Video poker is a staple offering of most casinos. The machines that host the game usually share floor space with the slot machine banks.

As a result, they often occupy the role of palate cleanser for slot machine players. Instead of merely riding the whims of fate, a video poker player can exert some level of control over his or her destiny.

• As expert poker players will tell you, the best way to beat video poker is to play fewer hands. Unlike online poker, playing against the video poker machine requires you to slow down your game and play for wins rather than volume. By following the expert tips on this page, and practicing by playing video poker for free, you can beat the machine.
• How to Play Pokies Machines. The thrill of winning, the excitement of taking a risk and getting into the ‘zone’ for a bit are all reasons that people play pokies. If you are new to the pokies phenomenon, you might be looking to learn more about how to play pokies machines.

The video poker scene in live casinos throughout Pennsylvania is alive and well. The landscape will only broaden as established casino brands throughout the state offer online casinos with video poker games.

Best casinos with video poker in PA

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Are video poker games legal in PA?

Yes. Video poker games are legal at all of Pennsylvania’s casinos.

The state authorized them by virtue of the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act of 2004. The law provided for the licensure and regulation of casinos and racetrack-casinos in the Keystone State.

Accordingly, all 12 casinos in Pennsylvania have many rows of video poker machines. However, private citizens and businesses are not permitted to operate video poker machines.

In fact, there was a massive bust against some private video poker usage last year. Anthony Zennerallegedly raked in millions for operating a ring of unlicensed video poker machines.

So, video poker is fine – as long as it’s in the casinos.

How to play video poker for free in Pennsylvania

Great, Pennsylvania residents can play video poker. But, what if you’ve never played before?

No worries. There are several options for Pennsylvania inhabitants to practice playing video poker for free before they begin wagering their money.

First and foremost, Pennsylvanians can use Chumba Casino to practice their video poker. Now, to be clear, there is only one Chumba video poker game, Jacks or Better.

There are many more variants of video poker available. However, the Chumba version has a very important feature that should make it your first stop.

Namely, Chumba Casino’s Jacks or Better provides a percentage calculator for the chances that your draw will improve to any winning hands. This feature will allow you to try different strategies and approaches to video poker.

Once you feel comfortable, then you can try out the variety of games available on either Parx Casino Online or SugarHouse Casino4Fun.

Both sites offer roughly 15 variants of video poker for play absolutely free. You will simply need to register in order to log in and take part.

Make sure to try out each variant so that you can see which style of video poker you prefer. Everyone has their favorites, and these sites are a great way to discover yours.

Moving to real money video poker

Once you feel comfortable with all the different types of video poker, you may want to give the real money version a try. If so, both of these aforementioned sites are more than happy to help you transition over to the real money side.

Now, you will have to register all over again for a real money account.

Hollywood Online Casino does offer online video poker though. Unlike Parx, which only offers Jacks or Better, Hollywood offers the entire IGT Game King suite of nine different varieties, including Deuces Wild and Double Double Bonus Poker.

So, Pennsylvanians can choose between Hollywood, Parx, and Chumba. For now.

Every online casino will have several options for depositing cash onto them. Any one of the following methods may be available on your site of choice:

• ACH/E-check
• Visa/MasterCard
• Bank transfer
• PayNearMe (via 7-Eleven)
• PayPal/Skrill
• Wire transfer
• Cash in-person at the casino cage

Make sure to check the promotional offers at the site before you hit “submit.” Many casinos will have opportunities to enhance your deposit amount.

Video poker apps

There are Android versions for all three PA online casinos.

The situation is a bit dodgier for Apple users. Hollywood Casino is the only one of the three with an iOS app. The bad news is the game library is extremely small. The good news is the Game King video poker suite is one of the available titles.

PlaySugarHouse has a solution that allows casino play via iPhone browser, but does not have video poker at the moment. Parx has no option for iPhone users.

Additionally, Chumba Casino is a completely browser-based site. So, it does not matter what device is used to log in.

As far as the games themselves, they work decently well. They are definitely playable through both laptops and devices, and it’s clear that all three sites have taken pains to make sure that they optimize for mobile users.

However, there is a clunky quality to the mobile versions that may be distracting. It’s hard to describe – some sort of lag, perhaps – but it betrays some sort of discomfort on the part of the mobile developers.

That said, we’re nitpicking a bit here. There’s no doubt that most people should be able to find a way onto these three sites to try their video poker options.

The basics of video poker strategy

So, what is video poker?

Video poker is a computerized version of five-card draw poker. Players are seeking to make a winning five-card hand. What constitutes a winning hand varies from game to game.

