When video poker was introduced to casino floors, it quickly became a popular option for players. It offered something new and was another option for slots and blackjack players to try something new. New games were developed on a regular basis and the popularity grew. But it seems like video poker has been losing popularity for several years now.
Browse Pay Tables for hundreds of Video Poker games BTW, Our site is maintained by a cadre of volunteer casino monitors and an active community of video poker players like you, who help keep our video poker inventory up-to-date (and free) by sending us updates. Payout Schedule of Jacks and Better. Players should always remember that pay schedules are important. It is not always easy to get oriented in a certain pay-off table, but players are recommended to always make clear what the pay-off would be for every hand in the game of Jacks or Better in a certain casino, regardless if it comes to a land-based or an online one.
It's rare to see a new video poker game in the casino or video poker online, and many of the older machines are being replaced with slot machines or table games or have pay tables that aren't as good as they used to be. When you factor in the lower comp rates most casinos are paying for video poker play, it's no wonder that it's losing popularity.
I don't think that online video poker will completely die out for decades, because there are still players who go to the casinos to play it. Online casinos have no reason to stop offering online video poker games because it doesn't cost more to keep the games they already offer available. But this doesn't mean that video poker isn't dying. Here are seven reasons video poker is dying.
1 – Limited Game Variety
Answer these two questions. Your answers don't have to be exact; just make a quick estimate.
I don't know the exact answers to these questions, but my guess is there are over 1,000 different slot machines available in land based casinos and online casinos. On the other hand, most people are hard pressed to name more than five video poker games.
In truth, there are somewhere between 10 and 20 video poker games offered in big land based and online casinos. But the majority of play is on a few of these games. As a matter of fact, there are only three video poker games that I recommend learning how to play.
- Deuces Wild
- Jacks or Better
- Pick'em Poker
The reasons these are the only three I recommend is because they each have pay tables available that have a low house edge and at least one of them is available in just about every casino on the planet.
Casinos have the opportunity to add new slot machines on a monthly basis. Slot machine manufacturers are always developing and offering new machines. Gamblers like to play new things, so the casinos want to offer new experiences. Clean text menu 3 4 download free.
Slot machine manufacturers also keep coming up with new features and ways to improve their games. Instead of simple machines with three reels spinning inside with cherries and bars, we now have slot machines with story lines, video and audio aids, multiple bonus rounds, and graphics that rival live television.
Now think about the advancements in the video poker machine industry over the last 40 years. Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild are basically the same as they've been since they were introduced.
This limits the variety of games, and it doesn't look like this is ever going to improve. The casinos are more focused on their profit per square foot than ever, and the bottom line is they have a better chance to make money with the latest and greatest slot machine than with a new video poker machine.
2 – Fewer Good Pay Tables
The house edge and pay back percentage of video poker machines are based on the pay table and the strategy that you use. While most video poker machines, even those with poor pay tables, have a lower house edge than slot machines, you still need to find the best pay tables if you want to have the best chance to win.
The casinos don't want serious video poker players. Instead they want recreational players who don't know anything about how pay tables change the house edge and who don't use strategy to lower the edge. The casino makes more money on video poker machines with poor pay tables.
If you play video poker online, such as Jacks or Better, the best pay table is the one that pays nine for a full house and six for a flush. This pay table is called a 9/6. When you play on a 9/6 machine and use a strategy card the pay back percentage is over 99.5%. This doesn't leave much for the casino. They still make money on the machine, but it's limited in comparison to slot machines.
Casinos have been phasing out video poker machines with good pay tables. Instead of offering several 9/6 Jacks or Better machines, they've replaced many of them with 8/5 machines, or worse. You can still find 9/6 machines, especially when you play online, but they're getting harder and harder to find.
The same is true for Deuces Wild and other games. By reducing the number of available machines with good pay tables, each casinos profits per dollar wagered on the machines goes up, but it reduces the number of people playing the games.
This cycle gives the casinos even more reason to look for more profitable options for the space taken up by video poker machines. If this continues, and I don't see any reason it won't, it's going to kill land based video poker machines in any but the largest ones.
