Video Poker Strategy: How to Cut the House Edge and Play Smarter

Video poker is a single-player machine game based on five-card draw. You place a bet (typically 1 to 5 coins), the machine deals five cards, and you decide which to keep and which to discard. The discarded cards are replaced on the draw, and you're paid according to the final hand's rank and the machine's pay table.

There's no dealer to beat and no bluffing — you're simply trying to build the best-ranked hand from the cards you're dealt and drawn. Every card is dealt by a Random Number Generator (RNG), which shuffles a virtual 52-card deck fairly and independently on each hand (source: casino.org). That means past results never influence the next deal.

The skill lies entirely in the hold-or-discard decision. Two players dealt the same hand can post very different long-term returns depending on which cards they keep — which is exactly why strategy matters here far more than on a slot machine.

Video poker uses the standard poker hierarchy, ranked here from highest to lowest paying:

1. Royal Flush — A-K-Q-J-10, all one suit
2. Straight Flush — five in sequence, all one suit
3. Four of a Kind
4. Full House
5. Flush
6. Straight
7. Three of a Kind
8. Two Pair
9. Jacks or Better — a pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings, or Aces

(Source: casino.org.) In Jacks or Better, that final tier is the minimum paying hand — a pair of 10s or lower returns nothing. Other variants change the lowest paying hand (Tens or Better pays a pair of 10s) or add wild cards (Deuces Wild, Joker Poker), which reshuffle the whole ranking picture.

The pay table is the single most important thing on the screen — more important than any hold decision you'll make. Two machines can look identical and run the same variant, yet return meaningfully different amounts because their payouts differ by one or two coins per hand.

Jacks or Better is named by its full house / flush payouts (per coin). The best widely available version is 9/6 — 9-for-1 on a full house and 6-for-1 on a flush — known as full pay (source: Hard Rock). With optimal strategy, 9/6 Jacks or Better returns 99.54% (source: casino.org). Downgrade the machine to 8/5 or 7/5 (a 'short-pay' table) and that return drops, sometimes by more than a full percentage point, for exactly the same strategy and effort.

Full-pay vs short-pay identification

Before you bet, read the full house and flush lines. It takes five seconds and is the highest-value habit in video poker. Exact returns for each downgraded table vary; when in doubt, check the specific machine's paytable rather than assuming.

Good strategy is a series of consistent, repeatable hold decisions. The goal is never a guaranteed win — it's to give back as little as possible to the house on every hand. A few priorities do most of the work: pick the best pay table, bet correctly, and follow a strategy chart for your chosen variant (source: pokertube; Hard Rock).

On most machines you should bet the full 5 coins on every hand. The reason is the royal flush: it pays a disproportionately larger bonus at the 5-coin (max) bet than at 1–4 coins (source: Hard Rock). A royal typically pays 250-for-1 per coin at 1–4 coins but jumps to 800-for-1 at 5 coins — that top-end bonus is baked into the game's advertised return.

If max coins on your preferred denomination is more than your bankroll can comfortably handle, drop to a lower denomination (say, quarters instead of dollars) and still bet 5 coins, rather than betting fewer coins at a higher denomination.

A frequent dealt hand: a small pair (say two 6s) plus one high card (a lone King). In most Jacks or Better–family games, the correct play is to hold the low pair and discard the rest (source: casino.org; Hard Rock).

A held pair already gives you a made hand plus routes to two pair, three of a kind, a full house, and four of a kind. A single high card is only a draw to a paying pair. The low pair carries more expected value in the vast majority of these spots — which is why beginners who instinctively chase the 'better' high card leave money on the table.

Occasionally you'll be dealt a completed straight or flush that also contains four cards to a royal flush. Because the royal's payout is so large, the optimal play in these specific spots is often to break up the made hand and draw for the royal (source: casino.org).

This is one of the rare cases where you give up a sure smaller win for a shot at the jackpot hand — and it only applies when four royal cards are present. A completed straight or flush with no strong higher draw should simply be kept. When in doubt, a strategy chart resolves it instantly.

Jacks or Better is the reference game — learn it first and much of it transfers. On a full-pay 9/6 table, a simplified strategy returns about 99.46%, versus 99.54% for perfect optimal play (sources: Wizard of Odds; casino.org). That gap is only about 0.08% of return (source: Wizard of Odds), which means a simple, memorable chart costs you almost nothing.

A workable hold priority, roughly highest to lowest:

1. Any made high hand (four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind) — keep it (except breaking a straight/flush for four to a royal).
2. Four cards to a royal flush.
3. Two pair, or a high pair (Jacks or better).
4. Four cards to a straight flush.
5. Low pair.
6. Four cards to a flush.
7. Three cards to a royal flush.
8. Four cards to an outside straight.
9. Two suited high cards.
10. Otherwise, keep any high cards; if none, discard all five.

The simplified approach produces about one misplay per 1,178 hands on average (source: Wizard of Odds) — rare enough that the practical cost is trivial for most players.

