Every Beginner’s Guide to Video Poker: Rules, Pay Tables and Strategy

Video poker is a single-player game of five-card draw against a fixed pay table: you are dealt five cards, choose which to hold, draw replacements, and get paid according to the final hand. What makes it different from slots is that your decisions change the return, and the pay table tells you exactly how much the game gives back with perfect play. A full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better game returns 99.54% with optimal strategy, while the same game with a cut 6/5 pay table returns 95.00%, according to Wizard of Odds.

No strategy turns video poker into a reliable way to win money. What this guide does is explain the rules, show you how to read a pay table in under a minute, and give you a ranked strategy chart so that the house edge you face is the smallest the game allows. For where to play, see our crypto video poker hub.

How video poker gameplay works

Every hand follows the same five steps, whether you play a classic software machine or a newer multi-hand version.

1. Choose your stake. Most games let you pick a coin value and a number of coins, usually one to five. Many online versions simply show a bet amount with five coins built in.
2. Deal. The game deals five cards from a freshly shuffled 52-card deck (53 or more with jokers in some variants).
3. Hold. Tap the cards you want to keep. You can hold all five, none, or anything in between.
4. Draw. Cards you did not hold are replaced from the remaining deck.
5. Get paid. The final five cards are compared with the pay table. Anything below the minimum paying hand loses the stake.

In software video poker, a random number generator decides the cards. A properly run game simulates a real deck: each hand is independent, and the machine never “knows” what you will hold. That is why strategy charts work; the probabilities are the same as with a physical deck.

Video poker hands, from best to worst

Jacks or Better is the base game that most other versions build on. Its hand rankings match standard poker, and the minimum paying hand is a pair of jacks or higher. Frequencies below are approximate figures for optimal play on 9/6 Jacks or Better, from the Wizard of Odds return table.

Notice that a pair of jacks or better only returns your stake. Roughly 55% of hands lose outright, and a big share of the game’s return comes from two pair and three of a kind, not from the rare top hands.

How to read a video poker pay table

Video poker is one of the few casino games where you can see the return before you bet. In Jacks or Better, the two numbers that matter most are the payouts for a full house and a flush, per coin. A game that pays 9 for a full house and 6 for a flush is called “9/6”. Lower those two figures and the return falls, even if every other line stays the same.

Those figures come from Wizard of Odds and assume the maximum-coin royal flush payout. Picking 9/6 over 6/5 is a 4.5 percentage-point difference in return, which is more than any strategy improvement a beginner can make. It costs nothing, it takes seconds, and it is the single most useful habit in video poker.

Why the five-coin royal matters

On most pay tables, every hand pays the same per coin regardless of how many coins you bet, with one exception: the royal flush jumps from 250 per coin to 800 per coin (4,000 coins total) when you bet the maximum. Return figures such as 99.54% assume that bonus. Playing fewer than five coins on a coin-based machine lowers the return by more than a full percentage point, so if the bet feels too large at five coins, choose a smaller coin value instead of fewer coins. On games that show a single bet amount, check whether the royal flush line already shows the 800-per-unit figure.

Common variants and their best pay tables

Each variant has its own pay table and its own optimal strategy. Using a Jacks or Better chart on Deuces Wild, for example, would cost you badly. Here are typical full-pay returns listed by Wizard of Odds; tables offered online are often lower, so treat these as the ceiling and compare the game you see.

• Bonus Poker (8/5): 99.17%. Extra pay for certain four-of-a-kind hands.
• Double Bonus Poker (10/7): 100.17%. Higher four-of-a-kind bonuses, but two pair pays only 1.
• Double Double Bonus Poker (9/6): 98.98%. Big kicker bonuses for aces and low quads, with higher variance.
• Deuces Wild (full pay): 100.76%. All twos are wild and the minimum paying hand is three of a kind. The “Not So Ugly Ducks” table returns 99.73%.

A return above 100% on paper does not mean a guaranteed profit. It requires perfect strategy over a very large number of hands, and the variance is high, especially in the bonus games. Games at those returns are also rare online.

Optimal strategy for Jacks or Better

Strategy in video poker means one thing: for each five-card deal, hold the combination with the highest expected value. Computer analysis has already done that work, and simplified charts get you very close to perfect play. The list below follows the simple strategy published by Wizard of Odds for 9/6 Jacks or Better. Start at the top and hold the first option that matches your hand.

