Jacks or Better is one of the most popular video poker variations available in both land based casinos and in online casinos.
It’s also often listed as one of the best games to play if you want to play a low house edge game. But Jacks or Better games are found with a wide variety of pay tables.
In this post, I show you the most popular pay tables, how to read them, and what all of the numbers mean, and how they change the payback percentage.
Feel the thrill of playing a Las Vegas style video poker game! Play Jacks Or Better on the go for free! It's like having a small slice of Las Vegas on your device. Play with the same Pay Table as the Video Poker in a real Las Vegas casino. Earn credits Feeling lucky? Try your luck and see how much you can WIN! This game can also help you with your strategy before you play in a real casino. 9 Jacks or Better Pay Tables. By Andrew Ross on June 14, 2017. Jacks or Better is one of the most popular video poker variations available in both land based casinos and in online casinos. It’s also often listed as one of the best games to play if you want to play a low house edge game. But Jacks or Better games are found with a wide variety of pay tables. Jacks or better 1 The 90-9-6 Table – 99.9% RTP Possibility With a perfect strategy played on this table, you can get up to 99.9% of your wagers back over time. Mix it it in with VIP casino programs and such and you’ll be able to actually get the casino to pay you to play. Betting the Maximum of 5 Coins Is the Only Way to Score Premium Payouts on a Royal.
With this information, you can make sure you’re playing on a machine that offers the best possible pay table.
It’s important to compare several different Jacks or Better pay tables side by side to see how one small change can alter the payback percentage. I’ve done this in the chart below. But before getting to the chart let’s cover a few other important things.
Payback Percentage
Before moving on, I want to make sure you understand exactly what payback percentage means and how it relates to the house edge.
The payback percentage is the average amount the machine returns for every dollar wagered. This percentage is based on hundreds of thousands of hands and also includes the elusive royal flush.
This means that in the short term, which can consist of thousands of hands, your return may be higher or lower than the numbers listed below.
To get the house edge simply subtract the payback percentage from 100.
Here’s an example:
The 9 / 6 game in the chart below shows a payback percentage of 99.54%. This means the house edge is .46%.
Most Jacks or Better players show a larger house edge because remember the payback percentage includes the large pay out for a royal flush. According to the mathematical calculations done on Jacks or Better you hit a royal flush on average one out of every 40,391 hands.
What this means is to achieve the actual payback percentages listed in the chart below you’re going to need to play 40,391 hands on average.
And worse than the thought of playing that many hands to reach the payback percentage is that it’s entirely possible to play that many hands and still not hit a royal flush.
Of course, it’s also possible to hit two or three royal flushes in that many hands.
Every hand of Jacks or Better you play has a one in 40,391 chances to hit a royal. So, a machine is never due to hit a royal, even if it hasn’t hit one in years. And if a machine has just hit a royal flush it has the same chances of hitting another one the net hand as it did the previous hand.
Video Poker Machine Memory
Video poker machines have no memory so each hand has the same odds and chances as any other hand played.
Unlike slot machines, video poker machines are specifically based on a deck of playing cards so the chances of getting any particular card is one in 52. This is specific to Jacks or Better and other video poker machines that don’t use jokers.
This information is useful in determining the exact payback percentages listed in the chart and is also useful when making strategy decisions.
Here’s an example:
If you get four to a flush on your starting five card hand you know the deck still has nine cards to complete your flush. You’ve seen five cards so the rest of the deck consists of 47 cards. This means that if you play this hand 47 times discarding your non-flush card and drawing one, on average you’ll win nine times and lose 38.
Here’s another example:
If you have four cards to a royal flush you know that only one card will complete it. This means that one time out of 47 you’re going to get the card you need on average.
I keep saying on average because you can’t actually play the exact same situation 47 times at once. But over time the correct percentages work out.
The Chart
I’ve put together a chart listing the six pay tables you’re most likely to find in a casino and three special pay tables that offer higher returns. The most common ones are the first six and the special ones are the last three.
The best pay table I’ve played on is the regular 9 / 6, but if you ever run across one of the last three in the chart you should jump at the opportunity to play.
The chart lists the payout numbers you see in the first column to the left on most Jacks or Better machines. The only exception is for the royal flush. The number in the royal flush column in my chart is the top jackpot amount divided by five.
You only qualify for the top jackpot amount by playing five coins per line. If you play fewer than five coins the payout for a royal flush is less, which in turn reduces the overall payback percentage.
On the pay tables that list 800 for the royal flush it shows 4,000 in the five coin payout spot on the actual machine. The 940 machine listed below shows 4,700 and the 976 machine shows 4,880.
The payback percentages listed in the chart are all based on you playing perfect strategy.