3 – Few Progressive Jackpot Opportunities
Every gambler doesn't dream of hitting a huge jackpot that can change their financial future, but many of them do. Every day thousands of people who never go to a casino take their chances with a lottery ticket. Casinos do everything they can to duplicate the dreams of untold riches that the lottery produces.
In almost every casino you can find slot machines with progressive jackpots. Many of these jackpots climb to over $1 million from time to time. Even the ones with jackpots as small as $100,000 offer life changing money to most of the people who play them.
When is the last time you played a video poker machine that offered a progressive jackpot?
They do exist, but there aren't many of them. The last one I played was over 10 years back, and it was a Jack or Better with a poor pay table. The progressive wasn't much higher than the normal 4,000 coin pay out for a royal flush, so it wasn't a popular machine.
With the top pay out of 4,000 coins on the most common video poker machines, players don't see how they can win a life changing jackpot. While hitting a 4,000 coin payout is nice, it rarely produces enough to break even on your play over time. Facebook casino games.
If you're playing a quarter machine and wagering five coins per hand your total bet for the hand is $1.25. When you hit a royal flush the win is $1,000 on this machine. Everyone wants to win $1,000, but it's not like you can pay off your house or car with it.
Even if you're playing a $1 machine, the total bet per hand is $5 at max coins, and the royal flush pays $4,000. These jackpots pale in comparison to the hundreds of thousands and millions that many slot machines offer.
This doesn't happen often, and it requires some mathematical skills to determine where the jackpot has to go for it to eliminate the house edge. You're almost always better off in the long run to stick to a regular video poker game that has a good pay table and use a strategy card. If you want to chase a big pay day, play the lottery or a progressive jackpot slot machine.
The lack of a life changing jackpot is clearly one of the reasons that video poker machines aren't as popular as slot machines.
4 – Strategy
In order to keep the house edge as low as possible and have the best chance to win any time you play video poker online or in a land based casino, you have to play the best possible strategy. One of the best things about video poker is that you can play your hands a certain way to maximize your chances to win.
Video poker games are based on poker hands. Most of them use a standard deck of 52 playing cards, but a few use a standard deck plus a joker. You receive a starting hand and choose which cards to hold and which cards to exchange for new cards in hopes of improving your hand.
The pay tables shows how much you win for each hand and you can use this information when you decide which cards to keep.
You're playing Jacks or Better video poker and you get a pair of queens in your starting hand. You know that any pair of jacks or higher guarantees a win. You keep the pair of queens and draw three new cards. You hope to receive another queen or another pair, because these hands pay more than the pair of queens.
The ability to use strategy is good for players, because if you always make the correct playing decisions it lowers the house edge. On the other hand, every time you make a mistake it makes the house edge go up.
This ability to use strategy is good for the reason I just mentioned, but it also hurts the popularity of video poker. When you play the slot machines you don't have to worry about strategy. You don't even have to think. You put money in the machine and push the spin button. Many slot machines have a feature that even lets you set the machine so it automatically takes a number of spins so you don't have to do anything.
Different players go to the casino for different reasons. They all want to win, but for most of them this is just a hope, not a plan. Many gamblers want to forget about the world and their problems for a little while so they don't want to be forced to think while they play.
Slot machines, and many other casino games, are perfect for relaxing and forgetting the outside world. Video poker machines don't really fit. If you want to have the best chance to win playing video poker you have to work at it.
You have to use a strategy card or have the correct strategy memorized. After you memorize the basic video poker strategy for the game you're playing it becomes easier to play. But it still requires more work and thinking than the slot machines or other games like baccarat or roulette.
5 – It's Boring
If you've never played video poker you might not realize how boring the game gets. Sign up for a free account at one of online casinos on this site and play 1,000 hands of video poker. After you learn how to play and achieve a few winning hands, you can see that the game quickly becomes boring.
