• Jacks Or Better Strategy Charts
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• Jacks Or Better Strategy Tables

An 8/5 Jacks or Better pays off at 8 for 1 for a full house and 5 for 1 for a flush. The payback percentage on that game-if you play with optimal strategy-is about 97.3%. Jacks or Better remained in gambling circles throughout the years and was introduced as a video poker variant in the late 1970s. Video poker was a failure when it was first introduced to casinos in 1970, namely because it was nothing more than a television monitor attached to a central processing unit.

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. The original game was slow and clunky, but as technology grew, so did SIRCOMA, and his company became today’s International Game Technology. Much of the company’s early success was due to video poker’s popularity.

Also, some video poker games are linked together and offer a progressive jackpot. A 25-cent machine pays $1,000 for a royal flush, but in the 1980s, with many machines linked together in bars and other locations, jackpots often rose to more than $2500. Popularity was sky-high. Over time, new variations of video poker like Joker Poker, Deuces Wild, and Double Bonus were introduced. Triple Play came along later with a player option to play three simultaneous hands on the same machine.

Through all the changes and competition, Jacks or Better has remained the original and most popular game. And there are good reasons for the player loyalty. To begin with, it’s a game that can offer a return of 99.5% to the player. That’s terrific. To get that pay-off, you’ll have to follow the optimal strategy I’ll show you later. Another advantage of Jacks or Better is that it offers lower volatility in payoffs than other video poker games. That makes a difference in your cash flow or bankroll. Games with other high payoffs like Deuces Wild and Double Double Bonus have sneaky ways of making those payoffs.

Video poker is based on the poker game of five-card draw, but it is unlike the card game, where there is a pot to strive for, and the best hand wins. In video poker, a player makes a wager, usually five coins, and is dealt five cards. They may hold any or all cards or discard as many as five cards and draw new ones. To win, the player must make a final hand of at least a pair of jacks. Payoffs are shown at the top of the video screen and following this introduction.

Any hand with three of a kind pays 3 for 1, regardless of whether you start with that hand or draw cards to make the final combination. A straight is any five cards in sequence, such as A-2-3-4-5 or 7-8-9-10-J. They can be of any mixed suit, and the payoff is 4 for 1. A hand such as 3-4-5-6 is called an open-ended straight since you can make your hand by catching a card on either end with a 2 or a 7.

A gut-shot or close-ended straight draw is a starting hand like 5-6-7-9. To make the straight, you’ll need to catch an 8. A flush is any five final cards of the same suit, such as 3-6-8-9-Q of clubs. Making a flush pays 6 for 1. The next-best hand is a full house. You’ll be paid 9 for 1 when you get three of a kind and a pair, such as 2-2-7-7-7. If you make a hand like 2-7-7-7-7, you’ll have quads. You’ll get paid 25 for 1 when you make four of a kind.

It doesn’t matter what the order of the cards is on a video poker screen. You’ll be paid the same, even if they are mixed up. However, occasionally you’ll find a casino that offers a bonus for a sequential royal flush. The payoff for a sequential royal flush is usually 10,000 for 1. I’ve seen super jackpots or 10k on machines at the Palazzo in Las Vegas, the Atlantis in Reno, and in the past at online sites like Bovada and Jackpot City. You may have to search around, but the added payoff sounds fun.

What you can expect for payout hands on a Jacks or Better 9/6 video poker machine:

This payoff table shows all the possible combinations of video poker. The table is based on 9/6 payout, meaning that you receive 9 coins back for each wagered on a full house and six coins back for each wagered on a flush. You’ll hit two pairs a huge amount of the time. And your payout for that hand will be nearly 26% of your total returned while playing. That helps reduce variance, as you will get a small winning amount back quite often, as compared to getting just even money on two pairs at other games.

Station Casinos has this pay table at many of their casinos, including Palms, Red Rock, Boulder Station, Palace Station, Sunset Station, Texas Station, and Santa Fe Station. They are out there! Keep in mind that although the game has a great payback, your “luck” will have a lot to do with your results. That doesn’t mean varying from the best strategy; it means that when you are playing any gambling game, especially one that has a high payoff jackpot like video poker at 4,000 coins, it can be a long time between big hits.

