Video Poker Strategy: A Guide to Winning at Video Poker Machines

Video poker is undoubtedly among the most popular and special online casino games, and for good reason. While video poker relies on luck, players can employ a strategy to influence the outcome of the game. The game also has high odds and a low house edge and gives players anonymity (there are no pit bosses, dealers, or fellow players to play against).

These advantages make video poker a casino game you don’t want to miss. But the biggest question is: How can you boost your winning odds when playing a video poker casino game?

When playing any video poker variation, from Deuces Wild to Jacks or Bettor, a blend of the right skills, strategy, knowledge, and luck increases your odds against video poker machines. But before you jump from your favorite slot machine to video poker, here are some poker betting strategies to remember.

Why Use a Video Poker Strategy?

Unlike slot machines or other casino games that almost entirely depend on randomness, a video poker game gives you a say—you decide what card to keep or discard. While a video poker strategy doesn’t eliminate the element of luck or guarantee consistent wins, it can:

1. Increase Winning Odds

Video poker is a game that combines elements of skill, knowledge, and luck. By employing a strategy, you can make optimal decisions on which cards to keep and which to discard, increasing your chances of forming winning hands. A proper strategy minimizes the house edge and maximizes potential payouts, giving you a better shot at winning in the long run.

2. Consistent and Controlled Gameplay

A video poker strategy gives you a structured approach to follow, allowing you to make consistent decisions based on mathematical probabilities rather than relying on intuition or guesswork. The disciplined approach helps you avoid impulsive or emotional decisions, leading to a more controlled and strategic style of play.

3. Minimized Mistakes

Video poker strategies are designed to minimize costly mistakes that can negatively impact your overall returns. By understanding the optimal strategy for each specific video poker variant, you can avoid common errors like holding onto the wrong cards or discarding potentially valuable ones. This ultimately leads to improved outcomes and a higher average return on your wagers.

4. Bankroll Management

A video poker strategy can help you make decisions that align with your available funds and desired risk level. By employing a strategy that suits your bankroll, you can extend your playing session, mitigate losses during less fortunate stretches, and potentially capitalize on winning streaks.

5. Learning and Skill Development

As you study and practice different strategies, you gain a deeper understanding of the game’s mechanics, rules, and probabilities. This knowledge can enhance your overall gambling skills and potentially be applied to other card games or variants.

6. Enjoyment and Engagement

Instead of relying solely on luck, a betting strategy allows you to actively participate in the decision-making process, analyzing hands and making strategic choices. This involvement can enhance your overall casino experience and provide a sense of satisfaction when your decisions result in successful outcomes.

Basic Video Poker Rules

Video poker is based on a five-card draw poker mechanic and uses a standard 52-card deck. The game is played on a computerized console, similar to a slot machine, and begins by selecting the desired bet size and inserting credits into the machine.

After placing your bet, press the “Deal” button, and the machine gives you a starting hand of five cards. These cards are randomly drawn from a standard 52-card deck. Once you receive your initial hand, you have the option to keep or discard any of the cards. You can choose to keep all the cards or select specific cards to discard. The discarded cards are then replaced with new cards from the same deck

After selecting which cards to keep and discarding the others, the machine evaluates your final hand and determines whether it qualifies for a payout based on the game’s paytable. The higher the ranking of your final hand, the larger the payout. Different variants of video poker may have different paytables and payout structures.

Video Poker Odds

The best place to start when learning about video poker is the winning hands. Understanding video poker odds helps you employ the right betting strategy, maximizing your winning chances.

Winning hands in video poker

Below are the common video poker odds:  

• Royal flush (first dealt): 1/650,000
• Royal flush (player assisted): 1/40,000
• Four aces + Kicker: 1/16,236
• Straight flush:1/9,150
• 2s to 4s + Kicker: 1/6,984
• Four aces: 1/5,761
• Four deuces: 1/4,909
• 2s to 4s: 1/2,601
• Four of a kind: 1/423
• Full House: 1/90
• Flush: 1/85
• Straight: 1/80

What Is the Best Strategy for Video Poker?

If you want to increase your odds of winning real money when playing video poker, you need to stop relying on guesswork and luck. Start by learning the basic rules and understanding the winning combinations and variants of video poker. Once you know how to play video poker, you can employ the following strategies to boost your chances of beating the machine:

1. Understand Video Poker Pay Tables

If you have played a slot machine before, understanding the pay tables of a video poker machine is easier. The pay tables show how much you can win for each winning poker hand you have, and start from the highest-value wins and work their way down to the lowest-paying hands.

Video poker machines have different pay tables, so you should look for ones that offer better payments, as that is particularly significant in the long run. The payout will also depend on whether you play with one coin or more, with the highest payouts being for five coins per game.