Video poker only uses 52 or 53 cards most of the time so you see the same set of cards every hand. Even when you switch to a different video poker machine you see the same set of cards.
Compare this to modern day slot machines. Each slot machine uses a set number of symbols, but many slots also include bonus features and games within games to keep them interesting. You can also move just a few feet and play a slot machine with completely different symbols and features.
New slot machines introduce new twists and features all of the time, but new video poker machines are stuck with the same basic setup as old ones. In addition, boring casino games don't give gamblers much of a reason to hurry back and play again.
https://torrentzee.mystrikingly.com/blog/wattagio-1-3-1. The casinos understand that gamblers want to play new and exciting games, so they're using video poker less and more exciting and profitable games like slots more.
6 – Lower Comps
Most land based casinos, and many online casinos, offer a slot's club or player's club program that rewards players for gambling. The casino gives players comps for their play. Comps are based on the amount you gamble and the theoretical amount the casino makes from each game you play.
Casino comps programs are unique to each casino, or group of casinos owned by the same company. You usually don't know exactly how much you earn for your play, because you don't know the return percentage the casino predicts for each game and you don't know the percentage of that number the casino gives back in comps.
Over the years the casinos have learned how much they can expect to make for each game and they've learned how much they can return to the players in comps and still keep a good profit.
Casinos have access to the same books that you do, and they realized that some players were using comps in combination with smart play to reduce the casinos' profit. The answer to this from the casinos' side was to reduce the amount of comps you earn.
In the past you might have earned .25% in comps when you played Jacks or Better, but today it might only be .1%. The other thing that casinos can do now is break up your play for comps purposes based on the individual game you play.
Instead of lumping all of your video poker play into one category, whether you played Deuces Wild or Jacks or Better, they can assign a different comp rate for each individual game. In most land based casinos your comps play is tracked electronically, so it's easy to use a computer program to track everything you do.
This is even easier to do when you play at online or mobile casinos. The reduction of comps leaves less money for video poker players to play with, so it hurts the entire segment. This is directly adding to the death of video poker.
7 – Fewer Machines
I've mentioned this in a few of the sections above, but the fact is that fewer video poker machines are available in land based casinos today than there used to be. As the profit per square foot of casino space used for video poker machines has went down, the casinos have replaced them with slot machines or table games that offer a higher profit.
Land based casinos, at least the larger ones, will probably still offer a few video poker machines for several years. They know that a few players still come to play video poker, so they don't want to drive these players to another casino. But the casinos don't want to have too many low profit machines.
Everything you've read so far might make it seem like the casinos lose money on video poker. The truth is that video poker machines are still profitable for the casinos; they just aren't as profitable as other games. This means the casinos aren't losing money on video poker, they just aren't making as much on it.
If you play Deuces Wild or Jacks or Better with good pay tables and use the best strategy you can keep the house edge below .5%. Most video poker players don't use the best strategy and play on machines that don't have the best pay table.
This can make the house edge go up to somewhere between 2% and 5%. This means that for every $100 you bet on a machine the casino keeps between $2 and $5. This isn't bad, because it doesn't take long to run $100 through a video poker machine.
The house edge on slot machines runs from 2% to 10%, depending on the factory settings. This means that for every $100 you run through a slot machine the casinos keep between $2 and $10.
I don't know the exact numbers, and they vary from casino to casino, but the average profit for every dollar played on a slot machine is higher than the average on a video poker machine.
In addition, players play more spins per hour on a slot machine than hands per hour on a video poker machine. Each video poker hand takes longer to play because you have to pick the cards you want to keep and draw new cards.
Many slots players play twice as many spins per hour than video poker players play hands per hour. This makes slot machines even more valuable.
Conclusion
I enjoy playing video poker, so I don't want to see it die. The odds are that it won't completely die out anytime soon, but the trend of fewer machines in casinos looks like it's going to continue. Online and mobile casinos will probably always offer video poker, but I can see a day when land based casinos completely do away with video poker.
Casino cheaters justice. Land based casinos are already eliminating video poker machines with the best pay tables, and as fewer players play because of the lower pay tables it just makes the situation worse.