If you look back at the payback table, you’ll see that the amount you receive over hours and hours of play is dictated greatly by the pair and two-pair hands. And while the royal flush is only about 2% of your total return, it will be your savior and catch you up for a lot of losses along the way. That’s what creates a variance, so you will still have times when you seem to be running bad because you can’t make any decent payoffs.

My first piece of advice is to always look for the best pay tables. When you play Jacks or Better, you’ll find plenty of machines, from IGT Game King to Bally Game Maker, and other suppliers. But what you’ll find most of the time is a payoff that is lower than 9/6. That wouldn’t keep me from playing, but I’d play more often with the best odds, wouldn’t you? Most of these odds are better than playing a game like roulette or Three Card Poker, so video poker isn’t bad. Just keep in mind that you’ll get a lot more hands at the slots and video poker than at a table game.

In fact, you can play quickly and get as many as 300 hands per hour at video poker. Because of this, the game can be as expensive to play per hour as games like roulette with a slower pace and a higher house edge.

9/5 Jacks or Better

In this game, the payoff for a flush is reduced from 6 to 5. The reduction results in a maximum payout to the player of 98.45%.

8/6 Jacks or Better

At 8/6 Jacks or Better, the payoff for a full house is reduced from 9 to 8. That takes the maximum payout to the player down to 98.39%.

8/5 Jacks or Better

This game reduces both the full house and the flush payoff. You’ll get 8 for a full house and just 5 for a flush. Your maximum payout then becomes 97.30%.

7/5 Jacks or Better

At 7/5 Jacks or Better, a full house pays 7 credits, and a flush pays 5 credits per coin wagered. The maximum payout to the player falls to 96.15%.

6/5 Jacks or Better

The 6/5 Jacks or Better payout is found in many casinos these days. It is even found at many online casinos where I think the payouts should be much higher. The maximum payout to players with this configuration is 95%.

Personally, I try to avoid both the 7/5 and 6/5 Jacks or Better games. I will play these games when they are attached to a progressive jackpot, which increases my percentage payback over the long term. The higher the jackpot, the better the payback. And the more likely I’ll vary my strategy to hit that royal flush. My second piece of advice is always to play the maximum number of coins it takes to hit either the 4,000-coin payoff for a royal flush or the maximum number of coins it takes to hit a progressive jackpot.

Also, that royal flush payoff is only 2% of the overall payoff a machine makes, but you’ll need it to keep your payback percentage high. If you don’t, you can expect to take that 2% off the overall payback. That’s on you.

There is a very good, easy strategy you can use in video poker in the beginner’s guide to video poker. However, if you want to get serious and follow the optimal strategy, it is listed below. Regardless of which strategy you follow, keep in mind that even full-pay Jacks or Better video poker machines hold a lot higher percentage than the .5% the optimal strategy offers. Why is that?

The answer lies again in the murky world of variance and what gamblers believe about luck and skill. Well, that and the fact that most players don’t play anywhere near the best they can. Bad play is costly. That’s the bottom line. Play on hunches, and you can expect Jacks or Better video poker to return about 92% to you. Play less than maximum coins, and the house edge comes closer to 10%. It’s fun, but winning is much better!

Here are a few examples where players make mistakes. The first has to do with a low pair below Jacks and a straight draw.

A Low Pair and a Straight Draw

Suppose you are dealt 4-4-5-6-7. Your pair of threes won’t pay a dime if you don’t improve, and you’ve got an open-ended straight draw. What should you do? According to our optimal strategy, a non-paying low pair (twos through tens) has a higher overall return than an open-ended straight. How can that be, you might ask?

The answer lies in the fact that while the straight will pay 4 coins (20 total) when it hits, you’ll only draw the card you need eight times out of the remaining 47 unseen cards. On the other hand, if you dump the 5-6-7 and draw to your pair of fours, you’ll make two pairs quite often. And you’ll be able to make trips, a full house, and the occasional four of a kind. When all those possible hands are averaged out, the correct decision of keeping the small pair will pay you almost 25% more than drawing at the straight.

This example is shown below by comparing #16, the low pair, to #21, the straight draw.