1. Royal flush, straight flush or four of a kind
2. Four to a royal flush
3. Full house, flush, straight or three of a kind
4. Four to a straight flush
5. Two pair
6. High pair (jacks or better)
7. Three to a royal flush
8. Four to a flush
9. Low pair (twos to tens)
10. Four to an outside straight (open at both ends)
11. Two suited high cards
12. Three to a straight flush
13. Two unsuited high cards (if you have more than two, keep the lowest two)
14. Suited 10 with a jack, queen or king
15. One high card
16. Nothing worth holding: discard all five and draw

Worked examples

• K♥ Q♥ J♥ 10♥ 3♣: you hold a straight, but four to a royal ranks higher. Discard the 3 and draw.
• J♠ J♦ 8♠ 6♠ 2♠: a high pair beats four to a flush. Keep the jacks.
• 5♣ 5♦ 6♥ 7♠ 8♦: a low pair beats four to an outside straight. Keep the fives.
• A♦ K♣ Q♥ 7♠ 3♣: three unsuited high cards. Keep the lowest two, king and queen, and drop the ace.
• A♥ 8♥ 7♣ 4♦ 2♠: one high card and nothing else. Hold the ace alone.

Why the chart ranks hands this way

Each line of the chart reflects an expected value, meaning the average payout per coin that a hold produces across every possible draw. Take the hand J♠ J♦ 8♠ 6♠ 2♠ from the examples above. Holding the four spades leaves 9 spades among the 47 unseen cards, so the flush comes in about 19% of the time. At 6 per coin, plus a small chance of catching one of the two remaining jacks, that hold is worth roughly 1.19 per coin. Keeping the pair of jacks is worth about 1.54 per coin in 9/6 Jacks or Better, because it already returns your stake and often improves to two pair or trips. The pair wins by a wide margin, even though the flush pays more when it lands.

The same logic explains the low-pair rule. A pair of fives is worth about 0.82 per coin, while four to an outside straight with no high cards is worth about 0.68: eight cards complete the straight, each paying 4. Small gaps like these add up over thousands of hands, which is why following the chart every time matters more than any hunch.

A practical way to learn: play in demo mode with the chart open, and say the rule number to yourself before each hold. After a few hundred hands, most decisions become automatic, and only rare hands need a second look.

Mistakes beginners make

• Holding a kicker. Keeping an ace next to a low pair lowers your chance of improving the pair. In Jacks or Better, hold the pair alone.
• Chasing inside straights. Four to an inside straight (one gap) rarely beats keeping high cards and is near the bottom of most charts.
• Breaking a paying hand for a flush draw. A made high pair is worth more than four to a flush.
• Using one chart for every game. Deuces Wild and bonus games need their own charts.
• Ignoring the pay table. As shown above, the table matters more than small strategy errors.

Most software games show a hint or auto-hold feature. Some offer it as a practice tool; treat it with care, because you cannot always tell which strategy it follows. A printed chart or a free strategy trainer is a better way to learn.

Variance: why results swing so much

Even at 99.54%, video poker is a high-variance game. A large share of the long-term return is concentrated in rare hands, above all the royal flush, which arrives about once every 40,000 hands with optimal play. Until it does, your actual return will usually sit well below the theoretical figure. Bonus variants push this further, because more of the return sits in four-of-a-kind hands.

In practice, this means two things. Bankroll needs to be larger than the bet size suggests, and short-term results say very little about whether you played well. Our bankroll management guide shows how to size sessions with that in mind.

Deuces Wild: what changes

Deuces Wild is the second most common variant online, and it plays very differently. All four twos act as wild cards, so hands are stronger and the pay table starts at three of a kind. A full-pay Deuces Wild table pays, per coin: natural royal flush 250 (800 at five coins), four deuces 200, wild royal flush 25, five of a kind 15, straight flush 9, four of a kind 5, full house 3, flush 2, straight 2 and three of a kind 1. That is the 100.76% version. Cheaper tables usually cut the four-of-a-kind or full-house payout, and the return falls fast.

Three rules carry most of the strategy:

• Never discard a deuce. Each one is worth more than any natural card.
• Count your deuces first. The right hold depends heavily on whether you were dealt zero, one, two, three or four of them, which is how Deuces Wild strategy charts are organised.
• Do not hold a single pair with high cards in mind. A pair of jacks pays nothing here, because the minimum paying hand is three of a kind.

