I never play slot machines. If I want to play at a gambling machine, I usually stick with real money video poker.
A Pair of Jacks or Better This pays off at even odds. An actual 8/5 Bonus Poker pay table follows. Notice the difference in payouts for 1-4 coins versus the payout for 5 coins for the Royal Flush. It should be obvious why you would want to make sure you bet max coins every time you play. The payout for the Royal Flush is only 250 to 1 unless. In that table above, you can see that landing a Royal in Jacks or Better is a huge longshot at 1 in 40,391 odds against. Playing through more than 40,000 hands to realize those odds may seem like an impossible task, but it doesn't have to be.
I have various reasons for this, but one of the most important reasons is because the odds of winning at video poker are far better than the odds of winning at a slot machine game.
How do you know what the odds of winning on a video poker machine are? I can offer some guidance in this post. To learn more, keep reading below.
Probability and Video Poker
Before you can calculate the probability of winning at video poker, you need to understand some of the basics of probability math.
The first and most important thing to understand is that an event's probability is just a number between 0 and 1. The closer that number gets to 1, the likelier it is to happen.
By definition, something with a probability of 0 will never happen. Also by definition, something with a probability of 1 will always happen.
And if you add the probability of something happening with the probability of it not happening, you'll also always get a total of 1.
That probability can be expressed in multiple formats, but the most useful formats are odds and percentages.
Everyone knows what a percentage is. It's just a measure of how many times out of 100 you expect something to happen. If something happens 20% of the time, that means it happens 20 times out of every 100.
Odds, on the other hand, can measure probability. But they also measure the amount a bet pays out. Something with a 20% probability of happening has odds of 4 to 1. You have four ways it can happen and one way that it can't.
Buzzluck no deposit bonus. Like other fractions, odds can be reduced. To get to that 4 to 1, we just converted 20% into 20/100, which reduces down to 1/5. That means it happens 1 out of 5 times.
Gambling Machines Measure Their Odds in Terms of Payback Percentage
When you're dealing with a slot machine, you have a variety of symbols on each reel, each of which comes up a certain percentage of the time. You don't have any way of estimating how often that symbol will show up, but the slot machine manufacturer knows.
When they take all the possible combinations and their percentages of coming up, they balance that against the payout for each of those combinations to create a profitable game for themselves.
Let's say you have a really simple slot machine game with four potential winning combinations:
- You'll get three bars 25% of the time and win even money.
- You'll get three cherries 10% of the time and win 2 for 1.
- You'll get three plums 5% of the time and win 3 for 1.
- You'll get three pumpkins 1% of the time and win 5 for 1.
It's easy to calculate the expected return (another phrase for 'payback percentage') for a game like this.
You start by calculating the expected value for each of the possible prizes. You just multiply the probability of winning by the amount you'll win.
- 25% x 1 unit = 25%
- 10% x 2 units = 20%
- 5% x 3 units = 15%
- 1% x 5 units = 5%
Add those up, and you have the payback percentage for the game:
Over time, on average, you'll get back 65 cents for every dollar you bet on that slot machine game.
In the short run, over an hour or so, you might win some money or lose more than that. But over time, your average should get close to this.
The Advantage of Video Poker Over Slot Machines
My problem with slot machines is that they're the only game in the casino where you don't know what the odds of winning are.
When I'm rolling a pair of dice, I can calculate the probability of winning. When I'm playing blackjack, I can estimate the odds of winning, because I know what the odds of getting specific cards are. When I'm playing roulette, I know how many red and black outcomes are on the wheel.
But since slot machines are run by a random number generator, I have no way of knowing what the probability of getting three cherries in a row is. It could be 8 to 1, 16 to 1, or 1000 to 1.
All I know for sure is that the odds of getting each payout are lower than the payout odds for that combination.
Video poker, on the other hand, is based on a deck of 52 cards. I know how many of each card is in the deck, so I can estimate the odds of getting specific combinations.
When you combine that knowledge of probability with knowledge of the payouts for those combinations, you wind up with the payback percentage of the game.
Jacks or Better Is the Original Video Poker Game
For the most part, all video poker games are just variations of Jacks or Better. It's a simple enough game. You bet between 1 and 5 coins and get dealt a virtual five-card poker hand. You then decide which of those five cards you want to discard and which you want to keep. The machine deals you replacement cards and pays off your bet based on the poker hand you wind up with.
The best possible hand is a royal flush, which pays off at 800 for 1 odds if you bet five coins. If you've bet fewer coins than that, it only pays off at 200 for 1 or 250 for 1, depending on the machine.
So, you should always bet the full five coins to take advantage of that higher payout. If you play with something approaching optimal strategy, you should get a winning hand about 45% of the time on a Jacks or Better video poker game.
That's the short answer to 'what are the odds of winning on a video poker machine,' by the way. It's roughly 45%. But that's not going deep enough. You should know more about it than that.