Video poker and slot machines are often lumped together, both in terms of their game class and physically in the casino. However, the element of control that a player exerts over a video poker game leads to a key difference between the two.

Namely, there is, in fact, a correct way to play each hand of video poker. Numerous books abound that help players identify the best statistical way to approach each hand.

As it happens, you can have these books along with you as you play. Casinos have no problem with players playing perfectly, because, as you may have guessed, there is still a house advantage over perfect play.

However, playing perfectly will minimize the house edge to fractions of a percentage point. So, it is possible to get quite a bit of bang for your buck on video poker, and sometimes, you’ll come away a winner.

So, the payout percentages listed in each game variant below are calculated assuming that you are playing perfectly. If you are playing less than perfectly, the percentage will tip farther into the casino’s favor.

One other factor that influences the odds of winning is the number of coins that a player is wagering. Video poker machines usually have some sort of outsized payout for the highest coin play. Typically, you’ll have to play five coins on a single game to qualify.

However, these highest levels of play can also have progressive jackpots attached to them. So, if at all possible, you should play the highest level to maximize your expected value on your wagers.

Types of online video poker games in PA

A quick look at a video poker game list can be overwhelming. There are so many variants that it can seem impossible to master.

Surprisingly, though, the different types of video poker are all basically the same. The changes from the standard games are mere tweaks, by and large.

In terms of odds, video poker machines return over 96% of the cash wagered into them. This percentage places video poker as a much better bet than slot machines.

The different variants do play with the odds, at least in terms of the timeframe. Which variant you prefer depends upon how much variance you want to accept.

Jacks or Better

The most prevalent video poker game, and indeed, the only one that Chumba Casino features, is Jacks or Better. Like most standards, Jacks or Better is beloved due to its simplicity.

The key to winning the game is inherent in its title. A player must make a pair of jacks or better in order to win.

As the hand strength increases, so does the payouts. As you’ll see later, casinos have introduced ways of chipping away at these payouts.

In the early days, some Jacks or Better games would pay out as a “full pay” machine; that is, full houses would pay 9x the bet and flushes 6x the bet.

Over time, casinos offered this ratio less and less often. For instance, Chumba’s Jacks or Better is a 7x/5x game.

However, those shaves on the profits haven’t really hurt the game. Overall, Jacks or Better will pay back 99.54% of its wagers.

Deuces Wild

Another common video poker variant is Deuces Wild. This version renders the four twos, or deuces, as wild cards.

This change inflates the normal hand strength that you’re going to get. With four cards that can be anything, pairs can easily become three of a kind, and random hands can become straight or flush candidates.

Of course, the game takes this escalation into account in its winning conditions. Most forms of Deuces Wild require three of a kind or higher to pay out.

Strange as it would seem, a perfectly-played game of Deuces Wild will pay out 100.8%. If you can play correctly and play the highest number of coins available, there is a positive expectation.

Understand, however, that percentage is a long-run calculation. Most players are not going to have enough cash to stick around for the long run.

Bonus Poker/Double Bonus Poker/Double Double Bonus Poker

Bonus Poker plays exactly like Jacks or Better up to a certain point. That point is four of a kind.

Bonus Poker rewards players for achieving quads of any value with an extra payout. Unfortunately, the game also collects from other payouts to finance this perk.

So, even though there are higher individual payouts on some hands, the overall effect is a percentage return drop. Bonus Poker players will only see a return of 99.2%.

Bonus Poker has proven popular enough, however, to spawn two offspring, Double Bonus Poker and Double Double Bonus Poker. Like Bonus Poker, Double Bonus and Double Double Bonus place special value on four-of-a-kind hands.

So, they further separate four-of-a-kind hands by their value. Double Bonus Poker has an increased payout for players who acquire four aces.

However, the increased payout has turned things around on the expected payback. Double Bonus Poker returns 100.2% to its players.

Double Double Bonus Poker takes things a step farther than its cousins. Each possibility of four-of-a-kind is subject to a different payout.

The aces are still the target of most of the breakouts. Double Double Bonus Poker has a pay structure based upon the kicker in the quad ace hands.

Furthermore, four 2s, 3s, and 4s each get their own payout level. Then, 5s – kings are all paid at the same rate.

All those machinations don’t actually make much of a difference overall, actually. The payout rate drops a tiny bit to 100.1%.

Any other variant you find will have elements of these three types of video poker in it. Just make sure to investigate each type you find and figure out what it’s about before you bet.

Bonuses and rewards program

As you play on an online casino, you often have the ability to take part in the casino’s loyalty program. Playing video poker certainly qualifies for any of these promotions.