For example, when playing Jacks or Better video poker, remember that it can have several pay tables with different payouts for flush, straight, or full house. The 9/6 video poker option is a good option as it pays 6x for a flush, 9x for a full house, and 4x for a straight.

2. Use a Video Poker Strategy Chart

A strategy chart is an excellent tool for beginners, designed to help you understand your hand and tell you what cards you should keep and what to replace. As with the pay tables, the chart also typically starts from the best, top-paying hands and works its way down to all other potential combinations and options.

A video poker strategy chart can tell you if your hand has room for improvement and suggest how many cards you should replace to try to improve it. The chart lists the names of the starting hands (so you should know them by the time you start playing, or at least have a reminder next to you) and gives ideas on what hand you can improve to if you replace your cards and get the right ones in the next dealing.

3. Learn Poker Hand Rankings

It goes without saying that you need to know what a poker hand combination is and how valuable it is in the game of poker. The best poker hand you can possibly get is a Royal Flush, and you need an Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten, all of the same suit, to get this hand. Truth be told, it is an extremely rare hand, but it always beats all other hands.

Another rare but very valuable hand is a Straight Flush. In this hand, you get five cards in the same suit in sequential order, whatever those might be. Only a Royal Flush beats a Straight Flush, so you understand why it’s such a valuable hand.

Four of a Kind is also a highly ranked poker hand, as it can’t be improved further, and so are a Full House, a Flush, or a Straight. Full House means that you have three cards of the same rank and another two of the same rank, for example, three Queens and two nines. Flush means that you have five cards of the same suit, and Straight means you have five cards in sequential order, no matter the suit.

Apart from these strong hands, there are other hands with great potential for winning, so make sure to know them so you can recognize them and replace the right cards when a video poker strategy chart tells you to do so.

4. Understand the Role of RTP

RTP, or the theoretical Return to Player, is the percentage of invested funds players can expect to get back from a casino game over a longer period of time. It is the percentage that the game providers calculate based on the game mechanics and other factors.

The RTP could also be understood as a means to calculate the house edge or the online casino’s profit margin. So, if the RTP sits at 95%, for example, the house edge for that game is 5%. That doesn’t mean that you will necessarily get the RTP value of your invested funds every time you play, but theoretically, it’s what players could get over time.

Again, theoretically, video poker has a higher RTP than most slots, especially because it requires some knowledge of the game, skills, and strategy to play. When you look for a machine to play video poker, make sure to check the RTP indicated on the pay tables. The higher the RTP, the better, especially over time. Lower payouts on the pay tables also mean that the RTP for the game is lower, and you should probably find a better option.

5. Know When to Break a High Pair

Whether or not to break a high pair is a tough decision, especially for a novice video poker player. Every video poker strategy guide will tell you to keep a high pair when there are no other useful cards in the hand, and that is quite an obvious thing to do. But what do you do when the situation is a bit more complicated?

Let’s say you’re holding a high pair, and your other cards show the potential to form a Straight Flush or even a Royal Flush. If your strategy is to win as many hands as possible and you don’t necessarily want to risk for those wins to be the highest possible, then you shouldn’t break a high pair even if there is a chance at winning a Royal Flush. If your calculations tell you that you could make a bigger win based on your cards, you can consider taking that risk.

A high pair is actually a medium-strong hand, and you should keep it in most situations and try to improve your hand by replacing the other three cards. Our advice is only to consider breaking a high pair when your other cards show huge potential for a much bigger win.

6. Play Maximum Coins

While this strategy may deplete your bankroll quicker, it has significant advantages. Playing the maximum number of coins allowed per hand often unlocks a bonus payout for hitting a royal flush.

For example, if you bet one coin and hit a royal flush, the payout is 250 coins. However, if you bet a maximum of five coins and hit a royal flush, the payout is significantly increased to 4,000 coins. Playing the maximum coins increases your potential winnings when you hit the top hand.

As a thumb rule, only bet what you can afford to lose. If you are on a limited budget, it is best to lower the value of the coin and bet one coin per round rather than only betting once using five coins.

7. Practice with Free Games

Practicing free video poker games is a valuable strategy for improving your skills and familiarizing yourself with different variants. Some online casinos and gaming platforms offer free video poker games that allow you to play without risking any real money. This helps you understand the rules, learn the correct decisions to make, and refine your strategy before playing with real money.

Optimal Video Poker Strategy for Most Popular Variations

Strategies can differ based on the video poker variation you choose to play, and based on the variation you choose, you can find your optimal strategy for video poker. The most popular variation is Jacks or Better, but Deuces Wild is also among players’ favorites.

Let’s see the unique strategy for the video poker variants:

Jacks or Better Video Poker Strategy

Do you know why it’s called Jacks or Better? It’s called that because the lowest-paying hand is a pair of Jacks. Other stronger winning hands are like in other video poker games, but if you are holding a pair in the end, you can only win if it’s a pair of Jacks or higher.

