Jacks or Better video poker offers some of the best odds in the casino. The best version of Jacks or Better video poker, the 9/6 variant, has a payback percentage of 99.5%, which is better for the player than just about any other game in the casino. Even 8/5 Jacks or Better has a payout percentage of 97.3%, which is far worse than a full pay but still far better than most bets on most other casino games.
But in order to enjoy the high payback percentage, you have to play using expert Jacks or Better strategy. The casinos and the manufacturers estimate that players who don't use an expert strategy are giving up between 2% and 4%, which is a significant amount of money.
An 8/5 Jacks or Better pays off at 8 for 1 for a full house and 5 for 1 for a flush. Magic mermaid games. The payback percentage on that game-if you play with optimal strategy-is about 97.3%. A 7/5 game has a payback percentage of 96.1%.
Jacks or Better 'Jacks or Better,' sometimes simply called 'Draw Poker,' is the most common variation of video poker. Payoffs begin at a pair of jacks. Full pay Jacks or Better is also known as 9/6 Jacks or Better since the payoff for a full house is 9 times the bet, and the payoff for a flush is 6 times the bet. All VLT's are programmed to play at least six different games: blackjack, keno, slots and three versions of poker (jacks or better, joker poker and deuces wild). According to figures from the Rhode Island Lottery for the one-year period from July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019, the average VLT return at Twin River was 92.10% and at Tiverton.
How significant?
Consider the average hourly loss of an expert player who's running true to the mathematical expectation of a game. She's making 600 wagers per hour at $1.25 per wager, so she's putting $750 per hour into action. With a house edge of 0.5%, she can expect to lose $3.75 per hour. Assuming she gamblers for ten hours on her trip, she's got lots of entertainment for just $37.50. Most money ever won at a casino. https://angry-soft.mystrikingly.com/blog/wizbet-casino-bonus-codes-2015.
Then let's take a look at her husband, who ignores expert Jacks or Better video poker strategy and just follows his hunches. (We'll also assume that his hunches aren't very good.) He's losing 4.5% of his bets, which means that he's losing nine times as much as his wife. At the end of the trip, he's lost $337.50.
That's a significant difference.
How to develop an expert Jacks or Better strategy
Computer programs can determine the expected value of any given hand. There are 32 different ways to play any given hand, but only one way has the best expectation for the player. The more often the player chooses to play her hand in that way, the lower the house edge becomes.
But since there are 2.5 million different possible starting hands in video poker, expert strategy groups hands according to types, in order to make the process easier to learn. After all, memorizing 2.5 million different potential decisions is probably impossible unless you're a machine, but memorizing several types of hands isn't as hard.
When you consider that 55% of your hands will lose no matter what, you can see that strategy decisions can be narrowed down pretty fast. In fact, a pair of jacks or better will make up 21% of the number of winning hands you get. The small hands, including three of a kind, two pair, and a pair of jacks, make up 70% of the total return on the game.
How to use a Jacks or Better strategy
All Jacks or Better strategy tables consist of a list of hands. The player starts at the top, which is the best possible hand, and then moves down until she finds the hand that she actually has. She then plays it according to the strategy instructions.
Different Jacks or Better strategy charts offer somewhat different instructions. How to get sims 4. Below I've provided one Jacks or Better video poker strategy that's easy to learn. The house edge against someone using this strategy is only 0.8%, which isn't as kind to the player as 0.5%, but it's still considerably better than just about every other game in the casino. And of course, this assumes that you're playing a full pay, 9/6 Jacks or Better game.
The Jacks or Better Strategy Chart
Keep any 2 pair or better paying combination, UNLESS you also have a 4 card royal flush. If you have a 4 card royal flush, then you'll always draw to the royal flush. |
Keep any 4 card straight flush. |
Keep any pair of jacks or better. |
Keep any 3 cards to a royal flush. |
Keep any 4 cards to a flush. |
Keep any pair lower than jacks or better. |
Keep any 4 card open straight draw. |
Keep any unsuited AKQJ. |
Keep any 2 suited high cards. |
Keep any 3 cards to a straight flush. |
Keep any unsuited KQJ. |
Keep any 2 unsuited high cards. |
Keep any K, Q, or J if you have a 10 of the same suit. |
Keep any single high card. |
Discard all 5 cards and draw a new hand. |
One of the main principles behind most video poker strategies is that you want the machine to deal you a winning hand. If you're dealt a winning hand, you will very rarely discard any of those cards to draw to something else. The only exception is 4 cards to a royal flush, and that exception is only there because the payout on that hand is so large compared to the other hands.
In fact, you'll notice that a lot of the Jacks or Better strategy focuses on the royal flush. You'll only see a royal flush once in every 40,000 or so hands, but the payout makes for a big part of your overall expectation. Snap zoom effect. If you have four cards to a royal flush, you'll always draw to it. If you have three cards to a royal flush, you'll always draw to it UNLESS you have a winning combination, in which case you'll keep the winning cards instead.
A four-card flush draw is better than a low pair, but both of them are better than a straight draw. The reason, again, has to do with the differences in the payouts as compared to the possibility of finishing your hand.
This Jacks or Better strategy requires memorizing 15 lines of rules/guidelines, but it's far easier than a more advanced strategy. Once you've mastered this, you can easily move up to a more advanced strategy with about 21 lines or rules/guidelines, and then you can gain back that additional 0.3%. Play for free or real money today! Put this Jacks or Better video poker strategy into practice and watch your winnings grow!
