How to play
Jacks or Better is the original video poker game and the base that every bonus and wild-card version is built on. It’s five-card draw played against a pay table, not against other players: if your final hand appears on the table, you win.
Here’s a hand, step by step:
- Set your bet. Bet one adds a credit, from 1 up to 5, and then starts over at 1. Bet max bets 5 and deals in the same press.
- Press Deal for five cards.
- Tap the cards you want to keep. They’re marked Held; tap again to let one go.
- Press Draw. Each card you didn’t hold is replaced from the same deck, and the final hand is paid.
Every hand comes from a newly shuffled 52-card deck. You start with 1,000 virtual credits and can claim 1,000 more whenever you run out.
Pay table
This is the “9/6” table, named for its full house and flush, and it’s the version people mean by full-pay Jacks or Better.
| Hand | Pays per credit |
|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 250 (4,000 for a 5-credit bet) |
| Straight Flush | 50 |
| Four of a Kind | 25 |
| Full House | 9 |
| Flush | 6 |
| Straight | 4 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 |
| Two Pair | 2 |
| Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces (a pair) | 1 |
A pair of 10s or lower doesn’t pay. An Ace plays high or low in a straight (10-J-Q-K-A and A-2-3-4-5 both count), but a straight can’t wrap around from King to 2.
The odds
The long-run return of this table with perfect play at 5 credits is 99.54%, an exact figure from every possible deal and hold. That leaves a house edge under half a percent, one of the lowest of any casino-style game, and only if you play every hand correctly.
A few more numbers for perfect play: about 45.5% of hands pay something, a paying pair of Jacks or better is the most common win (about one hand in five), and a royal flush comes once in about 40,000 hands. That royal is why 5 credits matter: it pays 800 per credit at max bet and 250 otherwise.
Strategy
Jacks or Better strategy is a ranked list. Look at your five cards, go down the list, and use the first hold that fits. This is the same order the Hint button follows:
- Royal flush, straight flush or four of a kind: keep everything.
- Four cards to a royal flush, even if it breaks a made flush or straight.
- A made full house, flush or straight; or the three cards of three of a kind.
- Four cards to a straight flush.
- Two pair.
- A pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces.
- Three cards to a royal flush.
- Four cards to a flush.
- A low pair (2s through 10s).
- Four cards to an open-ended straight, like 7-8-9-10.
- Two suited high cards.
- Three cards to a straight flush.
- Two unsuited high cards (if you have more, keep the two lowest).
- A suited 10 with a Jack, Queen or King.
- A single high card.
- Nothing: draw five new cards.
A few spots worth remembering. A pair of 10s is a low pair here, so with 10♣ 10♦ 3♣ 6♣ 9♣ you break the 10s and draw to the flush (about 1.15 per credit against 0.82). A pair of Kings with four to a flush is the other way around: the paying pair wins. And 10-J-Q-K of mixed suits beats keeping only the high cards.
Once this list feels natural, the variants are easy to pick up. Bonus Poker plays almost the same with bigger quads, Tens or Better moves the paying pair down a rank, and Multi-Hand Video Poker runs this exact table on 3 or 5 hands at once.
If you enjoy Video Poker (Jacks or Better), try Vingt-et-un or Walking Wilds next.
