Master Video Poker Strategy Charts for Optimal Play

4 min read

Why Video Poker Strategy Charts Are Essential for Winning

If you've been playing video poker based on instinct alone, you're leaving money on the table. Unlike slots where outcomes are completely random, video poker is a casino game based on five-card draw poker played on a computerized console, and every hand has exactly one mathematically correct way to play it.

That's where strategy charts come in. Video poker strategy charts are designed to help you make the best possible decisions when playing video poker, and they can be used for both online and offline play. The difference between guessing and using optimal strategy can mean the difference between a 95% return and a 99.54% return—that's thousands of dollars over the course of your playing career.

Understanding the Math Behind Strategy Charts

Here's what makes video poker unique: optimal play relies on fixed-priority lists, known as strategy charts, which rank every possible holding option by expected value based on the game's paytable. Every decision you make changes the mathematical probability of winning hands.

Consider this example: You're dealt a pair of eights along with four cards to an open-ended straight. Which should you keep? When playing Jacks or Better, the mathematically correct play would be to hold the pair of eights. The strategy chart tells you this instantly because it's based on millions of computer simulations.

The beauty of video poker is transparency. Full-pay Jacks or Better, for example, offers a payback percentage of 99.54%, but only if you make the correct decision every single time. Make mistakes, and that number drops significantly.

How to Read and Use a Video Poker Strategy Chart

Strategy charts look intimidating at first, but they're remarkably simple once you understand the basic principle. To use this strategy, look up all reasonable ways to play a hand, and choose the play that is highest on the list. If a play isn't on the list then it should never be played.

Here's the step-by-step process:

Remember to always look for the highest possible choice on the chart when there are multiple ways to play your hand. For instance, if you're dealt a pat flush but have four cards to a royal flush, the chart will tell you to break the flush and go for the royal because the four-card royal flush ranks higher.

A Real-World Example

Let's say you're dealt J♠ J♥ 10♠ 9♠ 8♠ in Jacks or Better. You have both a high pair and four cards to a straight flush. "Four to a Flush" ranks higher than a high pair, so you hold the four spades and discard the off-suit Jack. This might feel counterintuitive, but the math is clear: the expected value of drawing to the flush is higher.

Strategy Charts for Different Video Poker Variants

The pay table on each video poker game can vary and that will require strategy changes. This is crucial to understand: you cannot use the same strategy chart for every video poker game. Each variant requires its own specific approach.

Jacks or Better Strategy

Jacks or Better is the foundation of video poker strategy. Full-pay Jacks or Better offers a payback percentage of 99.54% with perfect play. The 9/6 pay table (paying 9 coins for a full house and 6 for a flush) is considered the industry standard for fair play.

Key strategy points for Jacks or Better include never holding a kicker with a small pair, always going for the royal flush when you have four cards to it, and understanding when to break a made hand for a better draw.

Deuces Wild Strategy

"Deuces Wild" is a variation of video poker in which all twos are wild, substituting for any other card in the deck in order to make a better poker hand. This dramatically changes optimal strategy. Deuces Wild can be found with pay schedules that offer a theoretical return as high as 100.8%, when played with perfect strategy.

The presence of wild cards means you'll often be choosing between seemingly strong made hands and draws that include deuces. Your strategy chart for Deuces Wild will look completely different from Jacks or Better.

Bonus Poker and Variants

"Bonus Poker" is a video poker game based on Jacks or Better, but Bonus Poker offers a higher payout percentage for four of a kind. The full-pay version of this game returns 99.2%. Double Double Bonus and other variants offer even higher payouts for specific four-of-a-kind combinations, which affects which draws you should pursue.

Common Strategy Chart Mistakes to Avoid

Even with a strategy chart in hand, players make costly errors. The most common mistake is using the wrong chart version. Only play paytables within one percent of full pay for that variant; otherwise, the math overwhelms good decisions. Use a paytable-matched strategy chart, not a generic chart.

Another frequent error is emotional decision-making. You might be tempted to hold a high card that doesn't fit your optimal play, or to go against the chart because you have a "feeling" about a hand. Resist these urges—the math has been proven over millions of hands.

Using the strategy on a full pay machine will result in an expected return of 99.52%. Compared to the optimal strategy return of 99.54%, mistakes in the simple strategy will cost 0.03%. That might not sound like much, but it adds up quickly over thousands of hands.

Finding the Best Pay Tables

Your strategy chart is only as good as the machine you're playing. The golden rule: always play the best pay tables you can find. Sometimes different machines in the same casino will have different pay tables for the exact same game.

Look for these full-pay versions:

On the Las Vegas Strip, properties like MGM Grand typically spread 8/5 Jacks or Better, trimming RTP to approximately 97.30%. Downtown venues such as El Cortez still offer 9/6 versions on select machines, demonstrating that location matters significantly.

Resources for Learning Strategy Charts

The good news? You don't need to memorize complex mathematical formulas. Strategy charts for both 9/6 and 8/5 video poker pay tables can be printed out and taken with you to the casino when you play. By using these charts you will always know how to properly play your hand in any given situation.

Several reputable sources offer free strategy charts:

The charts are roughly accurate to within 0.1% of perfect play. So, if you find that game that returns 100.5%, you would be actually earning about 100.4% with these charts—not too bad. Not many charts get much closer than 0.1% because they would have to be extremely long and complicated.

The Bottom Line on Video Poker Strategy

If you use optimal strategy, video poker boasts a return-to-player percentage of between 98% and 100%, making it one of the highest RTP casino games. But that number only applies if you consistently make correct decisions.

Strategy charts remove the guesswork and emotion from video poker. There is always only one mathematically correct way to play any given hand in video poker and a skilled video poker player will, in the long run, achieve a higher payback percentage on any video poker game.

Whether you're playing Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, or any bonus variant, having the right strategy chart matched to the specific pay table you're playing is non-negotiable for serious players. Print one out, keep it beside you while you play, and watch your results improve dramatically. The casino edge in video poker is already razor-thin—with proper strategy, you can reduce it to nearly zero.