Master Video Poker Strategy & Optimal Play
Essential terminology for understanding optimal play, pay tables, and return percentages
In video poker, hand rankings determine your payout. From lowest to highest: High Card, One Pair, Two Pair, Three of a Kind, Straight, Flush, Full House, Four of a Kind, Straight Flush, and Royal Flush. Understanding these rankings is fundamental to identifying which cards to hold during optimal play.
The action of exchanging unwanted cards from your initial hand for new cards from the deck. In video poker, you receive five cards, select which ones to keep, and the remaining cards are replaced. Strategic drawing decisions are critical for maximizing return percentages.
Cards you choose to keep from your initial five-card hand. Determining which cards to hold is the primary decision-making point in video poker. Strategy charts guide which cards offer the best expected value based on mathematical analysis of all possible outcomes.
An unpaired card that accompanies a pair in your hand. For example, in a pair of sevens with a King, Jack, and Nine, the King, Jack, and Nine are kickers. Pay table analysis helps determine whether holding high kickers with pairs affects your expected return.
The payout schedule displayed on a video poker machine showing the coins or credits earned for each winning hand combination. Pay tables vary significantly between machines and directly impact return percentages. A 9/6 Jacks or Better machine (9 for full house, 6 for flush) offers better returns than a 8/5 machine.
The percentage of all wagered money that a video poker machine pays back to players over time. Also called Return Percentage, typically ranges from 95% to 99%+ depending on the game variant and pay table. Optimal play strategy is calculated to achieve the published RTP for a specific machine.
The mathematical advantage the casino maintains over players, calculated as 100% minus the RTP. A machine with 98% RTP has a 2% house edge. Understanding house edge helps players select machines with better return percentages and reinforces that no strategy overcomes the built-in advantage.
The average return you can expect from a decision over many repetitions. In video poker strategy, each holding decision has an EV calculated from all possible outcomes weighted by their probability. Strategy charts are built entirely on selecting holds with the highest expected value.
A ranked list of hands and partial hands showing which cards to hold in any given situation. Strategy charts are mathematically optimized to achieve the highest possible return percentage for a specific game and pay table variant, such as Jacks or Better or Deuces Wild.
Following the mathematically correct holding decisions for every possible hand combination. Deviations from optimal play reduce your expected return. Strategy charts provide the framework for optimal play, though perfect execution is challenging due to the number of possible hand combinations.
The statistical measure of how much your results fluctuate from expected value in the short term. Video poker has variable variance depending on the game type—machines paying for rare hands have higher variance. Understanding variance helps maintain realistic expectations about session results.
The total money you've set aside specifically for gaming. Proper bankroll management is essential—you should only play with money you can afford to lose completely. Your bankroll size should accommodate the natural variance of your chosen video poker game.
The mathematical likelihood of a specific outcome occurring. In video poker, probability calculations determine the chance of completing various hands from different starting positions. These probabilities directly inform strategy decisions and expected value calculations for each possible hold.
The ratio expressing the likelihood of an event happening versus not