In Deuces Wild, all four 2s are wild and can stand in for any card. This inflates the hand rankings (a full-pay version can exceed a 100% theoretical return with perfect play), but the strategy is entirely different from Jacks or Better.

The golden rule: always hold every deuce you're dealt, and never discard one. With no deuces, you're essentially chasing pairs and high draws; with one or more deuces, evaluate the strongest wild-assisted combination available. Because the payout structure and correct holds shift so much, use a Deuces Wild–specific chart rather than applying Jacks or Better logic (variants and returns vary by pay table, so confirm the machine you're on).

Bonus Poker, Double Bonus, and Double Double Bonus reward four of a kind — especially four Aces, and in Double Double Bonus, four Aces with a specific kicker — with outsized payouts (source: Hard Rock lists these among common variants). The trade-off is that other hands are trimmed to fund those bonuses.

Strategically, that means you'll chase four-of-a-kind draws slightly more aggressively than in plain Jacks or Better, and you'll sometimes hold kicker cards you'd normally discard. Each variant has its own optimal chart, and Double Double Bonus in particular carries higher variance — bigger swings — so pair it with a larger bankroll. Do not reuse the Jacks or Better chart on these games.

Joker Poker adds a single joker to the deck as a wild card, creating a 53-card game (source: Hard Rock lists it among common variants). The extra wild raises the odds of premium hands and adds a five of a kind payout above the straight flush in many versions.

As with Deuces Wild, never discard the joker, and lean on a Joker Poker–specific chart. The minimum paying hand differs between versions (some are Kings or Better, some pay two pair minimum), so confirm the pay table before choosing your holds.

Aces and Faces resembles Jacks or Better but pays a premium on four of a kind made from Aces or face cards (Jacks, Queens, Kings) (source: Hard Rock lists it among common variants). Basic play is close to Jacks or Better, but you'll place slightly more value on holds that can develop into four Aces or four faces. A variant-specific chart handles the edge cases.

Tens or Better lowers the minimum paying hand to a pair of 10s (source: Hard Rock lists it among common variants). That sounds generous, but the machine pays for it by shaving other lines, so the overall return depends on the full pay table. Strategy mirrors Jacks or Better with the threshold moved down one rank — hold pairs of 10s and above as your baseline paying hand.

You don't need computer-perfect play to do well. On 9/6 Jacks or Better:

(Sources: casino.org; Wizard of Odds.)

The difference is roughly 0.08% of return (source: Wizard of Odds) — for most players, picking a 9/6 machine and playing a simple chart accurately matters far more than squeezing out the last fraction with perfect play. Master the simple version first, then refine.

Even a good chart is only as good as your discipline in following it. The simplified 9/6 Jacks or Better strategy averages about one misplay every 1,178 hands (source: Wizard of Odds) — but only if you actually apply it.

The most costly mistakes have nothing to do with subtle holds:

• Playing a short-pay table. Sitting at an 8/5 machine when a 9/6 is available quietly costs more than any hold error.
• Betting fewer than 5 coins. This forfeits the royal flush bonus that the game's return depends on (source: Hard Rock).
• Keeping a lone high card over a low pair. The low pair is usually the stronger hold (source: casino.org; Hard Rock).
• Chasing inside straights with too few outs.
• Holding a kicker with a paying pair in non-bonus games, where it adds nothing.
• Breaking a made hand for the wrong draw — only break a straight/flush when four to a royal is present.
• Playing tired or on autopilot, which multiplies error frequency far beyond the chart's baseline.

Multi-hand video poker lets you play many hands at once from the same held cards — commonly 3, 5, 10, 50, or 100 Play (source: Hard Rock lists multi-hand/100 Play among variants). You choose your holds once; the machine then draws independent replacement cards for each of the parallel hands.

The strategy is identical to the single-hand version — correct holds don't change. What changes dramatically is variance and bankroll requirement. Playing 100 hands per deal at 5 coins each means you're wagering 500 coins per round. The upside: your results converge toward the theoretical return faster and royals hit more often across the grid. The downside: your bankroll can swing hard and fast.

For 100 Play specifically, drop to a lower coin denomination so that 500 coins per round stays within a sane fraction of your bankroll, and expect a bumpier ride than single-hand play even though the math per hand is the same.

The advertised return of a video poker game is the long-run percentage of wagered money it pays back with perfect (or stated) strategy. Full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better returns 99.54% with optimal play (source: casino.org) — one of the best returns available on any casino machine.

Two things to keep in mind:

• It's a long-run average. That 99.54% plays out over hundreds of thousands of hands, not your next session. Short-term results are dominated by variance — a big chunk of the return is locked up in the rare royal flush.
• It's still below 100%. A 99.54% return means a roughly 0.46% house edge on that specific full-pay table. The house keeps its edge; strategy shrinks it, it doesn't flip it. Wild-card games like full-pay Deuces Wild can theoretically edge above 100%, but those tables are rare and easy to misidentify.

