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Jacks or Better

Jacks or better is the basic video poker game. One of the first to come out, it’s considered something of a video poker standard. The full-pay version is known as 9/6 jacks or better, meaning the payback (with one coin in) for a full house is 9 coins and for a flush is 6 coins. Sad to say, there are not a lot of them outside of Las Vegas. Full-pay jacks or better has a return percentage of 99.5%. It’s not a positive game; as we’ve seen, the casino has a .5% advantage. But because it’s readily available in Vegas arid a lot of other video poker variations are derived from it, I also consider it the standard play free poker. Often you get enough cash back from the slot club or a promotion to make jacks or better an over 100% game.

The Payouts

The first chart is what the pay table for a 9/6 jacks or better video poker machine looks like Poker - 5 Cards Draw. The second is also a jacks or better pay table, but with a critical difference: it’s an 8/5 machine. Note the difference in the payouts for full house and flush; this lowers the return to 97.3%. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not going to provide you with the strategies, which are readily available in any number of books and computer software programs. See the Appendix for recommendations.

Deuces Wild

Our favorite video poker game is full-pay deuces wild. Full-pay deuces are an over 100% game and, for our purposes, this is where the money is. Most people learn how to play video poker on 9/6 machines, and we were no exception. But once we tried deuces wild, we were hooked.
In deuces wild, you have to pay close attention to the pay schedules, since a seen-tingly slight change can have a pronounced effect on the return percentage. Examine the two deuces wild pay schedules that follow. The first schedule is the full-pay version. It’s sometimes referred to as a 25/15/9/5 schedule, reflecting the number of coins returned for a wild royal, 5-of-a-kind, straight flush, and 4-of-a-kind (with one coin played). The most important entry corresponds to 4-of-a- kind. Again, notice the difference in return when just this one payout is lowered by a single coin.

Pay Schedules

The importance of playing the good deuces wild pay schedules should be clear. But it’s not only about the positive expectation. The wild-card factor produces a particular kind of thrill. When that wild card comes up in the first five cards, there’s no telling how good the hand that’s in store for you will be. You certainly don’t get bored as fast Poker - Paigow Poker Game. I’d say deuces wild has more psychological attraction than any other video poker game.

Mini-Jackpot

Another aspect of deuces wild we like is that you don’t have to hit a royal flush to have a winning session. Deuces wild comes with a mini-jackpot. Roughly every 5,000 hands you’ll hit four deuces, which pays $250 (on the quarter machines with max coins played) play poker. Getting a four-deuce hand can give you a winning session without hitting the great big royal flush.Another reason I like deuces wild is that the strategy is simple to learn and easy to remember. Some people disagree and think that the strategy for jacks or better is easier, but Brad and I have always thought otherwise The strategy is easy because it’s broken down by how many deuces you have. Organizationally, instead of one long chart, you have several little charts. For me, that makes all the difference.There is one big disadvantage to deuces. It’s a highly volatile game, which produces much bigger swings between winning and losing sessions than Jacks or better does. You can rack up many losing sessions in a row. If you don’t hit a mini-jackpot (four deuces) or a royal, you’re almost guaranteed to be a loser that session.