Jacks or Better is one of the most popular video poker variations available in both land based casinos and in online casinos.
It's also often listed as one of the best games to play if you want to play a low house edge game. But Jacks or Better games are found with a wide variety of pay tables.
In this post, I show you the most popular pay tables, how to read them, and what all of the numbers mean, and how they change the payback percentage.
Slot machine manufacturers also keep coming up with new features and ways to improve their games. Instead of simple machines with three reels spinning inside with cherries and bars, we now have slot machines with story lines, video and audio aids, multiple bonus rounds, and graphics that rival live television.
Now think about the advancements in the video poker machine industry over the last 40 years. Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild are basically the same as they've been since they were introduced.
This limits the variety of games, and it doesn't look like this is ever going to improve. The casinos are more focused on their profit per square foot than ever, and the bottom line is they have a better chance to make money with the latest and greatest slot machine than with a new video poker machine.
2 – Fewer Good Pay Tables
The house edge and pay back percentage of video poker machines are based on the pay table and the strategy that you use. While most video poker machines, even those with poor pay tables, have a lower house edge than slot machines, you still need to find the best pay tables if you want to have the best chance to win.
The casinos don't want serious video poker players. Instead they want recreational players who don't know anything about how pay tables change the house edge and who don't use strategy to lower the edge. The casino makes more money on video poker machines with poor pay tables.
If you play video poker online, such as Jacks or Better, the best pay table is the one that pays nine for a full house and six for a flush. This pay table is called a 9/6. When you play on a 9/6 machine and use a strategy card the pay back percentage is over 99.5%. This doesn't leave much for the casino. They still make money on the machine, but it's limited in comparison to slot machines.
Casinos have been phasing out video poker machines with good pay tables. Instead of offering several 9/6 Jacks or Better machines, they've replaced many of them with 8/5 machines, or worse. You can still find 9/6 machines, especially when you play online, but they're getting harder and harder to find.
The same is true for Deuces Wild and other games. By reducing the number of available machines with good pay tables, each casinos profits per dollar wagered on the machines goes up, but it reduces the number of people playing the games.
This cycle gives the casinos even more reason to look for more profitable options for the space taken up by video poker machines. If this continues, and I don't see any reason it won't, it's going to kill land based video poker machines in any but the largest ones.
3 – Few Progressive Jackpot Opportunities
Every gambler doesn't dream of hitting a huge jackpot that can change their financial future, but many of them do. Every day thousands of people who never go to a casino take their chances with a lottery ticket. Casinos do everything they can to duplicate the dreams of untold riches that the lottery produces.
In almost every casino you can find slot machines with progressive jackpots. Many of these jackpots climb to over $1 million from time to time. Even the ones with jackpots as small as $100,000 offer life changing money to most of the people who play them.
When is the last time you played a video poker machine that offered a progressive jackpot?
They do exist, but there aren't many of them. The last one I played was over 10 years back, and it was a Jack or Better with a poor pay table. The progressive wasn't much higher than the normal 4,000 coin pay out for a royal flush, so it wasn't a popular machine.
With the top pay out of 4,000 coins on the most common video poker machines, players don't see how they can win a life changing jackpot. While hitting a 4,000 coin payout is nice, it rarely produces enough to break even on your play over time. Facebook casino games.
If you're playing a quarter machine and wagering five coins per hand your total bet for the hand is $1.25. When you hit a royal flush the win is $1,000 on this machine. Everyone wants to win $1,000, but it's not like you can pay off your house or car with it.
Even if you're playing a $1 machine, the total bet per hand is $5 at max coins, and the royal flush pays $4,000. These jackpots pale in comparison to the hundreds of thousands and millions that many slot machines offer.
This doesn't happen often, and it requires some mathematical skills to determine where the jackpot has to go for it to eliminate the house edge. You're almost always better off in the long run to stick to a regular video poker game that has a good pay table and use a strategy card. If you want to chase a big pay day, play the lottery or a progressive jackpot slot machine.
