•VIDEO POKER
Introduction
Video poker is a popular casino game based on 5-card poker that is available at nearly all online casinos. Video poker is often the 2nd best choice for completing wagering requirements, after blackjack & blackjack variants.
Rules and Play
The player is dealt 5 cards from a single deck. He selects which cards to hold and discard, then draws again for the final hand. The final hand is paid according to a listed paytable. The higher the poker ranking, the higher the return. Paytables vary according to video poker variation and number of coins bet. You usually need to bet 5 coins to receive the maximum payout for a royal flush. Some of the common variations are Jacks or Better (a pair of jacks or higher pays), Joker Poker (played with 53-card deck, joker is wild), and Deuces Wild (2s are wild). Most casinos also offer multi-hand variations, allowing you to play many hands at once.
After a hand is completed, some casino softwares give you the opportunity to double your win in a war-like game. The dealer and player both draw a card. If the player's card is higher, the win is doubled. If the dealer's card is higher, the player wins nothing. If the player and dealer tie, the original win is returned. You can double sequentially until reaching the maximum win. This is one of the only bets in the casino with no house edge. Doubling can be useful when trying to reach a target gain for a sticky or Clearplay bonus. If doubling counts towards the wagering requirement, it can be used to dramatically reduce the expected loss per unit wagered. Note that video poker doubles may be restricted in the T&C. The game may not count towards wagering or may be banned alltogether when playing a bonus. A summary of two trials of 300 doubles with Microgaming 100-play Jacks or Better is below:
Result |
Occurrences |
1
SD Range |
|
1st
Trial |
2nd
Trial |
||
Win |
131 |
146 |
132.5 to 149.8 |
Loss |
148 |
135 |
132.5 to 149.8 |
Tie |
21 |
19 |
13.6 to 21.7 |
Strategy & Paytables
You can use the video poker strategy calculator to check optimal strategy for a particular hand. The calculator returns the EV of the best strategy decision, as well as the 2nd best alternative. The links below list written strategy summaries and paytables for several common video poker variations. The strategy calculator includes a more extensive list of video poker games. A few softwares, such as Microgaming, have video poker strategy programmed into an "auto hold" feature. Unfortunately this useful feature is not available for the game All Aces because of its low house edge.
Joker Poker: Two Pairs or Better
Expected Return
The table below lists the expected return with a variety of softwares and video poker games. The lowest house edge game with each software is written in bold. See the video poker payout calculator for checking others, including progressive jackpot games and games with unique bonus structures.
| Software | Jacks or Better | Joker Poker | Deuces Wild | Tens or Better | All American | Double Bonus | Bonus Poker | Aces & Faces | Double Joker | Deuces & Joker | Double Double | All Aces | Pick'em Poker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5Dimes | 100.07%* | 100.64%* | 100.76%* | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| B3W | 99.09% | 96.64% | 97.52% | 98.63% | -- | -- | -- | -- | 98.32% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Betsoft | 98.25% | 98.09% | 98.91% | 99.14% | 98.49% | -- | -- | -- | 98.10% | 99.07% | -- | -- | -- |
| Boss Media | 99.54% | 98.94% | 98.91% | 99.14% | -- | 99.11% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Chartwell | 99.54%* | 98.60%* | 99.37%* | -- | 98.11% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Cryptologic | 98.25% | 98.94% | 97.97% | 97.96% | 98.11% | 99.11% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| DGS | 99.54% | 97.58% | 96.76% | -- | -- | 96.38% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Gale Wind | 99.54% | 99.15% | 98.91% | -- | -- | 99.11% | 99.36% | -- | 98.60% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| G-Fed | 99.54% | 98.60% | 96.76% | 99.14% | -- | 93.11% | 98.01% | 99.26% | 98.10% | 99.07% | 95.71% | -- | -- |
| Grand Virtual | 99.54% | 99.56% | 99.73% | 99.14% | 98.49% | 99.11% | 99.36% | 99.26% | 98.10% | 99.26% | 99.25% | 98.85% | -- |
| Microgaming | 99.54% | 98.60% | 99.37%* | 99.14% | 99.38% | 99.11% | 99.17% | 99.26% | 98.10% | 99.07% | 98.98% | 99.92% | -- |
| Net Ent | 99.56% | 97.95%* | 97.97%* | -- | 98.11%* | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Odds On | 99.54% | 98.60% | 96.76% | 99.14% | -- | -- | -- | 99.26% | 98.10% | 99.07% | -- | -- | -- |
| Parlay | 97.30% | 99.15% | 98.91% | 96.26% | 96.50% | 99.11% | 99.17% | -- | 98.10% | 96.59% | -- | -- | -- |
| Party Gaming | 97.30% | 99.82% | 96.76% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Playtech | 99.54%* | 98.60% | 98.91% | 97.96% | -- | -- | -- | 99.26%* | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Random Logic | 98.25% | 96.38% | 97.06% | -- | -- | -- | 96.87% | 99.26% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Rival | 99.54% | 98.60% | 99.37% | 99.14% | -- | -- | -- | 99.26% | 98.10% | 99.07% | -- | -- | -- |
| RTG #1 | 99.54%* | 100.18%* | 100.76%* | -- | 99.60%* | 100.17%* | 99.17%* | -- | -- | -- | 98.98% | -- | 99.95% |
| RTG #2 | 97.30%* | 100.05%* | 98.91%* | -- | ??? | 99.37%* | 99.07%* | -- | -- | -- | 98.49% | -- | 99.45% |
| RTG #3 | 95.00%* | 98.48%* | 97.97%* | -- | 98.49%* | 98.57%* | 98.96%* | -- | -- | -- | 97.86% | -- | 98.74% |
| Top Game | 99.54% | 98.60% | 96.76% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 99.07% | -- | -- | -- |
| VueTec | 93.20% | 95.46% | 93.37% | 95.41% | -- | -- | -- | 95.08% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Wagerworks | 99.54%* | 98.47%* | -- | -- | -- | -- | 99.17%* | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| World: Flash | 97.81% | 98.68% | 98.98% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| World: Download | 95.51% | 95.63% | 95.99% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
*1-play Chartwell has a worse pay table than above: Jacks or Better: 98.36%, Deuces Wild: 97.97%, Joker Poker: 96.90%.
