How to read a video poker pay table

A video poker pay table is the price list. Each winning hand sits next to the number of coins it returns for each coin you put in. The game looks like a slot and plays like a simplified poker hand. The chart, not the theme on the glass, tells you what the machine is selling.

This guide is for adults 18 and older. It shows how to read the chart. It is not a strategy card, and it is not a suggestion to play. Returns differ by game. Laws differ by place.

What the rows mean

A common family is "jacks or better." A pair of jacks, queens, kings or aces pays. A pair of tens does not. Two pair, three of a kind, a straight, a flush, a full house, four of a kind and a straight flush sit above that, each with its own number. The number is a return per coin wagered, on a one-coin reading of a standard chart. If the machine accepts five coins, the last column is often where a premium hand jumps. Read the column you are actually using. A royal paid only in the fifth-coin column is a different price from the one-coin royal.

Hand rankings from table poker are the family resemblance. They are not the pay table. The machine pays what is printed, including hands a casino table would not reward the same way.

The two numbers people compare

Players shorthand some jacks-or-better charts by the full-house and flush returns. A "9/6" chart pays 9 coins for a full house and 6 for a flush, per coin wagered. A "8/5" chart pays 8 and 5. The first is a better long-run price than the second, if the rest of the chart matches and if the player makes the best available choices. "Better" still means less bad, or closer to even, not a favor. This page will not quote a single return percentage, because the percentage depends on the whole chart and on how the hand is played. A short session will not resemble it anyway.

House edge is the right frame. Move the full house from 9 to 8 and you have changed the price. You have not changed your luck tonight. Variance on these games is wide because the rare rows carry a lot of the return.

Choices change the chart you actually get

The printed table assumes you hold and discard in some particular way. Holding a single face card and throwing away a chance at a straight is a different game from the reverse. There is no universal hunch that matches the chart. A strategy list is a set of holds for a stated pay table. Using a list written for a 9/6 game on an 8/5 machine applies the wrong list to the wrong price.

This guide does not reproduce those lists. They are long, and a half-remembered rule is worse than reading the machine. If you will not learn the holds for the chart in front of you, you are buying a worse return than the chart's reputation. Reputation is not in the machine.

What the glass cannot tell you

Themes, speed and a "double up" button after a win are not the pay table. A double-up gamble is usually a separate even-looking bet with its own price. Decline it if you do not know that price. Speed is how a small edge, or a large one, becomes a large sum while the session still feels short. Set a money cap and a clock before the first deal. A royal on the glass is an advertisement for a rare row, not a forecast.

If the chart is hard to find, that is a reason to walk away, not a puzzle. If video poker is how you extend a session past a precommitment, the chart is no longer the issue. Stop and use local help if leaving is difficult.

Frequently asked questions

Does 9/6 mean the game returns 96 percent? No. The shorthand is the full-house and flush pays, 9 and 6 coins per coin wagered. The long-run return is a different calculation, and it depends on the whole chart and on your holds.

Is the one-coin column the price? It is part of the price. Check the column for the number of coins the machine is set to play. Some premium hands jump only in the last column.

Can perfect play remove the house edge? Not as a general rule. Better holds improve the result toward the chart's long-run figure. That figure can still be negative, and a single session can swing far from it.