Exact house edge depends entirely on the pay table and your accuracy, which is why machine selection and disciplined play are the whole game.

Every hand is dealt by a Random Number Generator (source: casino.org). A certified RNG simulates a fair, independent 52-card shuffle for each deal, so there are no 'hot' or 'cold' machines and no due jackpots. The card you draw isn't influenced by what came before.

At a legitimate, licensed casino, the RNG is tested and certified by an independent lab (such as eCOGRA or iTech Labs) to confirm it produces genuinely random, unbiased results. This is why chasing patterns or timing your bets does nothing — the only lever you control is which cards you hold.

Even a 99%+ return game will hand you losing sessions, because most of the payback is concentrated in rare big hands. Managing your bankroll is how you stay in the game long enough for strategy to matter (source: pokertube; Hard Rock).

Practical guidelines:

• Set a session budget you can afford to lose, and treat it as entertainment spend, not investment.
• Match denomination to bankroll so you can bet 5 coins comfortably. If dollar max-coin is a stretch, play quarters.
• Account for variance. Higher-variance games (Double Double Bonus, 100 Play) need a bigger cushion than low-variance Jacks or Better.
• Never chase losses, and stop when you hit your limit — win or lose.
• Take breaks; fatigue drives misplays.

Strategy is about playing smarter and longer, not guaranteeing a profit. 18+ only. T&Cs apply.

Because video poker's return is already high, the comps and cashback you earn from a casino's players club can be meaningfully valuable relative to your expected cost (source: pokertube). Points, cashback, and rewards effectively add to your return without changing your play — so always insert your player's card. Just don't let a comp chase talk you into playing longer, larger, or on a worse machine than you planned; the card should follow your strategy, not drive it.

Video poker is one of the easiest casino games to practice risk-free (source: pokertube). Useful aids:

• Free-play / demo modes at licensed online casinos let you play real variants with no money at stake — ideal for drilling holds.
• Strategy trainers flag when you deviate from the correct hold on a given hand, turning practice into feedback.
• Printable strategy charts for each variant let you play accurately from the start; using a chart is entirely legitimate.
• Return/paytable calculators compute a machine's exact return once you enter its pay table — the fastest way to spot a short-pay game.

Drill in free play until the common holds are automatic, then move to real money on a full-pay machine.

A printable cheat sheet is the practical bridge between theory and the machine. Because each variant has its own correct holds, keep a separate chart for each game you play — a Jacks or Better chart will actively mislead you on Deuces Wild or Double Double Bonus.

When building or downloading a chart:

• Match it to the exact pay table (e.g., 9/6 Jacks or Better), not just the game name.
• Order it by hold priority — scan from the top and take the first line your hand qualifies for.
• Start with a simplified chart (about 99.46% on 9/6 JoB, versus 99.54% optimal) to keep it memorable; the ~0.08% cost is negligible (sources: Wizard of Odds; casino.org).

Using a chart at the machine, online or in person, is perfectly allowed — it's not card counting and casinos don't penalize it.

Where you play affects both fairness and the returns available to you (source: casino.org). Look for:

• A valid licence from a recognized regulator (e.g., UK Gambling Commission, Malta Gaming Authority, or your state's gaming board).
• Independent RNG certification (eCOGRA, iTech Labs, or similar) confirming fair deals.
• Full-pay tables available — a casino that offers 9/6 Jacks or Better is offering better math than one stuck at 8/5.
• Reputable software providers and clear published pay tables you can inspect before betting.
• Free-play mode so you can practice and verify pay tables risk-free.
• A functioning players club for comps and cashback.

We describe selection criteria only — always confirm licensing and eligibility for your own location before you deposit. Geo restrictions apply.

• Full pay — the best-paying version of a variant, e.g., 9/6 Jacks or Better (source: Hard Rock).
• Short pay — a reduced pay table (8/5, 7/5) that lowers your return.
• Hold / draw — keeping cards vs discarding them for replacements.
• Max coins — betting the full 5 coins to unlock the royal flush bonus (source: Hard Rock).
• RNG — Random Number Generator, which deals every hand (source: casino.org).
• Expected return / RTP — long-run percentage paid back with correct play.
• House edge — the casino's long-run margin (100% minus the return).
• Variance — how much short-term results swing around the average.
• Kicker — an unpaired card held alongside a hand, relevant in bonus variants.
• Wild card — a card (deuce or joker) that substitutes for any other.

Video poker suits players who enjoy making decisions and don't mind learning a bit of strategy. If you like the low, transparent house edge of a full-pay machine and the control of choosing your own holds, it's one of the best value games in the casino. If you'd rather press a button and not think — a pure slot may fit better. Video poker rewards patience and accuracy, not luck alone, but it still carries a house edge and should always be played as entertainment. 18+ only.

Widen your casino-math knowledge with our companion guides on return to player (RTP), house edge, and individual game strategies. Understanding how RTP and variance interact will make every strategy decision here click into place. Explore our Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild deep-dives for variant-specific charts, and our responsible-gambling hub for tools and support.