Jacks Or Better Pay Tables
Key:
- RF – Royal flush
- SF – Straight flush
- 4K – Four of a kind
- FH – Full house
- FL – Flush
- ST – Straight
- 3K – Three of a kind
- 2P – Two pair
- JoB – Pair of jacks or better
- % – Payback percentage
Common Tables
The most common tables are the first six in the chart. The 9 / 6 is the hardest to find, but you can still find them in many land based casinos and in most online casinos.
The other five common machines are found everywhere, with the worst ones usually in bars and illegal gambling houses. Any machine using less than the 8 / 6 pay table should be avoided, and many people won’t play on anything less than a 9 / 6.
One thing you need to watch for is on machines that offer single hand and multi hand play. Multiple hand play is the ability to play five, 10, or even 52 hands at the same time.
The way it works is you receive a five card starting hand and decide what to hold. The same cards are held for all of the hands and each hand uses its own deck to complete your draws. Each of the decks removes the same five cards you start with and then randomly draws a card or cards to replace your draws.
The thing to watch for is many of these machines offer the 9 / 6 pay table if you only play one hand but switch to a lower paying table if you play more than one hand at a time.
Many players assume all of the games are at 9 / 6 and end up playing with a higher house edge for a long time without realizing it.
Best Tables
The three best pay tables are rare. I only include them in the chart so you can see what a pay table needs to look like to be better than the 9 / 6 that’s commonly the best you can find.
Notice that in order for a machine to offer a 100% payback percentage the royal flush payout has to be 976 per coin compared to 800. And even if you find one of these machines to play, in order to achieve a break-even level of play you have to eventually hit a royal flush.
Also notice that with payback percentages of 99.9% and higher, if you get any kind of comps through a player’s club while playing these machines you’re basically playing with an edge against the casino. Best casinos in united states.
Conclusion
When you see a Jacks or Better video poker machine use the chart above to determine the payback percentage. You’re fairly safe playing a 9 / 6 machine, but be wary of any other pay tables without checking their exact payback percentages.
Video Poker is played on a machine that looks pretty much like a regular slot machine in which from 1 to 5 coins are inserted in order to the player to be given access to their favourite poker game. Currency and tickets are also accepted to place a wager.
Then, the player is dealt a total of five cards that are given to them with their faces up on the screen. The order of the five cards is unknown, as they are dealt by a Random Number Generator (RNG). Then, the player needs to make a decision of each of the cards whether to keep them or discard them.
This offers them a total of 32 ways to play the hand. If they decide to discard n cards and are dealt n new cards, each of the 47/n possibilities are considered as equally likely. The player is granted with their payout, which depends on how much money they have wagered on the hand and what was its ranking.
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Payout Schedule of Jacks and Better
Players should always remember that pay schedules are important. It is not always easy to get oriented in a certain pay-off table, but players are recommended to always make clear what the pay-off would be for every hand in the game of Jacks or Better in a certain casino, regardless if it comes to a land-based or an online one.
When it comes to payout for Jacks and Better, there is a difference between the Royal Flush hand and the Straight Flush hand. In addition, the term “full-pay” machine is used to highlight the fact there are some video poker machines that feature payout schedules that are less favourable.
Players should also be aware of the fact that they need to bet the maximum amount of five coins in order to qualify for the maximum pay-off granted by the Royal Flush hand.
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When a Royal Flush hand is ranked, the pay-off odds amount to 800 to 1, since there are only 4 ways to make the hand. On the other hand, a Straight Flush hand can be made in a total of 36 ways, so its pay-off odds equal 50 for 1. The pay-off odds for Four of a Kind hand are 25 for 1, and the number of ways that could end up with such a hand are 324.
Players could make a Full House hand in 3,744 ways, which decreases the pay-off odds to 9 to 1. On the other hand, the Flush hand could be made in 5,108 ways, which leads to the pay-off odds being reduced to 6 to 1. Straight hands could be formed in 10.200 ways. The pay-off odds for such hands is 4 for 1. The hands consistent of Three of a Kind bring pay-off odds of 3 for 1 as they could be formed in 54,912 ways.
The Two Pair hands can be made in 123,552 ways and bring 2 for 1 pay-off odds. The Pair of Jacks or Better hand features pay-off odds of 1 for 1 and can be combined in a total of 2,062,860.
Major Math Issues
The paramount math issue when it comes to the game of Jacks or Better is for the player to determine which cards to hold and which to discard considering their initial five-card hand. Basically, this decision would be based on the cards of which the player's hand consists of.
No matter if it comes to a player who does not have enough experience or not, they have to make the decisions for themselves, by evaluating the cards they have as well as the chances to complete their hand in a way that boosts its rank. They should also remember not to rely too much on their intuition in such situations but to stay with cool mind and carefully consider what to do.
Usually, the optimal strategy is considered the one that provides the player with the chance to maximize their conditional expected pay-off. So, if we have to put this in other words, it would be better for a player to draw to a four-card flush in comparison to drawing to a three-card two-gap royal flush. Still, casino customers should be careful as making generalizations is not the best approach.
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