A Low Pair and a Flush Draw

Now suppose you are dealt that same pair of fours with a four-card flush draw. Now, what’s the best strategy? To start with, a flush pays better than a straight, 6 coins to just 4. Plus, you’ll make a flush more often in the 47 tries outlined above. Instead of making your hand eight times, you’ll make it nine times.

With those improved odds and payoffs, you’ll want to keep the flush draw and toss those measly fours. Check the list below, and you’ll see the flush draw is listed higher, at #14, compared to the low pair at #16.

Guaranteed Payoff Versus a Big Draw

Sometimes the payoff is more dramatic than making a straight. Suppose you get a guaranteed winner in the form of a pair of jacks. However, your total hand is the jack of hearts with a ten, jack, queen, and king of spades. Now you’ve got a four-card draw at a royal flush. Should you toss the guaranteed payoff of the pair of jacks or toss the jack of hearts and go for the big payoff?

If you have three cards to a royal flush with a high pair, you should go ahead and draw three to the pair. On the other hand, if you have a low pair and a royal flush draw, toss the little pair and draw to the big bucks. If these examples make sense to you, the optimal strategy shown below will too. You will always draw to the biggest hand possible from the highest listed hand on the list.

What the strategy above insists is that you see what you are dealt, find the highest part of it on the list, and play from there. In other words, if all you have is five unsuited, unconnected low cards, you discard them all and draw five new cards. The next-worst starting hand is three cards to a straight flush with two gaps (a double gut shot) and no high cards. That would be something like 2-4-6 of diamonds with an 8 and a 9. It’s not much better than a single high card and no straight or flush draw.

The final note is that although you might not be able to find the perfect 9/6 machine, you can always enhance your return by joining the casino players club. Most large casinos in the US and Canada offer complimentary rooms, food, and beverages for players. In Las Vegas, most casinos comp at 1 point per $1 in action. 1,000 points equals $10. If you are playing 25-cent video poker, your comp total for an hour of play with 300 hands played will be about $3.75. If you find a good 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker machine with the standard 99.5% payback, you’ll get more than 100% payback with your comps. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Video poker is the umbrella used for dozens of different gambling machines that all feature almost identical game-play. The most basic version of both casino and online video poker today is Jacks or Better, so called because the lowest-paying hand in the game is a pair of jacks, queens, kings, or aces.

These games all work the same way, but the way to get good at any of them is to master Jacks or Better first. If you get the hang of Jacks or Better, you can play a casino game where the house edge is less than 0.5%.

And that’s something worth doing.

Here are some tips and strategies for Jacks or Better to get you started.

Understanding the Bets and the Sizing of Those Bets

If you’re completely new to the game, you might not understand the importance of betting 5 coins per hand.

That’s the first decision you’ll make at any Jacks or Better game, but it’s a no-brainer, because there’s only one correct decision:

Always play the max coin bet, which is 5 coins.

The reason you always make the max coin bet in Jacks or Better – or any other video poker game, for that matter – is because you trigger a bigger payoff by doing so.

You can bet 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 coins per hand in video poker. If you bet anything other than 5 coins, the best possible payout is 200 for 1. That’s for the jackpot hand – a royal flush.

But…

If you bet 5 coins, that hand pays off at 800 for 1.

And even though that hand only comes up once in every 40,000 hands on average, it’s a big enough difference in the payout percentage that playing for fewer coins will lower the payback percentage by 2%.

Some More Specifics About the Jacks or Better Pay Table

It’s become customary to use an abbreviated pay table when discussing video poker games like Jacks or Better. Here’s an example of the so-called “full pay” Jacks or Better pay table:

1-2-3-4-6-9-25-50-800

These are the payouts that correspond to the hands in this order:

• A pair of jacks or better
• 2 pairs
• 3 of a kind
• A straight
• A flush
• A full house
• 4 of a kind
• Straight flush
• Royal flush

The important numbers on a Jacks or Better table, though, are the payouts for the full house and the flush. On a full pay Jacks or Better game, the full house pays off at 9 for 1, and the flush pays off at 6 for 1.

These are the 2 hands where the casinos change the payouts if they want to offer a game with better odds for them.

If you play with the optimal strategy on a Jacks or Better game with the pay table above, the casino house edge is only 0.46%, and the payback percentage is 99.54%.