However, a video poker player may find it significantly difficult to qualify for as many rewards points as their slot-machine brethren. Casinos often award fewer points for video poker, due to its high return to player ratio.

For instance, SugarHouse calculates how many points to award in its iRush Rewards program based upon the return-to-player percentage. So, a game that returns 94% of wagers to players will award points at a higher rate than a game that returns 96%, for instance.

As stated earlier, video poker returns a high percentage to players, usually upwards of 99%. As a result, video poker will not earn points at SugarHouse very quickly.

In a similar vein, Parx values slot play far more than video poker play. Rather than any sort of calculation, Parx’s Xclub awards 1 point per $20 wagered on slots and 1 point per $60 wagered on video poker. So, playing video poker is a third less fruitful than playing slots.

General rules and hand rankings

Video poker is a five-card-draw style of poker. After placing your wager on a hand, you will initially be dealt five playing cards. You then have the option to “hold” or “fold” any number of those cards with the intent of making the highest-valued hand possible, according to the poker-hand hierarchy.

Poker hands are listed, in order, from strongest to weakest:

• Royal flush: A hand consists of the cards 10, jack, queen, king and ace, all of the same suit
• Straight flush: A hand consists of five sequential cards all of the same suit, such as 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of clubs
• Four-of-a-kind: A hand consists of all four cards of the same value, in each suit
• Full house: A hand consists of both one pair and one three-of-a-kind
• Flush: A hand consists of any combination of five cards that are all in the same suit
• Straight: A hand consists of five cards in a sequence, regardless of the suit
• Three-of-a-kind: A hand consists of three cards that are all the same value
• Two pair: A hand consists of two unlike pairs of cards
• Pair: A hand consists of one like pairs of cards
• High card: A hand consists of no pairs or a higher-value combination of cards
  The highest-value card is used to determine hand strength

Versions of video poker will offer different payouts for each outcome. Some games will come with conditions, such as requiring at least a pair of jacks. There are many variations of the game also include wild cards, and even jackpots, when certain conditions are right.

Video poker odds

When it comes to determining the odds in a game of video poker, we can understand the potential outcomes rather easily. That’s because players play video poker with only one deck. That means odds are generally the same across all video poker games, be it at a live casino machine or on regulated PA online gambling site.

The general odds and payout schedule for jacks or better video poker hands are as follows:

Additionally, it may not be possible to win the total jackpot when holding a royal flush unless the maximum amount of wagering units are administered at the beginning of the hand. Keep in mind, some variations of the game will offer different payout structures, depending on a natural royal flush being dealt at the beginning of a hand.

Online versus casino video poker

There is little difference between online video poker and video poker played in live casinos because all the games are all machine-based.

The benefits of online video poker are you will never have to wait your turn to play a particular version, and there are so many varieties to enjoy.

Additionally, you can jump from variation to variation with no effort at all. As a result, games play much faster than in a live casino setting.

Where to Play video poker in Pennsylvania

Video poker is a ubiquitous feature of casinos, so it’s no surprise that video poker machines are located in every Pennsylvania casino.

As stated earlier, video poker and slot machines often share space in a casino. Given how much of a pleasant change of pace video poker offers slot machine players (and vice versa), it’s unlikely that this marriage of games will break up any time soon.

Below is a list of the addresses for all twelve of Pennsylvania’s casinos. Please note that we have also listed the Live! Casino property, though it has not opened yet.

• Harrah’s Philadelphia – 777 Harrah’s Blvd, Chester, PA 19013
• Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course – 777 Hollywood Blvd, Grantville, PA 17028
• Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin – 4067 National Pike, Farmington, PA 15437
• The Meadows Racetrack and Casino – 210 Racetrack Rd, Washington, PA 15301
• Mohegan Sun Pocono – 1280 PA-315, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702
• Mount Airy Casino Resort – 312 Woodland Rd, Mt Pocono, PA 18344
• Parx Casino & Racing – 2999 Street Rd, Bensalem, PA 19020
• Presque Isle Downs & Casino – 8199 Perry Hwy, Erie, PA 16509
• Rivers Casino (Pittsburgh) – 777 Casino Dr, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
• Wind Creek Bethlehem – 77 Wind Creek Blvd, Bethlehem, PA 18015
• Sugarhouse Casino – 1001 N Delaware Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19125
• Valley Forge Casino Resort – 1160 1st Ave, King of Prussia, PA 19406
• Live! Casino & Hotel – 900 Packer Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19148

Pennsylvania’s laws surrounding video poker machines

There is one clear legal motion that has precipitated Pennsylvania’s video poker machines. The Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act of 2004 essentially inflated the gambling balloon for the entire state, providing for 12 casinos to be constructed.

