Everything you need to go from curious to confident — in one quick read.
Video poker is a casino game played on a machine that looks like a slot machine — but with one crucial difference: your decisions matter.
You're dealt 5 cards. You choose which ones to keep. The machine replaces the rest. If your final hand is a winning combination (like a pair of Jacks or a flush), you get paid. That's it.
You're dealt 5 cards. The machine deals from a standard 52-card deck (sometimes 53 with a Joker).
You choose which cards to hold. Tap or click the cards you want to keep. You can hold anywhere from 0 to 5 cards.
The machine replaces the rest. The cards you didn't hold are replaced with new draws from the remaining deck.
You get paid if you have a winning hand. Pairs of Jacks or better, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, or royal flush all pay out.
The math is transparent in video poker. You can look at the paytable and know exactly what the machine pays back over time — no guessing.
Start with Jacks or Better 9/6. Here's why:
It refers to the payouts for a Full House (9x) and a Flush (6x). These are the two payouts that vary the most between machines. Always look for 9/6 — a 9/5 or 8/6 machine looks identical but returns nearly 1% less.
Always hold a pair of Jacks or better.
That's the minimum paying hand in Jacks or Better. If you have one, don't break it up chasing something better. Hold both cards of the pair.
Beyond that, the strategy gets more nuanced — but this one rule alone saves most beginners from their biggest mistakes. When in doubt: hold the paying hand.
Enter any hand and see the best hold. Perfect for learning before you play for real.
Open the analyzer →The complete Jacks or Better strategy chart — every hand ranked in order of expected value.
View strategy chart →Compare paytables and find the full-pay 9/6 version. Not all machines are equal.
Browse the game finder →