Use a chart written for the exact pay table you see. Full-pay and “Not So Ugly Ducks” Deuces Wild have slightly different optimal plays.

Multi-hand and other formats

Many casinos offer multi-hand versions (three, five, ten or more hands at once). You get one deal, choose your holds once, and the held cards are copied to every hand; each hand then draws its replacement cards separately. The return per hand is the same as the single-hand game with the same pay table, but your total stake per deal is multiplied by the number of hands. A 0.0001 BTC bet on ten hands risks 0.001 BTC per deal, so multi-hand play burns through a bankroll much faster than it looks.

Some games add side features, such as multipliers on the next hand for an extra fee. These change the maths and usually lower the return of the base game, so check the help screen before turning them on.

Is online video poker fair?

Fairness depends on the casino and the game supplier, not on the game type. At a licensed casino, software should come from studios whose RNG has been tested by an independent laboratory. Check the licence on the regulator’s own register, and read the game’s help file, which should state the pay table and rules. Results that feel streaky are normal: with roughly 55% of hands losing outright, runs of 10 or 20 losing hands are part of the game, not evidence of tampering.

Video poker tips for crypto players

• Read decimals carefully. A bet of 0.0005 BTC is five times 0.0001 BTC. Check the stake before the first deal.
• Separate game risk from coin risk. Your balance can change in fiat value while you play. Stablecoins remove that swing but carry issuer risk.
• Check who made the game. Video poker at crypto casinos usually comes from established studios. Provably fair checks, which our provably fair guide explains, apply mainly to in-house “originals”, not to most third-party games.
• Check bonus rules. Video poker often counts only partly, or not at all, toward wagering, and some terms exclude it. Our checklist on casino terms and conditions shows where to look.
• Practise in demo mode. Free play is the safest way to learn a new variant’s strategy.

If you prefer games against a dealer, our guide to Casino Hold’em covers a poker-based table game, and the crypto poker page covers player-versus-player options.

Video poker versus slots

Both look like machines and both are played alone, but the maths differs. A slot’s return to player is set by the game and you cannot change it; it is also rarely shown as clearly as a video poker pay table. In video poker you can calculate the return yourself and your decisions move it. The flip side: poor holds can push a good game’s return down by several percentage points.

A quick checklist before you play

1. Identify the variant: Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus, Deuces Wild or another.
2. Read the full house and flush lines (or the four-of-a-kind and full house lines in Deuces Wild) and compare them with the full-pay figures above.
3. Confirm the royal flush pays 800 per unit at the bet level you choose.
4. Open a strategy chart for that exact variant and pay table.
5. Set the number of hands to one while you learn.
6. Decide your session budget and stop-loss in advance, and write it down.
7. Check whether an active bonus restricts or excludes video poker.

Running through these seven points takes about a minute and protects you from the most expensive beginner errors.

Responsible play

Video poker is fast, and hands can come every few seconds. Set deposit and loss limits in your casino account before you start, take regular breaks, and stop when your session budget is gone. Gambling should cost you only what you can spare for entertainment. If you find it hard to stop, use the casino’s self-exclusion tools and reach out to a support group such as Gamblers Anonymous. More information is on our responsible gambling page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best video poker game for beginners?

Jacks or Better. Its rules are standard five-card draw, the strategy chart is short, and a full-pay 9/6 table returns 99.54% with optimal play according to Wizard of Odds. Learn it before moving on to Deuces Wild or bonus games.

What does 9/6 mean in video poker?

It is the payout per coin for a full house (9) and a flush (6) on a Jacks or Better pay table. Lower versions such as 8/5 or 6/5 pay less for those hands and return less: 97.30% and 95.00% with optimal play.

Can you win at video poker?

You can win in a session, but on almost every pay table the house keeps an edge over time. Optimal strategy and a full-pay table only make that edge as small as possible. Treat video poker as paid entertainment, not as income.

Should you always bet max coins in video poker?

On coin-based games the royal flush pays 800 per coin only at five coins, against 250 per coin otherwise, and published returns assume the max-coin payout. If five coins feels too expensive, use a smaller coin value rather than fewer coins.

How often do you hit a royal flush in video poker?

About once every 40,391 hands with optimal 9/6 Jacks or Better strategy, according to Wizard of Odds. Many players never hit one in a typical session, which is why results swing so much.

Do you keep a kicker in video poker?

Not in Jacks or Better. Holding a high card next to a low pair lowers your chance of improving the pair. Keep the pair alone and draw three cards.