Video poker also flowed into legality due to this law. As a dozen casinos came into being, video poker came with them.

Video poker will presumably make the jump to Pennsylvania’s mini-casinos and online casinos when all the rest of the games do. There’s no real distinction between them and slot machines.

Home > Online Casinos > Casino Articles > 10 Best Video Poker Games

If you want to get the best odds in the casino, you really only have 2 choices-blackjack and video poker. When it comes to blackjack, you're basically looking at a single game with a few rules variations. But with video poker, you have multiple games to choose from.

But which of these games offer the player the best odds?

I should start by explaining why video poker games are such a good choice for the casino gambler, especially when compared to their not-so-distant cousins, slot machines. The rest of this introduction explains that, then I'll explain which games you should look for and how you should play them.

Transparent Odds versus Opaque Odds

The first thing you should understand about video poker compared to slot machines is transparency. When you play a slot machine, you know how much the payoffs are for the various symbol combinations.

What you don't know are the odds of getting any particular symbol.

This is what makes the math behind a slot machine opaque to anyone except the designers and the casinos.

But a video poker game uses the same probabilities as a 52 card deck of playing cards. Everyone knows the probabilities related to a deck of cards. You have a 1/52 chance of getting any particular card, a 1/13 chance of getting a card of any particular ranking, and a 1/4 chance of getting a card of any particular suit.

Since you also know the payoffs for the various combinations-in video poker games, they're called 'hands'-you can calculate the game's expected return.

That's not as complicated a calculation as you might think, either. You just list all the possible outcomes. Then you multiply the probability of winding up with each of those outcomes with how much it pays off. Add all those numbers up, and you have the overall expected return for the game. This is also sometimes called the game's payback percentage.

The House Edge and the Payback Percentage

When you're talking about the math behind a table game in a casino, you usually discuss the game's edge or the 'house edge'. But when we discuss the math behind a gambling machine, we talk about the game's 'payback percentage'. Both numbers are different ways of expressing the same concept.

The house edge is the amount of each bet that a casino expects to win over the long run. It's an average that applies to tens of thousands of bets.

The payback percentage is the amount of each bet that a casino expects to pay back to the player over the long run. It's also an average over tens of thousands of hands.

If you know a game's payback percentage, you can subtract it from 100% to get the house edge.

Here's an example:

When you're playing blackjack, the house edge might be 0.5% That means that over time, the casino has a mathematical expectation that you'll lose 50 cents out of every $100 you bet.

When you're playing Jacks or Better video poker, the payback percentage might be 99.54%. That means that over time, the casino has a mathematical expectation that you'll win $99.54 for every $100 you bet.

You could convert that 0.5% into a 99.5% payback percentage. You could also convert that 99.54% into a 0.46% house edge.

Both bets offer similar odds. The main difference is the way in which each game plays out.

How To Play Poker Machines

Decisions Matter

Here's the 2nd thing you need to understand about video poker games:

Your decisions matter.

This is a major difference between video poker games and slot machines. With a slot machine, you just put your money in and pull the lever and hope for the best.

You do the same thing in video poker games, but you have an extra step:

You get to decide which cards to keep and which cards to throw away.

Since there are 32 different ways to play each hand, you have a significant number of choices facing you on every video poker hand. Only one of those choices offers the highest expected return.

Here's an example:

You're dealt a hand that consists of the jack of clubs, the jack of hearts, the queen of hearts, the king of hearts, and the ace of hearts.

So you have a pair of jacks, and you could hold those 2 cards and guarantee yourself an even money (1 for 1) payoff. That's a 100% chance of getting a 1 unit payoff, which is an expected value of 1.

But you also could throw away the jack of clubs and hope to hit a royal flush. The royal flush pays off at 800 to 1. Since the odds of filling your hand are 1 in 47, you're looking at a roughly 2% chance of winning 800 coins. That's an expected value of 16.

16 is clearly better than 1, so that's the correct play in this situation. That's obviously an overly simplified look at this decision, since there are several other potential decisions and outcomes. But those are the 2 most obvious ways to play the hand.

You can find strategy charts for most video poker games online-including on specific pages on this site. These charts are organized as lists of hands. The hands with the best expected return are listed at the top, so you start from the top and work your way down. You keep the first hand that matches what you're holding.