The lack of a life changing jackpot is clearly one of the reasons that video poker machines aren't as popular as slot machines.
4 – Strategy
In order to keep the house edge as low as possible and have the best chance to win any time you play video poker online or in a land based casino, you have to play the best possible strategy. One of the best things about video poker is that you can play your hands a certain way to maximize your chances to win.
Video poker games are based on poker hands. Most of them use a standard deck of 52 playing cards, but a few use a standard deck plus a joker. You receive a starting hand and choose which cards to hold and which cards to exchange for new cards in hopes of improving your hand.
The pay tables shows how much you win for each hand and you can use this information when you decide which cards to keep.
You're playing Jacks or Better video poker and you get a pair of queens in your starting hand. You know that any pair of jacks or higher guarantees a win. You keep the pair of queens and draw three new cards. You hope to receive another queen or another pair, because these hands pay more than the pair of queens.
The ability to use strategy is good for players, because if you always make the correct playing decisions it lowers the house edge. On the other hand, every time you make a mistake it makes the house edge go up.
This ability to use strategy is good for the reason I just mentioned, but it also hurts the popularity of video poker. When you play the slot machines you don't have to worry about strategy. You don't even have to think. You put money in the machine and push the spin button. Many slot machines have a feature that even lets you set the machine so it automatically takes a number of spins so you don't have to do anything.
Different players go to the casino for different reasons. They all want to win, but for most of them this is just a hope, not a plan. Many gamblers want to forget about the world and their problems for a little while so they don't want to be forced to think while they play.
Slot machines, and many other casino games, are perfect for relaxing and forgetting the outside world. Video poker machines don't really fit. If you want to have the best chance to win playing video poker you have to work at it.
You have to use a strategy card or have the correct strategy memorized. After you memorize the basic video poker strategy for the game you're playing it becomes easier to play. But it still requires more work and thinking than the slot machines or other games like baccarat or roulette.
5 – It's Boring
If you've never played video poker you might not realize how boring the game gets. Sign up for a free account at one of online casinos on this site and play 1,000 hands of video poker. After you learn how to play and achieve a few winning hands, you can see that the game quickly becomes boring.
Video poker only uses 52 or 53 cards most of the time so you see the same set of cards every hand. Even when you switch to a different video poker machine you see the same set of cards.
Compare this to modern day slot machines. Each slot machine uses a set number of symbols, but many slots also include bonus features and games within games to keep them interesting. You can also move just a few feet and play a slot machine with completely different symbols and features.
New slot machines introduce new twists and features all of the time, but new video poker machines are stuck with the same basic setup as old ones. In addition, boring casino games don't give gamblers much of a reason to hurry back and play again.
https://torrentzee.mystrikingly.com/blog/wattagio-1-3-1. The casinos understand that gamblers want to play new and exciting games, so they're using video poker less and more exciting and profitable games like slots more.
6 – Lower Comps
Most land based casinos, and many online casinos, offer a slot's club or player's club program that rewards players for gambling. The casino gives players comps for their play. Comps are based on the amount you gamble and the theoretical amount the casino makes from each game you play.
Casino comps programs are unique to each casino, or group of casinos owned by the same company. You usually don't know exactly how much you earn for your play, because you don't know the return percentage the casino predicts for each game and you don't know the percentage of that number the casino gives back in comps.
Over the years the casinos have learned how much they can expect to make for each game and they've learned how much they can return to the players in comps and still keep a good profit.
Casinos have access to the same books that you do, and they realized that some players were using comps in combination with smart play to reduce the casinos' profit. The answer to this from the casinos' side was to reduce the amount of comps you earn.
In the past you might have earned .25% in comps when you played Jacks or Better, but today it might only be .1%. The other thing that casinos can do now is break up your play for comps purposes based on the individual game you play.
Instead of lumping all of your video poker play into one category, whether you played Deuces Wild or Jacks or Better, they can assign a different comp rate for each individual game. In most land based casinos your comps play is tracked electronically, so it's easy to use a computer program to track everything you do.
