Understanding Video Poker Pay Tables: How to Choose the Best Game

When assessing games by their RTP value, video poker often ranks among the best paying games. There are numerous types of video poker, with their own special rules and paytables, but the principal is often the same. You are dealt a hand of cards and must pick which ones you want to hold.

Video poker may use the same hands as poker, but it is a completely different type of game. A lot of players prefer video poker to other card based casino games, partly due to the paytable structure. It has the potential to pay out a whopping 800x your bet in a single hand. And with an optimal video poker strategy, you can decrease the house edge to just under 0.5%. However, this really depends on which video poker game you choose and how its paytable is built.

Basic Gameplay and Top Video Poker Variants

Video poker is based on five card draw poker, and you can influence the outcome of each hand through your decision making. There are various video poker strategies that you can learn, which only take a few minutes to master. The games all have a bet phase, where you can place a wager – typically from 1 to 5 coins per hand.

After placing your bet, you are dealt 5 cards from a 52 card deck (or 53 if the variant has a joker). You can choose which cards you want to hold onto and which you want to discard. When you are ready, the discarded cards are replaced with new cards. If you have a winning hand, then you receive a payout, according to the paytable.

Generally, games have 9+ paying hands. If you know the poker hands, then you may be familiar with the following:

• Royal Flush
• Straight Flush
• Four of a Kind
• Full House
• Flush
• Straight
• Three of a Kind
• Two Pair

Then, some variants include more payouts for specific flushes, hands of a certain value, and even wild cards, that can substitute for any other card in the deck. The principle is the same across each game, but the optimal strategy varies a little. So does the paying structure, and the probability of scoring a winning hand.

Most Popular Video Poker Variants

Jacks or Better is a prevalent video poker title, which can be found at nearly all online casinos. It has 9 hands, and you can win if you have at least a pair of Jacks, or any other higher paying hand. It is a simple game that can be learned by all. There are similar variants such as Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker, Bonus Poker and All American Poker, that have similar gameplay but a slightly different paytable.

All American Poker, for example, pays higher for mid to high poker hands, while the Bonus Poker equivalents have differing rules regarding Four of a Kind hands, and may pay lower for flushes and straights.

Then, there is Deuces Wild and Joker Poker, which introduce wild cards into the mix. In Deuces Wild, 2s count as wild cards, whereas in Joker Poker you have a 53 card deck, with the Joker card acting as the wild. This has a far more direct impact on your video poker gaming strategy than the paytables.

Finally, Pick’em Poker is quite a rare variant in which you have to pick from a draw of 4 cards to make your best 5 card hand. It simplifies the gameplay as only 4 cards are drawn initially. The last card is only drawn at the end. The higher hands pay out better, but in return, you have fewer winning combinations.

Significance of Video Poker Pay Tables

Wild cards and unique rules (such as those in Pick’em Poker) will change the way you approach the game. But so to will the paytable, as they will dictate a lot of your decision making. Not all Jacks or Better have the same RTP, and the same goes for any video poker variant.

In Jacks or Better alone, the RTP can range from 95% up to 99.54%. That is quite a serious difference in house edge, from 5% down to just 0.46%. The difference in the paytables may vary ever so slightly, but the small discrepancies are enough to push the house edge up to 5%. Now, we will go into each video poker variant and point out the anomalies. You may have heard some of the following terms before:

• 9/6 Jacks or Better
• 8/5 Bonus Poker
• 9/4/4 Deuces Wild

These are the best of the best paying games for those variants. It becomes more obvious when we list out their paytables.

Best Pay Tables for Each Video Poker Variant

The anomalies are generally hidden near the middle of the paytable. Often, you may find adjusted lines to pay higher on bigger hands but smaller on lower rankings ones. One game of Bonus Poker may pay out a simple Flush at 5x whereas another pays out 8x for the same hand. Yet the first one is still better. Why? The second Bonus Poker game pays out 2x on Two Pair whereas the first only pays 1x.