But if the casino only pays 8 for 1 for a full house and 5 for 1 for a flush, that payback percentage drops to 97.3%. The house edge skyrockets to 2.70%.

And that’s assuming you’re playing with perfect strategy.

If you’re making mistakes, you might be giving up another 1% or 2% to the casino.

The beginning of wisdom in Jacks or Better video poker is to recognize the best pay tables and play only the machines with those pay tables.

Where to Find the Best Jacks or Better Pay Tables

If you play Jacks or Better online, it’s relatively easy to find full pay Jacks or Better games. The best online casinos offer this as a matter of course.

Be careful of multi-hand games, though. Most online casinos do NOT offer 9/6 Jacks or Better games in multi-hand format.

As my uncle used to say, that’s how they get you!

You can also find full pay Jacks or Better games in traditional casinos, but that often requires doing your own scouting. You’re more likely to find full pay Jacks or Better in smaller casinos that cater more to locals.

If you’re in Las Vegas, forget all about the video poker machines at the airport. You’re lucky to find 7/5 Jacks or Better there. Some of the games there are 6/5 Jacks or Better, which is awful. You might as well play roulette.

The big casinos on the Strip MIGHT offer full pay Jacks or Better in the high limit slots room. You can pretty much forget about finding those games on the regular casino floor, though.

If you’re not wanting to do your own scouting, one of the best things you can do is join a community of gamblers or video poker players on the internet and share information with them. You can find multiple such sites with little effort using Bing or Google.

Learning How to Play Your Hands

That 99.54% payback percentage assumes you know how to play each hand perfectly – in other words, you know which cards to hold and which ones to discard, and in which situations.

That’s probably an easier strategy to learn in Jacks or Better video poker than in any other video poker game.

I’ll provide some of the basics of Jacks or Better strategy here, but keep in mind that this isn’t a full strategy. You’re still giving up a couple of tenths of a percentage by following the strategy.

But it’s a good place to start to learn video poker strategy.

Start with the understanding that some pat hands should require no thought on your part. If you’re dealt any of these 3 hands, just keep ‘em and take your payout:

1. Royal flush
2. Straight flush
3. 4 of a kind

The only tricky hand in that lot is the straight flush, because sometimes you’ll get a straight flush that’s also a draw to the royal flush.

Don’t break up your straight flush to try to hit the royal flush. It’s not worth it.

After those 3 hands, the best possible hand you can have is 4 cards to a royal flush. Any time you get 4 cards to a royal flush, it’s always appropriate to hold onto those cards and draw to the royal flush. This can mean discarding a hand that might be a sure thing.

With that in mind, you have a couple of other hands which you should always hold onto (unless you also have the 4-to-a-royal-flush.) These hands are:

1. Full house
2. Flush
3. 3 of a kind
4. Straight

The lesson you should be taking away from this discussion of Jacks or Better strategy is this:

You should try to let the machine deal you a winning hand or a royal flush draw.

Jacks or Better strategy starts getting slightly more complicated after this.

If you don’t have that, then you should hold onto 2 pairs or a pair of jacks or better

As you can see, there are only 2 hands worth breaking up a winning hand to draw to:

• 4 to a royal flush, which you should almost always draw to.
• 4 to a straight flush, which you should be willing to break up a pair to draw to.

Jacks Or Better Strategy Charts

That’s it. If you have a paying hand, those are the cards to keep.

Free Slots Video Poker

After that, you start thinking about drawing hands. If you have 3 cards to a royal flush, you’ll keep that even if it means throwing away a small pair. You’ll also prefer 4 cards to a flush to a small pair.

But after that, you’ll want to draw to your small pairs in the hopes of getting 3 of a kind.

After that, focus on higher ranked cards that have straight flush or royal flush possibilities.

Jacks Or Better Strategy Simple

Conclusion

Jacks Or Better Strategy Tables

Mastering Jacks or Better video poker is the first step in mastering every other video poker variation. If you can play it well, you can usually adjust your strategy for the other games based on the changes in the pay tables.

In fact, that’s the main difference between Jacks or Better and other video poker variations – the pay table. Some games use wild cards, too, but it’s all about maximizing your expected value from each hand.