Pay Tables

Finally, you want to be familiar with how a pay table for a video poker game works. Even though a game shares a name with another game, the pay table might be different. The differences in the pay tables make a significant difference in the payback percentage.

Here's an example:

A 9/6 Jacks or Better game has a 99.54% payback percentage. The 9/6 in the title of the game refers to the payoff for a full house and a flush. The former pays off at 9 to 1, while the latter pays off at 6 to 1. They don't list this on the title of the game on the machine, by the way. You have to read the pay table.

You can compare that to an 8/5 Jacks or Better game, which has a 97.3% payback percentage. The 1 unit difference in payoffs for those 2 hands has a significant effect on your odds.

How significant?

Think about the average hourly loss on a gambling machine. You calculate this number by multiplying the number of hands per hour you're playing by the average you're betting per hand. That's the total amount of action you're getting in per hour.

Multiply the total hourly action by the house edge, and you get your average expected hourly loss.

On a full pay (or 9/6) Jacks or Better game, the house edge is 100% - 99.54%, or 0.46%.

On the 8/5 Jacks or Better game, the house edge is 100% - 97.3%, or 2.7%.

If you're playing for $5 per hand, and you're playing 600 hands per hour, you're putting $3000 into action each hour.

0.54% of $3000 is $16.20 per hour in expected losses. Keep in mind that this is over the course of tens of thousands of hands. In any single hour, you might be doing much better or much worse than this. But if you play long enough, your results should come pretty close to resembling this number.

2.7% of $3000 is $81 per hour in expected losses. That's 5 times as much money in the casino's pocket and out of yours.

So it's easy to see why you should educate yourself about the various pay tables and their payback percentages.

Luckily, you don't have to work out the calculations with a pencil and paper every time you play. You can look these numbers up online. In fact, I can give you the 10 best games to look for-which is what the rest of this post is all about.

Jacks or Better

I have multiple reasons for listing Jacks or Better as the #1 video poker game you should play. It's not because this is the game with the best odds, although if you can find a game with a 9/6 pay table, you are looking at one of the best games in the house. Mostly it's because Jacks or Better is the foundation upon which knowledge of all other video poker games rests.

Jacks or Better is pretty straightforward. It's based on 5 card draw. You're dealt 5 cards, you get to choose which ones to keep and which ones to throw away, and then you get paid off based on the poker hand ranking of your end result. The lowest-paying hand is a pair of jacks or higher. A pair of tens or less doesn't pay out anything. The highest-paying hand is a royal flush, which pays off at 800 to 1 if you bet 5 coins per hand. (If you bet 4 coins or fewer, it only pays out 250 to 1, so always play max coins.)

One of the reasons I like this game so much is because it's also easy to spot the better pay tables. I discussed earlier that game designers and casinos normally only adjust the payoffs on 2 hands for this game-the full house and the flush. When they pay off at 9 and 6, then you're looking at a game with a 99.54% payback percentage. Those are some of the best odds in the house.

The other thing I like about Jacks or Better is that strategy is more or less straightforward. You can find strategy charts for this game at any number of websites, and it isn't that hard to learn. In fact, you can find simplified strategy charts that you can memorize in a few minutes that only give up 0.1% in payback percentage when compared to the complete strategy.

And once you know how to play Jacks or Better, almost every other video poker game in the casino becomes easy to learn. The only video poker game I can think of that doesn't mimic Jacks or Better in almost every particular is Pick'em Poker, which is also called Pick a Pair Poker. It's on this list, too, and it's a simplified version of video poker-more about that later.

Deuces Wild

The 2nd most common video poker variation is Deuces Wild. This game plays almost exactly like Jacks or Better, but there's one big difference-all the 2s in the deck act as wild cards. This means they can stand in for any card you need to fill your hand. Since there are 4 of these cards in the deck, the difference in the value of your average final hand is significant.

Of course, a casino would have to be insane to offer the same pay table for this game that they offer for Jacks or Better. The odds of getting a pair skyrocket with the addition of the wild cards. And in fact, they offer VERY different pay tables for this game. In Deuces Wild, the lowest-paying hand is a 3 of a kind, in fact.

The highest-paying hand is still a royal flush, but Deuces Wild distinguishes between a natural royal flush and a wild royal flush. A natural royal flush still pays off at 800 to 1, because the odds are still the same. You'll see a natural royal flush roughly once every 40,000 hands or so.

But the other big difference between Deuces Wild and Jacks or Better is how the pay tables are structured. In Deuces Wild, you don't have just 2 hands with different payoffs to keep up with. The designers and the casinos change up multiple payoffs on multiple hands, which makes it a little bit harder to choose a pay table.

