Video Poker Strategy

If your goal in the casino is to consistently make money, there’s no better game for you than video poker. On average, video poker has some of the smallest house edges in the casino, meaning that you have a better chance of coming away with a profit after playing video poker than in any other game. In fact, in some cases, you can actually hold an edge over the casino – something you almost never get to say in most games.

However, in order to get an advantage against the house, you’re going to have to follow proper video poker strategy. First of all, you’re going to have to find the right machines to play on. Certain machines offer different returns, and playing on the wrong machine can be a major mistake. For example, Deuces Wild video poker is well known to have a return of 100.76%, meaning that as a player, you can expect to hold a slight edge over the casino when you play the game. However, this is only true under certain circumstances.

Different Deuces Wild machines actually offer various returns, since they do not offer the same pay tables. Depending on the pay table used, you may end up with a machine that pays out as little as about 92%.

Luckily, it’s easy to look at a machine’s pay table and immediately know if you’re playing on what’s known as a “full pay” machine – the standard payout known to give the player the best value for his or her money. For Deuces Wild, this means a machine that pays out at the follow amounts per coin:

Natural Royal Flush: 800
Four Deuces: 200
Wild Royal Flush: 25
Five of a Kind: 15
Straight Flush: 9
Four of a Kind: 5
Full House: 3
Flush: 2
Straight: 2
Three of a Kind: 1

Any other pay table is likely to pay you less money in the long run, making it a bad deal (or at least one where you don’t have an edge).

Of course, even the best pay table only gives you the maximum return if you utilize a perfect video poker strategy – or at least, a very close substitute. Casinos can afford to offer machines with a theoretical return of slightly over 100% because the majority of players will make enough mistakes to make the machine very profitable in the long run. If you don’t want to make mistakes, you’ll have to find a chart that will tell you exactly how to play your favorite video poker machine. Keep in mind that the optimal video poker strategy varies significantly from game to game, so don’t try to use a Jacks or Better strategy on a Deuces Wild machine.
Most of the other important video poker strategies are things that you should also be doing when playing on a slot machine. Always make sure to use your club card if you’re in a real world casino, or make sure that you’re getting credit for playing video poker at your online casino; if you’re playing on a machine that offers close to 100% payback, you might make money in the long run thanks to the rewards you earn on your card, even if you lose a small amount playing the machine. Also, be sure that when you play video poker, you always play with the maximum number of coins allowed (usually five). On almost every video poker game, the payout for a royal flush differs drastically between when you play with the maximum number of coins and when you play with less. If you want to get the returns advertised, always play with maximum coinage.