Jacks or Better video poker is a machine game: from five dealt cards you choose which to keep (hold), draw replacements for the rest, and are paid by the final hand. There is no opponent.
A machine’s quality comes down to two rows of the pay table - full house and flush. To choose what to hold, read the simple strategy list from the top and keep the first shape that matches.
Read the full house and flush rows of the pay table
A pay table lists how many times your bet each hand pays. Jacks or Better machines differ only in what they pay for a full house and a flush, and that sets the house edge (the share of your bets the machine keeps on average).
“9/6” means a full house pays 9 and a flush 6; “8/5” means 8 and 5. Payouts are per coin.
| Hand | 9/6 | 9/5 | 8/6 | 8/5 | 7/5 | 6/5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 800 | 800 | 800 | 800 | 800 | 800 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| Four of a kind | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Full house | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 |
| Flush | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Straight | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Two pair | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| House edge | 0.46% | 1.55% | 1.61% | 2.70% | 3.85% | 5.00% |
The house edge assumes optimal play (the return is 100% minus the house edge).
| Machine | Average loss per 100 bet |
|---|---|
| 9/6 | 0.46 |
| 8/5 | 2.70 |
| 6/5 | 5.00 |
One step down on the full house and one on the flush makes the loss almost six times larger.
Without the royal flush, the house edge is about 2.4%
The 9/6 house edge of 0.46% includes royal flushes (about once in 40,000 hands), which give back about 2% of what you bet. Until a royal comes, you are effectively playing at a house edge of about 2.4%, and losing over thousands of hands is normal.
Example. On 9/6, bet 5 coins a hand and play 600 hands an hour.
- You bet 5 × 600 = 3,000 coins an hour
- A royal comes about once in 40,000 hands: 40,000 ÷ 600 ≈ once in 67 hours
- Without the royal, the house edge is about 2.4%. Until it comes you lose about 3,000 × 2.4% ≈ 72 coins an hour
- After about 4,800 coins lost over 67 hours, the royal pays 4,000 coins back
Why bet 5 coins
The royal flush pays 800 per coin only on 5 coins (max bet). On many machines it drops to 250 per coin on 1 to 4 coins.
Example. A royal flush pays 250 coins on 1 coin, and 4,000 coins (800 per coin) on 5 coins.
Because the royal gives back about 2%, 1 to 4 coins raises the house edge.
To choose what to hold, read from the top and keep the first match
Look for the first shape in this list, from the top, that your five cards contain, and hold it. This is the 9/6 simple strategy (16 steps). Played exactly, its house edge is 0.54% (0.08% above optimal play’s 0.46%).
T is ten. “High card” means J, Q, K or A (cards that pay when paired).
| Step | Hold | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Four of a kind / straight flush / royal flush | Keep every made hand |
| 2 | Four to a royal | Break a made straight or flush for it |
| 3 | Three of a kind / straight / flush / full house | |
| 4 | Four to a straight flush | |
| 5 | Two pair | |
| 6 | High pair (JJ or better) | |
| 7 | Three to a royal | |
| 8 | Four to a flush | |
| 9 | Low pair (TT or lower) | |
| 10 | Open-ended four to a straight | Completes at either end |
| 11 | Two suited high cards | |
| 12 | Three to a straight flush | |
| 13 | Two unsuited high cards | With three or more, keep the lowest two (only K-Q-J keeps all three) |
| 14 | Suited T+J / T+Q / T+K | |
| 15 | One high card | |
| 16 | Discard everything |
Example. You are dealt J♠ J♦ 8♠ 9♠ T♠.
- Steps 1 to 3 (made hands, four to a royal): none
- Step 4, four to a straight flush (8♠ 9♠ T♠ J♠): yes. Stop here
- Discard J♦ and hold the four (EV 3.57). The high pair at step 6 (JJ, EV 1.54) is lower on the list, so don’t pick it
EV (expected value) is the average amount a hold returns after the draw. The EVs in this article are for 9/6, per coin.
Five common mistakes
Don’t hold a kicker
Adding a high card to a pair always costs you. Hold the pair alone and draw three.
Example. With J♠ J♦ A♣ 5♥ 8♦, hold only JJ (EV 1.54). Adding the ace gives 1.42: you draw only two cards, so three of a kind and full houses come less often.
A low pair is stronger than it looks
A low pair pays nothing by itself, but it grows into three of a kind (3) and full houses (9).
| Example: 5♠ 5♦ 6♣ 7♥ 8♦ | EV |
|---|---|
| Hold 55 | 0.82 |
| Open-ended four to a straight (5-6-7-8) | 0.68 |
Throw away inside straights
An inside four to a straight has only four cards that complete it.
Example. 5♠ 6♦ 8♣ 9♥ K♦. 5-6-8-9 needs a 7 (EV 0.34). Hold the K alone (0.47).
Keep it only when it has three or more high cards (9-J-Q-K, J-Q-K-A).
Don’t hold three high cards
With three or more unsuited high cards, keep the lowest two.
Example. K♠ Q♦ A♣ 4♥ 8♦. Hold K and Q (EV 0.48). K and A is 0.47; all three is 0.46. An ace can only be one end of a straight (T-J-Q-K-A), so it is worth less than the other high cards.
The exception is K-Q-J. With J♠ Q♦ K♣ 4♥ 8♦, holding all three (0.52) beats J and Q (0.49).
Three to a royal beats four to a flush
Example. T♠ J♠ Q♠ 4♠ 8♦. Three to a royal (T-J-Q) is 1.46; four to a flush (T-J-Q-4) is 1.28. Hold three to the royal and draw two.
Both lose to a high pair (about 1.54), though. With J♠ J♦ Q♠ K♠ 4♥, hold JJ.
A different machine means a different chart
The simple strategy is for 9/6. On other machines such as 8/5 only a few lines differ, and the right hold is the one with the highest EV for that machine’s pay table.
Double Double Bonus is a different game: four aces and four 2s to 4s pay much more, and two pair pays 1. Value aces, and count two pair and kickers for less. Even full-pay 9/6 has a house edge of 1.02%, above Jacks or Better 9/6 (0.46%).
Practice in the app
In Casino Edge’s video poker, you choose a hold for every dealt hand and see a verdict with the five highest-EV holds (and yours). Switch pay tables from the game menu; EVs follow that machine’s payouts. Hands you get wrong are dealt again, as the same five cards, under “Missed questions” in Training.