 1 in 40,391 odds against.
Playing through more than 40,000 hands to realize those odds may seem like an impossible task, but it doesn’t have to be.
Just ask “Dr. Antonius,” a video poker speed-runner who holds the world record for fastest Jacks or Better session ever recorded. You can watch the good doctor do his thing down below:
But here’s the scoop. Using perfect basic strategy, Dr. Antonius completed 2,262 hands in a single hour. Thus, it would only take him 17 hours or so of grinding to reach the 40,391-hand threshold.
Obviously, you don’t have to play at world-record pace to improve your odds of a Royal. But playing faster is the best way to churn out enough hands to realize those longshot odds.
Conclusion
Jacks or Better basic strategy is like a key that opens a treasure chest stuffed with gold and jewels. In theory, when wielded in the right hands, using the hard and fast rules for discard / draw decisions can turn Jacks or Better into one of the best games in the house. But that advantage remains entirely theoretical when players don’t know about the other rules and strategies found above.
The folks who don’t bet all 5 coins per hand, sit down at inferior non-full pay tables, or play too quickly or slowly for their personal bankroll requirements instantly sacrifice all of the extra equity basic strategy provides. Knowing this, you should never put a penny in a Jacks or Better machine until you’ve checked all four rules and strategies found here off your to-do list.
In the first nine chapters of this guide you have learned all of the background information necessary to become a skilled live casino or online video poker player. You are now ready for the “meat” of this guide. This chapter is the first of six chapters that are dedicated to giving you the specifics needed to play the actual live casino or online video poker games.
The following chapters shows seven Jacks or Better class games in detail. They include Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Bonus Poker Deluxe, Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker, Double Jackpot Poker and Double Double Jackpot Poker. Some of the games show strategies for more than one pay table, so there is a lot of information available in this chapter. As stated in chapter nine, the strategy charts presented in this guide have been simplified by combining lines where there is no difference in the games return or where the difference is miniscule.
Even though all of the Jacks or Better class games presented in this chapter may appear very similar, the strategies can be quite different. In fact, even strategies of different pay tables for the same game can be quite different. With that in mind, let us begin.
Jacks or Better has been around almost from the beginning of video poker. Even though hundreds of other variations have been introduced, Jacks or Better continues to be among the most popular game variations in the live casino and online video poker inventory.
There are many reasons for this. It has among the highest returns of any of the currently available live casino or online video poker games. It has low variance and the optimum playing strategy is fairly straightforward. The pay table has only nine lines meaning there are only nine different possible paying hands. A little history: each of the different video poker games as it initially became available was a very decent paying game. They were often very near or even over 100 percent return. As the games became more popular, casinos wanted to get more money from the games so the pay tables were slowly degraded. The initial high paying versions of a video poker game became known as “full pay” games.
With this in mind, let’s look at the Jacks or Better full pay game first.
Note: For all of the games examined in this guide, you must play the maximum of five credits per hand in order to get the 800 for one return (rather than the 250 for one return when not playing five credits) for hitting a royal flush. Because of this, all pay tables will only show the five credit column.
Note: For all of the games examined in this guide, you must play the maximum of five credits per hand in order to get the 800 for one return (rather than the 250 for one return when not playing five credits) for hitting a royal flush. Because of this, all pay tables will only show the five credit column.
JACKS OR BETTER STRATEGY 9/6 (FULL PAY)
Full pay Jacks or Better games are still quite common in downtown Las Vegas or local’s casinos. This game can also be found in most other gaming jurisdictions at moderate to low end casinos as well as most online casinos. This full pay game is also commonly available in higher end casinos in the high limit area and possibly even on the main casino floor.
Jacks or Better has only one “jackpot” size pay – the royal flush. A very large amount of the total return is from the higher frequency, lower paying hands with only about two percent of the total return coming from the royal flush. Because of this, the variance is low and the jacks or better strategy is not very complex. This makes Jacks or Better a perfect game for a novice player or for someone with a somewhat limited bankroll. Its low variance also makes it a great game for players who do not want to endure huge bankroll swings for either financial or emotional reasons.