This is even easier to do when you play at online or mobile casinos. The reduction of comps leaves less money for video poker players to play with, so it hurts the entire segment. This is directly adding to the death of video poker.
7 – Fewer Machines
I've mentioned this in a few of the sections above, but the fact is that fewer video poker machines are available in land based casinos today than there used to be. As the profit per square foot of casino space used for video poker machines has went down, the casinos have replaced them with slot machines or table games that offer a higher profit.
Land based casinos, at least the larger ones, will probably still offer a few video poker machines for several years. They know that a few players still come to play video poker, so they don't want to drive these players to another casino. But the casinos don't want to have too many low profit machines.
Everything you've read so far might make it seem like the casinos lose money on video poker. The truth is that video poker machines are still profitable for the casinos; they just aren't as profitable as other games. This means the casinos aren't losing money on video poker, they just aren't making as much on it.
If you play Deuces Wild or Jacks or Better with good pay tables and use the best strategy you can keep the house edge below .5%. Most video poker players don't use the best strategy and play on machines that don't have the best pay table.
This can make the house edge go up to somewhere between 2% and 5%. This means that for every $100 you bet on a machine the casino keeps between $2 and $5. This isn't bad, because it doesn't take long to run $100 through a video poker machine.
The house edge on slot machines runs from 2% to 10%, depending on the factory settings. This means that for every $100 you run through a slot machine the casinos keep between $2 and $10.
I don't know the exact numbers, and they vary from casino to casino, but the average profit for every dollar played on a slot machine is higher than the average on a video poker machine.
In addition, players play more spins per hour on a slot machine than hands per hour on a video poker machine. Each video poker hand takes longer to play because you have to pick the cards you want to keep and draw new cards.
Many slots players play twice as many spins per hour than video poker players play hands per hour. This makes slot machines even more valuable.
Conclusion
I enjoy playing video poker, so I don't want to see it die. The odds are that it won't completely die out anytime soon, but the trend of fewer machines in casinos looks like it's going to continue. Online and mobile casinos will probably always offer video poker, but I can see a day when land based casinos completely do away with video poker.
Casino cheaters justice. Land based casinos are already eliminating video poker machines with the best pay tables, and as fewer players play because of the lower pay tables it just makes the situation worse.
Jacks or Better is one of the most popular video poker variations available in both land based casinos and in online casinos.
It's also often listed as one of the best games to play if you want to play a low house edge game. But Jacks or Better games are found with a wide variety of pay tables.
In this post, I show you the most popular pay tables, how to read them, and what all of the numbers mean, and how they change the payback percentage.
With this information, you can make sure you're playing on a machine that offers the best possible pay table.
It's important to compare several different Jacks or Better pay tables side by side to see how one small change can alter the payback percentage. I've done this in the chart below. But before getting to the chart let's cover a few other important things.
Payback Percentage
Before moving on, I want to make sure you understand exactly what payback percentage means and how it relates to the house edge.
The payback percentage is the average amount the machine returns for every dollar wagered. This percentage is based on hundreds of thousands of hands and also includes the elusive royal flush.
This means that in the short term, which can consist of thousands of hands, your return may be higher or lower than the numbers listed below.
To get the house edge simply subtract the payback percentage from 100.
Here's an example:
The 9 / 6 game in the chart below shows a payback percentage of 99.54%. This means the house edge is .46%.
Most Jacks or Better players show a larger house edge because remember the payback percentage includes the large pay out for a royal flush. According to the mathematical calculations done on Jacks or Better you hit a royal flush on average one out of every 40,391 hands.
Animal quest game. What this means is to achieve the actual payback percentages listed in the chart below you're going to need to play 40,391 hands on average.
And worse than the thought of playing that many hands to reach the payback percentage is that it's entirely possible to play that many hands and still not hit a royal flush.
Of course, it's also possible to hit two or three royal flushes in that many hands.