But you can find Deuces Wild games with better payouts than Jacks or Better if you know what to look for. In fact, full pay Deuces Wild offers a payback percentage of 100.76%. This is called full pay Deuces Wild, and it's not the easiest game in the world to find. But it's not extinct or impossible to find, in spite of what some other gambling writers on the Internet might tell you.

Your best chance of finding Deuces Wild in its full pay format is to visit some of the casinos on Boulder Highway in Las Vegas. They cater to video poker players and offer the best pay tables in the industry.

But how much of an edge is 0.76%? Could you make a living playing this game?

As it turns out, probably not.

Here's why:

Remember when I calculated the average hourly loss in the introduction? The math for calculating the average hourly win when you have an edge is the same. In this case, you take the amount of hourly action and multiply it by YOUR edge, in this case, 0.76%.

Assuming you can find a game with the right pay table and you can play it with perfect strategy, you might be able to make a little bit of money playing this game. Let's say you can find a game where you can play for a quarter, or $1.25 per hand. (You're betting 5 coins per hand, remember.)

That's $750 in action per hour. You expect to win $5.70 per hour on this game.

That's a far cry from losing an average of $16 per hour, but you'd have a hard time making a living at that wage. We're talking less than $240 per week if you played for 40 hours per week.

But what if you found a dollar machine, you ask? Couldn't you make over $20/hour on such a game?

I'm confident that a game with this pay table is not going to be available in that denomination. The casinos are too smart for that-even the ones on Boulder Highway.

And that's not a common pay table, even there.

A more common Deuces Wild pay table is called 'not so ugly' Deuces Wild. This game has a payback percentage of 99.73%. This is still better than full pay Jacks or Better, but it's still a long term winner for the casino.

Something else to keep in mind about Deuces Wild is that the game has a completely different strategy for playing than Jacks or Better. One aspect of this strategy is easy to remember though:

Never discard a deuce.

Another aspect of the correct strategy is this:

Never hold 2 pairs.

Bonus Poker

I always thought it was funny that Bonus Poker was considered a different game from Jacks or Better. The differences are minimal in terms of gameplay. It's still a video poker game with no wild cards. The lowest-paying hand is still a pair of jacks or better. And it still pays off 800 to 1 for a royal flush.

Play Poker Machines Online

In fact, the only difference between Bonus Poker and Jacks or Better is the payoffs for the 4 of a kind. And depending on the cards making up the 4 of a kind, you might get a much bigger payoff than you'd expect in Jacks or Better.

Here's the difference:

In a Jacks or Better game, the payoff for 4 of a kind is consistent from game to game. It pays off 25 to 1.

But in Bonus Poker, it pays off based on the rank of the cards:

• 4 aces pay off at 80 to 1.
• 4 deuces, 3s, or 4s pay off at 40 to 1.
• All other 4 of a kinds pay off at 25 to 1, just like in Jacks or Better

The payback percentage on a full pay Bonus Poker game is 99.17%. They pay for the bonuses on the 4 of a kind hands by adjusting the payoffs on the full house and the flush, by the way-a full pay Bonus Poker game only pays off at 8 to 1 and 5 to 1 on those hands, respectively. If you were paying attention to the section on Jacks or Better, you already know that such a difference in pay tables on Jacks or Better reduces the payback percentage to under 98%. You get some of that back with the bonus payouts for the 4 of a kind in this game.

But this is a more volatile game as a result. Since the extra percentage points come from the 4 of a kind hands, you won't see them very often. In fact, you'll only see 4 aces 00.02% of the time. That's not very often at all.

Still, any game where you can get a payback percentage of 99%+ is worth looking at. In fact, I recommend that you ONLY play video poker games where you can get such a payout. Bonus Poker is one of them.

Here's one other observation about Bonus Poker. It's a good demonstration of how video poker differs from traditional poker.

Here's why:

When you're looking at a 4 of a kind at a traditional poker table, the higher the rank of the cards, the better the hand. A 4 of a kind made up of 5s beats a 4 of a kind made up of 4s, for example.

But in Bonus Poker, you get paid almost twice as much for a 4 of a kind made up of 4s as you do for a 4 of a kind made up of 5s.

Double Bonus Poker

Double Bonus Poker, along with Deuces Wild, is your best chance of finding a game where you can get an edge over the house at video poker. It's a small edge, though-smaller than full pay Deuces Wild, in fact. The payback percentage on Double Bonus Poker is 100.17% with the right pay table.