Knowing where to look is vital, and considering how often these hands payout. Two Pair is the most often winning combination, and if you are only getting 1x instead of 2x, you will feel it in your bankroll.

Jacks or Better (9/6)

• 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

The RTP of this game is 99.54%. The other variants pay out Full House/Flush at 9/5, 8/6, 8/5, 7/5, and 6/5. The worst (6/5) has an RTP of 95%.

Bonus Poker (8/5)

• Royal Flush – 800
• Straight Flush – 50
• Four Aces – 80
• Four 2s, 3s, 4s – 40
• Four 5s through Kings – 25
• Full House – 8
• Flush – 5
• Straight – 4
• Three of a Kind – 3
• Two Pair – 2
• Jacks or Better – 1

This is the best paytable for Bonus Poker, with an RTP of 99.17%. Other variants pay out the Full House/Straight at 7/5, 6/5, and the version we talked about before. That one has 10/8 but pays out Two Pair at 1, taking the RTP down to 94.18%.

Double Bonus Poker (10/7/5)

• Royal Flush – 800
• Straight Flush – 50
• Four Aces – 160
• Four 2s, 3s, or 4s – 80
• Four 5s through Kings – 50
• Full House – 10
• Flush – 7
• Straight – 5
• Three of a Kind – 3
• Two Pair – 1
• Jacks or Better -1

The RTP of this game is 100.17%. Other variants pay out the Full House/Flush/Straight at 9/7/5, 10/7/4, and so on, down to 7/5/4. The worst has an RTP of just 93.11%.

Double Double Bonus Poker (10/6/4)

• Royal Flush – 800
• Straight Flush – 50
• Four Aces with a 2, 3, or 4 Kicker – 400
• Four Aces without Kicker – 160
• Four 2s, 3s, or 4s with a 2, 3, or 4 Kicker – 160
• Four 2s, 3s, or 4s without Kicker – 80
• Four 5s through Kings – 50
• Full House – 10
• Flush – 6
• Straight – 4
• Three of a Kind – 3
• Two Pair – 1
• Jacks or Better – 1

The RTP of this game is 99.96%. Other variants have the Full House/Flush/Straight priced at 9/6/4, 8/6/4, and down to 6/5/4. The last variant has an RTP of just 94.66%.

Joker Poker: Kings or Better (7/5)

• Natural Royal Flush – 800
• Five of a Kind – 200
• Wild Royal Flush – 100
• Straight Flush – 50
• Four of a Kind – 20
• Full House – 7
• Flush – 5
• Straight – 3
• Three of a Kind – 2
• Kings or Better – 1

The RTP of this version of Joker Poker is 100.65%. Other variants price the Four of a Kind at 18, 17, and 15. But be careful, as the Natural Royal Flush may be priced higher in some of the lower-RTP variants.

Other Variants of Video Poker

The above are the most common variants that you will find out there. But here are a few more that you may come across:

• All American Poker (8/8/8/8) – 99.6% RTP
• Deuces Wild Poker (25/15/9/5/3/2) – 100.76% RTP
• Deuces Wild Bonus Poker (9/4/4) – 99.45% RTP
• Double Bonus Deuces Wild (25/12) – 99.81% RTP
• Super Double Bonus Poker (9/5) – 99.69% RTP
• Triple Bonus Poker Plus (9/5) – 99.8% RTP
• Triple Deuces Wild (20/10/8/4/3/2) – 99.92% RTP
• Triple Double Bonus Poker (9/7) – 99.58% RTP

Concluding Video Poker Paytables

While it is always better to have a higher RTP, you must remember that this is a theoretical number. Video poker uses complex algorithms to come out with fully randomized results for each round. It uses the same RNGs as slots, and RTP is a value tested under laboratory conditions. The computers generate hundreds of thousands of outcomes in a short time to determine RTP.

But it is good to know that the game you are playing has a higher Return to Player. Your decisions during each round can reduce the house edge considerably. All you need is a good betting strategy and you will be playing video poker like the pros. And remember, to play responsibly. Never spend more money on your video poker gaming than you can afford to lose.