SHORT PAY JACKS OR BETTER STRATEGY
Any pay table that reduces the pay for any of the hands from the originally introduced video poker game is considered a “short pay” pay table. The most common short pay Jacks or Better pay table reduces the pays for a full house and flush to eight for one and five for one from nine for one and six for one respectively. All the other pays on the game usually remain the same. Other common short pay tables are 9/5 and 8/6. Information for each of these games is presented after the information for the 8/5 version.
JACKS OR BETTER STRATEGY 8/5 (SHORT PAY)
This version is very common on the Las Vegas strip and other high end properties. It is also very common at most gaming venues whether a live casino or online casino. For each one credit reduction in the pay for a full house or flush, the return for the game is lowered by just over one percent. Notice the low return for this game. It is only 97.29 percent or two and a quarter percent less than the full pay version of the game. I do not recommend playing this version if it can be helped. However, if this is the best that you can find at a live casino or online casino, you could consider playing it. Since it has a low variance and it is relatively simple to play, you should be able to play it correctly and the rate of loss should be fairly slow.
JACKS OR BETTER STRATEGY 9/5 (SHORT PAY)
Both the 9/5 and the 8/6 pay tables can be found in many live casinos as well as many online casinos. Most of the time on the Las Vegas Strip or in other high end casinos, however, these pay tables are only found on higher denomination games such as one dollar or higher. Because the pay for either a full house or the flush is reduced by only one credit the return for this game is only about one percent lower than the full pay game. While you will lose about $1.50 for every $100 you run through these games, this is still not bad by todays live casino and online casino standards. And, the variance is still low, so you will not see wild fluctuations in your bankroll.
If the live casino or online casino where you play has this 9/5 Jacks or Better game and you want to play it regularly, make sure to study this strategy chart at home in an effort to memorize it for live casino or online casino play. You can always bring a copy of the strategy chart with you to reference when you are unsure about how to play a particular hand.
JACKS OR BETTER STRATEGY 8/6 (SHORT PAY)
Everything that was mentioned for the 9/5 version of Jacks or Better also applies to the 8/6 version. The return for the game is about one percent lower than the return for the full pay game and the variance is low. This game, like the 9/5 version, will tend to be found in the higher denomination games in the higher end properties. Make sure the “5 Credit” column of the game’s pay table matches the pay table at the link below in order to ensure you are playing the exact same game.
As with all the other versions of the Jacks or Better strategies detailed above, if you plan on playing the 8/6 version of Jacks or Better with any regularity, study the strategy and memorize it so you will be ready for live casino or online casino play.
Jacks Or Better Video Poker Strategy Chart
TEST YOURSELF – JACKS OR BETTER STRATEGY
In order to test your understanding of how to use the strategy charts, see if you can properly play the following hands based on the strategy for the 9/6 full pay version of Jacks or Better. Decide which of the cards in each hand below you would hold (if any).
- J♥ | 5♠ | 10♦|5♥ | 2♣
- J♠ | 8♣ | J♣ | 9♣ | 10♣
- 4♣ | 6♣ | J♥ | 5♣ | Q♥
- K♦ | 3♣ | 4♥ | 6♦ | 7♠
- K♣ | 10♣ | A♥ | Q♣ | A♦
- Q♦ | 3♣ | 4♣ | Q♥ | 5♣
- J♦ | Q♦ | A♦ | 5♦ | K♦
- 4♣ | 7♦ | 5♥| 8♣ | 2♦
Jacks Or Better Strategy Card
ANSWERS
Jacks Or Better Video Poker Strategy
- 5♠ | 5♥
- 8♣ | J♣ | 9♣ | 10♣
- 4♣ | 6♣| 5♣
- K♦
- A♥ | A♦
- Q♦ | Q♥
- J♦ | Q♦ | A♦ | K♦
- None