As you might have gathered from the game's name, Double Bonus Poker is most similar to Bonus Poker. Here's the difference:

The payoffs for the 4 of a kind hands are literally doubled:

• Instead of getting 80 to 1 for 4 aces, you get 160 to 1.
• Instead of getting 40 to 1 for 4 deuces, 3s, or 4s, you get 80 to 1.
• Instead of getting 25 to 1 for all other 4 of a kinds, you get 50 to 1.

But full pay Double Bonus Poker has another significant and surprising difference-the payouts for the full house and the flush are even higher than in Jacks or Better. On a full pay Double Bonus Poker game, those hands pay out at 10 to 1 and 7 to 1.

How can the casino afford to offer such generous payouts on all these hands?

They've reduced the payoff for 2 pairs from 2 to 1 to even money. Since that hand comes up about once in every 8 hands, cutting the payoff for it in half frees up a lot of money to add to those other hands.

What does this do to the texture of the game?

It makes it even more volatile than Bonus Poker.

Like full pay Deuces Wild, Double Bonus Poker is hard to find, and it's almost impossible to find at higher denominations.

But it's out there if you look-especially if you look at the casinos on Boulder Highway.

Loose Deuces Wild

Loose Deuces Wild has about as much claim to being a 'different' game from Deuces Wild as Bonus Poker does to being a different game from Jacks or Better. The only real difference is the extra payoff amount on the 4 of a kind hand consisting of 2s.

The standard payoff for a 4 of a kind made up of deuces is 200 to 1.

In Loose Deuces, it's 500 to 1.

That's a huge difference, but keep in mind that every time you get something extra from a video poker game, you're losing something somewhere in order to pay for it.

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In the most common versions of Loose Deuces, though, the major difference is in the payoff for the straight flush. In a more-or-less standard Deuces Wild game, that hand pays off at 9 to 1. On most Loose Deuces games, it pays off at 8 to 1.

The other thing to keep in mind is that even though a 500 to 1 payoff is great, the odds of getting a 4 of a kind made up of all deuces is relatively small. It's still about 10 times as likely as a natural royal flush, though.

If you can master the correct strategy for this game-which is actually pretty close to the correct strategy for full pay Deuces Wild-you can enjoy a game with a large payback percentage that's comparable to some of the other positive expectation games on this list. I've seen sites listing pay tables for Loose Deuces Wild games where the expected return was 101.60%, but you're a lot more likely to find a game with a 100.15% payback percentage or even 99.2%.

Any of those games are worth playing-it's just that some of them are better than others.

Double Double Bonus Poker

Double Double Bonus Poker is another game on the very short list of games where a video poker player can get an edge over the house. But don't think you're going to make a fortune playing this game-at least not in the long run. The payback percentage for Double Double Bonus when played with perfect strategy is 100.07%, so your edge is tiny.

But what's the difference between Double Double Bonus Poker and Double Bonus Poker?

If you guessed that certain hands get paid off at better odds, then give yourself a gold star.

This game offers higher payoffs for 4 of a kind hands, but it also takes into account the kicker. This makes it unusual, because the kicker in video poker almost never matters.

Here's what the payouts look like on the 4 of a kind hands in Double Double Bonus Poker:

• 4 aces with a 2, 3, or 4 - 400 to 1
• 4 deuces, 3s, or 4s with an ace, 2, 3, or 4 - 160 to 1
• 4 aces with any other kicker - 160 to 1
• 4 deuces, 3s, or 4s with any other kicker - 80 to 1
• Any other 4 of a kind - 50 to 1

As you can see, the lower ranked cards are rewarded in the 4 of a kinds in this game. (Most people don't think of an ace as a low card most of the time, but it is in this case. In fact, you can think of this as a game that rewards 4 of a kind hands that have cards lower than 5 in them.)

I mentioned in the section above about how traditional poker and video poker differ in terms of hand rankings. This is an even more prominent example of this.

As with many of the other games I recommend on this page, Double Double Bonus Poker is more volatile than some games (like Jacks or Better). But it's still well worth learning how to play.

Triple Bonus

You'll like the gimmick behind Triple Bonus Poker. It's the same game as Bonus Poker, but instead of doubling the payoffs for 4 of a kind, like Double Bonus Poker does, Triple Bonus multiplies the payoffs by 3.

So here are the payoffs for 4 of a kind in Triple Bonus:

• 4 aces - 240 to 1
• 4 deuces, 3s, or 4s - 120 to 1
• Any other 4 of a kind - 75 to 1

If you can find a Triple Bonus game with the right pay table, the payback percentage is right up there with any of the other big boys on this list-99.94%, in fact. Of course, like most of the games on this list, there are other pay tables available which aren't as generous. You can find Triple Bonus with a payback percentage between 94% and 95%, but once you get to that point, you might as well play the slots.

