Your five cards
Tap Hold on the cards you would keep, then compare with the best hold.
Best hold
| Hold | Average return per coin | Cost vs best |
|---|
Every one of the 32 ways to hold is checked against every possible draw from the 47 cards left (2,598,960 hands in all), so the values are exact. Returns are per coin with five coins bet: 1.000 means you get your bet back on average. The table shows the six best holds and yours.
- Maths reviewed by Josh Miller
- Tested by Diana Westfield
A video poker strategy chart is a ranked list: look at your five cards, work down the list, hold the first line that matches. The two charts below cover Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild, the two games most worth playing. The free CasinoCalcs hand checker above goes further. Put in any five cards and it scores all 32 possible holds against every draw, then shows the best one and what your own choice would cost.
Video poker strategy chart: Jacks or Better
For 9/6 Jacks or Better (full house pays 9, flush 6). It also works on 8/5 and other Jacks or Better pay tables with very little loss.
- Royal flush, straight flush or four of a kind
- Four to a royal flush
- Full house, flush, straight or three of a kind
- Four to a straight flush
- Two pair
- A high pair (jacks, queens, kings or aces)
- Three to a royal flush
- Four to a flush
- A low pair (2s to 10s)
- Four to an open-ended straight
- Two suited high cards
- Three to a straight flush
- Two unsuited high cards (with three, keep the lowest two)
- 10 with a suited J, Q or K
- One high card
- Nothing matches: draw five
Deuces Wild strategy chart
For full-pay Deuces Wild (100.76% with perfect play). Count your deuces first, then hold the first match on that row. Never throw a deuce away.
| Deuces | Hold |
|---|---|
| 4 | All four deuces |
| 3 | A wild royal or five of a kind; otherwise just the three deuces |
| 2 | Four of a kind or better; four to a wild royal; four to a straight flush with two suited cards in a row, 6-7 or higher; otherwise just the two deuces |
| 1 | Four of a kind or better; four to a wild royal; a full house; four to a straight flush; three of a kind, a flush or a straight; three to a wild royal; three to a straight flush; otherwise just the deuce |
| 0 | A royal; four to a royal; any straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight or three of a kind; four to a straight flush; one pair (with two pair, keep one); three to a royal; four to a flush; four to an open-ended straight; three to a straight flush; otherwise draw five |
The holds that surprise people
Run these through the checker and the numbers explain the chart better than any rule:
- Q♥ J♥ 7♣ 7♦ 2♠ in Jacks or Better. The pair of 7s returns 0.824 per coin, the suited queen-jack 0.625. Keep the sevens.
- 10♥ J♥ Q♥ K♥ A♣ with a straight already made. Breaking it for four to a royal is worth about 19.6 per coin, the straight just 4. It feels wrong. It isn’t close.
- 2♥ 5♥ 8♥ 10♥ 2♣. Four to a flush (1.15) beats the pair of 2s (0.82) in Jacks or Better.
- K♥ K♦ 9♣ 9♠ 3♦ in Deuces Wild. Two pair pays the same as nothing extra, so keep one pair and draw three. Either pair is worth 0.561; the two pair only 0.511.
- A♥ K♥ 7♣ 4♦ 9♠ in Deuces Wild. No high-card pays here, so draw five new cards (0.324) rather than hold the suited ace-king (0.298).
How much a chart is worth
Perfect play on 9/6 Jacks or Better returns 99.54%. The 16-line chart costs only a small fraction of a percent against that. Guessing, or playing it like five-card draw at home, typically costs 1% to 3%, which can be more than the difference between a good and a bad pay table. At £1.25 a hand and 600 hands an hour, every 1% is about £7.50 an hour.
The chart only helps on a good machine, though. To compare pay tables and see what a game costs per hour, use the video poker calculator. To play hands with a best-hold hint and auto-play thousands of them, try the video poker simulator.
Ready to test yourself? The video poker trainer deals hands and scores every hold.
Even a 99.5% game costs a little every hour. Pick your budget before you sit down. BeGambleAware.org is free and confidential.