So, if, in the initial hand, you get no matching cards, but you get Jacks or a card of higher value, keep that one and replace others. If you get no combination and no Jacks or higher, don’t hesitate to draw all five new cards.

When it comes to drawing cards that have the potential to form winning combinations like Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Full House, or any other strong card combination, hold them and replace the ones you don’t need. Remember only to break a high pair when you have a four to a Royal Flush in the game of Jacks and Better.

Deuces Wild

In Deuces Wild, 2s or deuces are wild cards, and just like a wild symbol in a slot game, they can substitute for any other card to form a winning hand. This variation of video poker features two additional winning hands, Five of a Kind and Wild Royal Flush.

The main point in the Deuces Wild strategy is that deuces are wild cards, and you should always keep them. What you should do with the rest of your cards depends on the strategy, but you should keep the cards that have the potential to create a high-winning combination, with or without deuces (if you haven’t got any).

If your strategy includes getting as many payouts as possible, irrespective of the size, then keep even lower-paying combinations, including pairs.

Aces and Faces Video Poker Strategy

As you can probably tell from the name itself, Aces and Faces video poker’s highest payouts are linked to Aces and the Face cards, Jacks, Queens, and Kings. Of course, the best possible combination is a Royal Flush, but you can expect a high payout for the Four-of-a-Kind combination of Aces, as well.

When it comes to a strategy to play Aces and Faces, keep any cards that form a combination close to winning a Royal Flush, Straight Flush, or Four of a Kind of Aces or Face cards. Other than that, you should keep cards with the prospect of completing a Straight, Flush, Full House, or Three of a Kind.

Consider keeping a high pair of Jacks or better (or a single Jack or better card if you don’t have anything else). They might not bring a high payout, but they could bring you a win.

Tens or Better Video Poker Strategy

Tens or Better works similarly to the Jacks or Better variant, with the difference that the lowest winning hand is a Pair of Tens. Another difference is that Straight Flush, Full House, Straight or Flush payouts are typically lower than in other video poker variations.

When you don’t have any winning combinations in your hand or any cards that could lead to one, only keep 10s or higher cards and replace the others. Those cards have the most value in this game. Tens or Better has many potential winning combinations from the initial hand, but we are not going to mention them here.

Our advice is that you decide whether you will risk and go for bigger wins when playing this video poker variant or go for smaller wins and base your strategy on that.

Tips to Remember While Playing Video Poker

Now, what kind of a video poker strategy guide would this be if we didn’t give you some tips you should keep in mind when playing video poker? These are our recommendations about what you should do when looking to play video poker:

• Make sure you understand the rules and hand rankings: While it’s true that you can learn the details when you start playing, consider practicing on demo games first to ensure you learn everything you need to know about the game.
• Check if the casino offers bonuses and promotions: Most (if not all) casinos offer welcome bonuses to new players, but they also offer other promotions to their loyal players. Check out the casino bonus offers and pick those you like best.
• Find a machine with the best pay tables: Check the pay tables before you pick the machine to play on, especially if you are looking for higher payouts.
• Use video poker strategy charts: Until you are certain that you have formed your strategy and know what to do with every hand you are dealt, use the strategy charts to help you decide what to do with your cards.
• Take your time when making decisions: Don’t rush when making decisions about what cards to replace. There is no stopwatch timing you or a dealer and other players waiting on your move, so there is no pressure there.
• Be careful with your bankroll: Just like with any other casino game, gamble responsibly and don’t spend more than you can afford.

Final Thoughts

While most online casino games almost entirely depend on randomness and luck, video poker gives a poker player control over the game. The poker player must be familiar with all the basic video poker rules, from dealing the cards to winning hand combinations. With this, a player can use a video poker strategy to increase their winning odds.

A betting strategy is a guideline that tells a player what to do depending on the cards the video poker machine deals them. The basic strategy includes understanding the hand rankings, pay tables, bankroll management, using a video poker strategy chart, and playing maximum coins.

FAQ

What is the best strategy for video poker?

The best video poker strategy depends on the specific poker variation. Some of the betting strategies you can employ to boost your winning odds include holding cards that could lead to a high-ranking poker hand, using a strategy chart, and playing the maximum coins.

What are the best hands to hold in video poker?

The best hands to hold in video poker are hands that can guarantee a win, such as Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, or a pair of Jacks or Better. You can also hold cards that could potentially lead to a winning hand combination.

Is video poker skill or luck?

Video poker has an element of skill and luck. Luck comes in when the machine is dealing the initial cards. Skill is necessary when deciding which cards to hold or discard. That’s why you need the right video poker strategy to increase your winning odds.

What is the best pay table for video poker?

The “9/6” pay tables are the best for video poker. This pay table pays 6x for a flush, 9x for a full house, and 4x for a straight in a Jacks or Better poker game.