*1-play Microgaming Deuces Wild has a worse pay table than above: Deuces Wild: 96.76%.
*3-play Net Ent has a worse paytable than above: Joker Poker: 2.90%, Deuces Wild: 3.02%, All American: 2.81%.
*10 or more play Playtech video poker has a worse paytable than above: Jacks or Better: 97.30%, Aces & Faces: 95.44%.
*Real Time Gaming casinos give operators a choice of 3 paytables for most games. Known possible payouts are listed above. Payouts may vary with number of hands.
*Some Wagerworks casinos & games (often Phantom Belle video poker) use a worse paytable than above.
Variance and Bet Size
Video poker is often one of the lowest house edge games in the casino. In some cases, it has a lower house edge than blackjack. Nevertheless, I recommend choosing blackjack over video poker when both games are available due to video poker's high variance. While completing a wagering requirement playing video poker, your balance will decrease until you get a high ranking hand and have a big win. For example, in All Aces you are expected to get 4 Aces or a Royal Flush 1 in each ~4000 hands. You will get a very large win in those rare hands, but in the other 3999 hands, the expected return decreases by ~12%. You can minimize this variance and often reduce it to acceptable levels by choosing power play poker with many hands and a small bet size. Unfortunately multi-hand All Aces usually does not have a small bet size alternative.
The first table below lists standard deviation with a variety of video poker games. The numbers indicate how far you are likely to deviate from the expected gain when completing a large number of wagers playing video poker. If the standard deviation is listed as 4.42, then the expected range of final returns after completing a large number of wagers is 4.42x larger than a game with a standard deviation of ~1.0, like roulette. The second table lists the standard deviation per unit wagered with other common casino games for comparison. For example, the first table lists the standard deviation of 25-hand jacks or better as 1.63. This is roughly the same as the standard deviation per unit wagered of casino hold'em in the second table. So 25-hand jacks or better with a total bet of $5 ($0.05 per hand) has roughly the same expected variance as $5 hands of casino hold'em. Note that when playing a low number of simultaneous hands, most players do not complete enough wagers for this type of normal distribution range of return estimates to be accurate. You can run simulations with the the return & variance simulator for more precise estimates. The simulation results do not require playing enough hands to form a normal distribution. See the payout calculator for standard deviation estimates with modified paytables or additional games.
| Hands | Jacks or Better | Joker Poker (MG) | Deuces Wild | Tens or Better | All American | Double Bonus | Bonus Poker | Aces & Faces | Double Joker | Deuces & Joker | Double Double | All Aces | Pick'em Poker |
| 1 | 4.42 | 5.99 | 5.06 | 4.42 | 5.14 | 5.34 | 4.57 | 4.57 | 4.65 | 6.75 | 6.48 | 8.08 | 3.87 |
| 4 | 2.52 | 3.37 | 2.94 | 2.50 | 2.97 | 3.10 | 2.61 | 2.61 | 2.72 | 3.95 | 3.76 | 4.60 | 2.11 |
| 10 | 1.93 | 2.55 | 2.29 | 1.91 | 2.33 | 2.42 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.13 | 3.09 | 2.94 | 3.51 | 1.52 |
| 25 | 1.63 | 2.12 | 1.97 | 1.61 | 2.01 | 2.10 | 1.69 | 1.69 | 1.84 | 2.67 | 2.55 | 2.97 | 1.22 |
| 50 | 1.52 | 1.95 | 1.86 | 1.50 | 1.90 | 1.97 | 1.57 | 1.57 | 1.73 | 2.52 | 2.39 | 2.76 | 1.10 |
| 100 | 1.46 | 1.87 | 1.80 | 1.44 | 1.84 | 1.91 | 1.51 | 1.51 | 1.68 | 2.44 | 2.32 | 2.65 | 1.03 |
| Game | Standard
Deviation |
|
Per
Unit Wagered |
Per
Initial Bet |
|
| Pai Gow Poker | 0.75 | 0.75 |
| Baccarat | 0.93 | 0.93 |
| Roulette (1:1 Bet) | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Casino War | 1.02 | 1.05 |
| Blackjack: Standard | 1.09 | 1.15 |
| 3-Card Poker (Ante & Play) | 1.27 | 1.64 |
| Pontoon | 1.35 | 1.44 |
| Red Dog | 1.38 | 1.50 |
| Caribbean Stud Poker | 1.57 | 2.24 |
| Casino Hold'em | 1.61 | 2.61 |
| Texas Hold'em Bonus | 1.79 | 3.50 |
| 3-Card Poker (Pair Plus) | 2.91 | 2.91 |
| Let It Ride | 4.66 | 5.17 |
| Slots | High (Varies) | High (Varies) |
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