Pick'em Poker

Pick'em Poker is also sometimes called Pick a Pair Poker. This is one of the most interesting games on the list, as it actually has different gameplay than any of the other games here. It's actually a simplified version of video poker with fewer decisions to make. If you find the right version with the right pay table, the payback percentage is exceptional, too-99.95%.

Here's how the game works:

You start with 2 cards. These are the foundation of your hand.

You also get 2 more cards. These are the ones where you have a decision to make-you choose to keep one of these 2 cards.

Then the machine deals 2 more cards and you get a final hand.

You'll notice that you only have 2 cards to choose from when you're deciding which card to keep and which one to throw away. The first 2 cards, you're stuck with. Then with the next 2 cards, you're stuck with one of them. And in terms of the final 2 cards, well-you don't get to discard either of them, either.

In fact, this game might be considered a video poker version of stud poker. All of the other video poker games that I know of are basically video game versions that sort of combine solitaire with 5 card draw.

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One of the advantages that Pick'em Poker offers over the other games on this list is that the strategy is much easier to learn. In fact, most Pick'em Poker games have a great pay table available-it's harder to find a bad pay table for Pick'em Poker than it is to find a good one.

I remember when I first started studying video poker strategy. I bought all of the strategy guides from Bob Dancer and Liam Daily. Most of these books are pretty thick, but the thinnest of them was the strategy guide for Pick'em Poker. When I read it, I realized the strategy for the game was simple enough that a book was almost superfluous.

If you can find this game, you should give it a try. It moves a little faster than the other video poker games on this list, too.

Jokers Wild (or Joker Poker)

Jokers Wild actually has a legitimate claim to being a different game from Jacks or Better and/or Deuces Wild. Not only does it have a different pay table, it's dealt from a different kind of deck. But it's not a deck that's significantly different-the main difference is that there are 53 cards instead of 52. The additional card is a joker, which acts as a wild card.

But there's a big difference between Joker Poker and Deuces Wild. That's because there's a big difference between having 4 out of 52 cards being wild and 1 out of 53 cards being wild.

The pay table for this game is similar to that for Jacks or Better, but there are some differences. For one thing, a pair of jacks or higher isn't good enough-the payoffs in Jokers Wild start with a pair of KINGS or better. That's significant, because out of all the possible pairs, you're only looking at 2 of them which pay-kings or aces.

The payoff for 2 pairs is reduced, too. In Jacks or Better, it's 2 to 1, but in Jokers Wild, it's reduced to even money.

Of course, since there's a wild card, you have another hand available that's not available in games without wild cards-the 5 of a kind. This hand pays off at 200 to 1.

The game also distinguishes between a natural royal flush and a wild royal flush. As always, the natural royal flush pays off at 800 to 1. The wild royal flush only pays off at 100 to 1.

With the right pay table and correct strategy, Joker Poker has a payback percentage of 100.64%, making it almost as good a game as full pay Deuces Wild.

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ACE$ Bonus Poker

ACE$ Bonus Poker is one of my favorites on the list just because I like the name of the game so much. It also has a legitimate claim to being significantly different from the other games on the list, although really it's just a variation of Bonus Poker. But it's at least an interesting variation.

ACE$ Bonus Poker is played just like Bonus Poker, but there's a difference. The aces are each marked with the following letters:

• A
• C
• E
• $

Normally in a video poker game, the position of the cards doesn't matter. A 10JQKA is a straight, but so is an AQ10JK.

But since the aces in this game have an extra designation, the game can pay an extra bonus on certain 4 of a kind hands.

If you get 4 aces in the right order-ACE$--you get an 800 to 1 payout.

This is one of the only other video poker games I know of which has a bonus jackpot comparable in size to the jackpot you get when you hit a royal flush.

But don't think this is going to come up very often. It's actually even less likely to come up than a natural royal flush.

That doesn't mean this is a bad game-on the contrary. The full pay version of this game has a payback percentage of 99.4%

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I recommend sticking with video poker games where you can get a payback percentage of no less than 99%. If you stick with the 10 games on this list, you'll achieve your goal, but only if you get familiar with the pay tables. The other trick is to raise your standards-simply refuse to play video poker games with a lower payback percentage.

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Keep in mind, too, that all of these payback percentages are theoretical long term results. They're also based on the assumption that you're going to play each hand with perfect strategy. You might or might not be that good at video poker. But you can get that good if you're willing to put in the study and practice.