Since we know the probability of winding up with various combinations of cards, we can calculate the overall payback percentage for such a game. You just do the same calculations we did for the simple slot machine above.
You multiply the probability of winning each prize by the amount of that prize and add them all together to get your payback percentage. How to use new imovie on mac.
- A pair of jacks or better comes up about 21% of the time and pays off at 1 for 1.
- Two pair comes up about 13% of the time and pays off at 2 for 1.
- Three of a kind comes up about 7%of the time and pays off at 3 for 1.
- A straight comes up about 1% of the time and pays off at 4 for 1.
- A flush comes up about 1% of the time and pays off at 6 for 1.
- A full house comes up about 1% of the time and pays off at 9 for 1.
- A four of a kind comes up about 0.2% of the time and pays off at 25 for 1.
- A straight flush comes up about 0.01% of the time and pays off at 50 for 1.
- A royal flush comes up about 0.002% of the time and pays off at 800 for 1.
Multiply those and add them all up, and you have a game with a payback percentage of about 99.5%.
But Not All Video Poker Games Are the Same
Of course, Jacks or Better is just one variation of video poker. You can find dozens of different video poker variations on the market. All of them are based on Jacks or Better, though.
With some of these variations, the big difference is the inclusion of wild cards. In Joker Poker, the game uses a 53-card deck with a joker that acts as a wild card. In Deuces Wild, the deck has the same 52 cards in it, but the twos are wild cards.
![Jacks or better video poker odds Jacks or better video poker odds](https://www.casinonewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/jacks-or-better-playtech.jpg)
With games like these, the payouts for the various hands change based on how much more likely the higher hands are to appear.
But that's not the only way casinos and game manufacturers vary their video poker games. They also change the payouts on various hands.
If they change those payouts enough, you get a different game. Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, and Bonus Bonus Poker are basically variations of Jacks or Better that provide higher payouts for four of a kind hands of a certain ranking.
But even within a single narrow band of a game, like Jacks or Better, you can find multiple pay tables available. The differences in these pay tables change the payback percentage for the game.
Jacks Or Better Free Casino
With Jacks or Better, the pay table I used as an example is the best possible example. When manufacturers want to create a Jacks or Better game with better odds for the house, they have smaller payouts for the full house and the flush. Changing those payouts from 9 and 6 to 8 and 5 reduces the payback percentage from 99.5% to 97%.
Your Decisions Matter
One of the other fun things I like about video poker is that your decisions have an effect on the outcome. These payback percentages that I mention assume that you're playing your cards optimally. In other words, you're making the right decisions about which cards to keep and which ones to throw away.
Imagine what your payout would be if you broke a pair every time you got one. Can you see why that would hurt your results in the long run?
Conclusion
What are the odds of winning at video poker? On a single hand, on most games, it's about 45%. But that only tells a small part of the story.
Video poker offers a nearly endless amount of complexity when it comes to payback percentages and correct strategy. It's a game worth learning to play.
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.
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. Red stag live chat.
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.
Beat online casinos. 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. Metro: last light redux redemption. The 940 machine listed below shows 4,700 and the 976 machine shows 4,880.
![Casino Casino](https://www.luckymobilecasinos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/game_king_jacks_or_better_deck.jpg)
With games like these, the payouts for the various hands change based on how much more likely the higher hands are to appear.
But that's not the only way casinos and game manufacturers vary their video poker games. They also change the payouts on various hands.
If they change those payouts enough, you get a different game. Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, and Bonus Bonus Poker are basically variations of Jacks or Better that provide higher payouts for four of a kind hands of a certain ranking.
But even within a single narrow band of a game, like Jacks or Better, you can find multiple pay tables available. The differences in these pay tables change the payback percentage for the game.
Jacks Or Better Free Casino
With Jacks or Better, the pay table I used as an example is the best possible example. When manufacturers want to create a Jacks or Better game with better odds for the house, they have smaller payouts for the full house and the flush. Changing those payouts from 9 and 6 to 8 and 5 reduces the payback percentage from 99.5% to 97%.
Your Decisions Matter
One of the other fun things I like about video poker is that your decisions have an effect on the outcome. These payback percentages that I mention assume that you're playing your cards optimally. In other words, you're making the right decisions about which cards to keep and which ones to throw away.
Imagine what your payout would be if you broke a pair every time you got one. Can you see why that would hurt your results in the long run?
Conclusion
What are the odds of winning at video poker? On a single hand, on most games, it's about 45%. But that only tells a small part of the story.
Video poker offers a nearly endless amount of complexity when it comes to payback percentages and correct strategy. It's a game worth learning to play.
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.
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. Red stag live chat.
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.
Beat online casinos. 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. Metro: last light redux redemption. 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.
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. Symbol of merlin. 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.
Conclusion
Jacks Or Better Trainer
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.