Every hand of Jacks or Better you play has a one in 40,391 chances to hit a royal. So, a machine is never due to hit a royal, even if it hasn't hit one in years. And if a machine has just hit a royal flush it has the same chances of hitting another one the net hand as it did the previous hand.
Video Poker Machine Memory
Video poker machines have no memory so each hand has the same odds and chances as any other hand played.
Unlike slot machines, video poker machines are specifically based on a deck of playing cards so the chances of getting any particular card is one in 52. This is specific to Jacks or Better and other video poker machines that don't use jokers.
This information is useful in determining the exact payback percentages listed in the chart and is also useful when making strategy decisions.
Here's an example:
If you get four to a flush on your starting five card hand you know the deck still has nine cards to complete your flush. You've seen five cards so the rest of the deck consists of 47 cards. This means that if you play this hand 47 times discarding your non-flush card and drawing one, on average you'll win nine times and lose 38.
Here's another example:
If you have four cards to a royal flush you know that only one card will complete it. This means that one time out of 47 you're going to get the card you need on average.
I keep saying on average because you can't actually play the exact same situation 47 times at once. But over time the correct percentages work out.
The Chart
I've put together a chart listing the six pay tables you're most likely to find in a casino and three special pay tables that offer higher returns. The most common ones are the first six and the special ones are the last three.
The best pay table I've played on is the regular 9 / 6, but if you ever run across one of the last three in the chart you should jump at the opportunity to play.
The chart lists the payout numbers you see in the first column to the left on most Jacks or Better machines. The only exception is for the royal flush. The number in the royal flush column in my chart is the top jackpot amount divided by five.
Mac storage analyzer. You only qualify for the top jackpot amount by playing five coins per line. If you play fewer than five coins the payout for a royal flush is less, which in turn reduces the overall payback percentage.
On the pay tables that list 800 for the royal flush it shows 4,000 in the five coin payout spot on the actual machine. The 940 machine listed below shows 4,700 and the 976 machine shows 4,880.
The payback percentages listed in the chart are all based on you playing perfect strategy.
Key:
- RF – Royal flush
- SF – Straight flush
- 4K – Four of a kind
- FH – Full house
- FL – Flush
- ST – Straight
- 3K – Three of a kind
- 2P – Two pair
- JoB – Pair of jacks or better
- % – Payback percentage
Common Tables
The most common tables are the first six in the chart. The 9 / 6 is the hardest to find, but you can still find them in many land based casinos and in most online casinos.
The other five common machines are found everywhere, with the worst ones usually in bars and illegal gambling houses. Any machine using less than the 8 / 6 pay table should be avoided, and many people won't play on anything less than a 9 / 6.
One thing you need to watch for is on machines that offer single hand and multi hand play. Multiple hand play is the ability to play five, 10, or even 52 hands at the same time.
The way it works is you receive a five card starting hand and decide what to hold. The same cards are held for all of the hands and each hand uses its own deck to complete your draws. Each of the decks removes the same five cards you start with and then randomly draws a card or cards to replace your draws.
The thing to watch for is many of these machines offer the 9 / 6 pay table if you only play one hand but switch to a lower paying table if you play more than one hand at a time.
Many players assume all of the games are at 9 / 6 and end up playing with a higher house edge for a long time without realizing it.
Best Tables
The three best pay tables are rare. I only include them in the chart so you can see what a pay table needs to look like to be better than the 9 / 6 that's commonly the best you can find.
Notice that in order for a machine to offer a 100% payback percentage the royal flush payout has to be 976 per coin compared to 800. And even if you find one of these machines to play, in order to achieve a break-even level of play you have to eventually hit a royal flush.
Also notice that with payback percentages of 99.9% and higher, if you get any kind of comps through a player's club while playing these machines you're basically playing with an edge against the casino.
Video Poker Full Pay Table
Conclusion
Jacks Or Better Pay Table
When you see a Jacks or Better video poker machine use the chart above to determine the payback percentage. You're fairly safe playing a 9 / 6 machine, but be wary of any other pay tables without checking their exact payback percentages.