Jacks Or Better How To Play
Interested in trying your hand at other online video poker games? Check out this article on 7 tips to improve your video poker strategy to ensure you play at the top of your game.
Home > Casino Game Odds > Video Poker
Video poker odds are very similar to those of regular draw poker in that the probability of receiving a particular hand is the same. Video poker is also like straight poker in that there are many variants found. So what are the main factors that determine whether or not you will walk away a winner? First, like in blackjack, you must play perfect strategy. The strategy you would employ for a jacks or better video poker machine is different from the strategy you would use for a deuces wild game, and so on. If you are already an avid player, and are interested in becoming better, try picking up a book that specifically deals with all the various video poker games found in casinos today.
Article Highlights:
Payout Ratios | Odds of Hands
casino: Vegas Slot Ea games sims 2 download. Hold your initial cards and win up to ten times each round playing 10 Play Jacks or Better Power Poker. |
The second main factor that figures into your expectation for winning in video poker is the game's payout schedule. This is the table you see on machines displaying how many credits they return based on credits bet and winning hand combination. Another important factor is the house edge in video poker. The return to player is one of the highest of all casino games. With the house edge very small to begin with, you can easily try to play for demo mode and see for yourself that the payouts are good opportunities. If you didn't already know, just like slot machines, some video poker games offer a much better return rate than others. However, unlike their one-armed counterparts, it is easy to spot which machines are high-paying thanks to the conveniently placed pay table displayed on each game.The chart below shows you what to look for.
Video Poker Odds Between Different Games
Full House To Flush Ratio | Payout |
100.2% | |
100.7% | |
99.5% | |
97.3% | |
96.3% | |
95.2% |
While browsing the video poker choices at a casino, either land based or online, be sure to keep an eye on the pay schedules. Here's what to look for: on the chart to the right, the numbers in the first column represent the payout rates for Full Houses and Flushes at one unit bet. If you see a Jacks or Better game that shows a Full House pays 9 units, and a Flush pays 6, then you know the return rate for that particular game is approximately 99.5%, making it a solid bet. Ideally, finding a machine that is 10/7 or 9/7 is the best bet, because these machines have a payout percentage over 100. Does that mean they actually pay out more than they take in? It's pretty unlikely. Casinos aren't in the business of giving out more money than they take in. Even with a mix of high and low-paying games, casino operators know the machines that return over 100% will still make money because not everyone who plays them is an expert. Just like in blackjack, only a small fraction of all players is skilled enough to play with a positive expectation of winning. Once you have mastered the basic strategy for a type of video poker, and find a high-paying machine, then you can expect to make money in the long run. What does this mean? It means that after about 50,000 hands, the odds dictate that you will have hit every possible hand combination, including the coveted royal flush. Surely, that sounds like a lot of hands, but this game can go very quickly, especially for experienced players. It is not uncommon for a skilled video poker player to turn in 750 hands an hour - and even more if that person is playing two machines at once. If the player keeps this blazing pace up for eight hours a day, it will take just over eight days for the player to reach an expected win of around 1,750 credits. You can see why some people are very serious about this game - because you really can win at it. The only drawbacks are the time commitment required, and the potential swings in bankroll. Also, just because the odds say you should get a royal flush every 40,390 hands doesn't mean it's guaranteed. You could go five times that many hands and never hit one, or get five in the first hundred hands. Both scenarios are improbable, yet quite possible. Such is the allure of chance. Such is the allure of video poker.
Odds Of Hands (Jacks or Better)
Jacks Or Better Definition
Hand | Odds | Payout Units |
Royal Flush | 4,000 | |
Straight Flush | 250 | |
Four of a kind | 125 | |
Full House | 45 | |
Flush | 30 | |
Straight | 20 | |
Three of a kind | 15 | |
Two pair | 10 | |
Jacks or better | 5 |
The chart above represents the pay schedule of a 9/6 Jacks or Better game playing the maximum five unit bet. The reason you should always play the maximum five units because this bet is required to win the 4,000 credit (or max) jackpot. If you got a royal flush playing only one or two credits, the payout would not be proportionally equal, so there is a strong incentive to always play take the five unit bet. If five credits per hand is too steep for your bankroll, there should be plenty of .25 credit machines for you to play. Online casinos always offer bets in multiple denominations, generally having a range that includes .25, .50, 1, 2, 5, and sometimes even higher credit betting units.
From studying the Jacks or Better payout odds table, you may notice an inequality between the true odds and payouts of certain hands. Despite the fact that a full house is more likely to happen (1 in 86) than a flush or a straight, it has a larger payout. This goes against the grain in that the rest of the schedule is set up to reward hands that are less likely with higher payouts. Why is this? Again, game makers have slightly adjusted the payouts, but in this case it actually favors the player. In terms of payout percentages, there is a variety among video poker machines just like there is with slots. Remember, the lower-paying 8/5 video pokers are likely to be more common. Many land based casinos don't even feature the 9/6 variety. And, you definitely won't see any at convenience gambling locations such as bars, strip clubs, or airports. So be choosy. It's what will give you the positive expectation to win and what will make playing more fun.
Game Odds Articles:
Main Page | Baccarat | Blackjack | Craps | Keno | Roulette | Slot Machines | Video Poker
Play video poker at one of the internet's leading casino sites.
Advertisement