Video Poker Explained: How It Works and the Main Variants

Video poker is a casino game that puts a single hand of five-card draw poker on a screen, with no dealer and no other players — you are only trying to build a paying hand against a fixed pay table. This guide explains how the game works, what the pay table and the return figures mean, and how the main variants such as Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild differ from one another. It is background information for readers in New Zealand who are researching the game, not a recommendation to play or a review of any operator.

What is video poker?

Video poker is an electronic version of five-card draw poker played against a machine rather than against other people. You place a bet, the game deals you five cards, you decide which to keep and which to throw away, the machine replaces your discards, and you are paid according to the strength of your final hand. There is no bluffing and no opponent to beat — your only target is the posted pay table.

The cards are dealt by a random number generator (RNG), the software that selects cards at random from a simulated deck. On most games that deck is a standard 52 cards; wild-card variants add one or more jokers. Because the game involves a genuine decision — which cards to hold — video poker sits somewhere between a pure chance game like a pokie and a skill game like blackjack: luck decides the cards you are dealt, but your choices affect the long-run return.

Where video poker came from

Video poker is commonly traced to the early 1970s. The Poker-Matic, built by Dale Electronics, is widely cited as the first electronic poker machine, appearing in Las Vegas around 1970. The format was popularised later in the decade by Si Redd, whose company SIRCOMA (Si Redd’s Coin Machines) released a “Draw Poker” machine in 1979; the business later became International Game Technology (IGT). An early change — setting the lowest paying hand at a pair of Jacks rather than two pair — is often credited with turning the game into a casino-floor staple. Treat these origin details as the generally accepted account rather than precise, settled history, as sources differ on exact years and credit.

How a hand of video poker works

A single round of video poker follows the same five steps on almost every machine, whichever variant you are playing:

1. Choose your bet. You wager between one and five coins (or credits) per hand. The coin size sets how much each unit is worth.
2. Deal. The RNG deals five cards from the deck face-up on the screen.
3. Hold. You decide which of the five cards to keep. You can hold all, some or none of them.
4. Draw. The machine discards the cards you did not hold and replaces them with new ones from the remaining deck. This is the only draw — there is no second chance to swap.
5. Payout. The game reads your final five-card hand and pays you according to the pay table.

One habit matters more than any other here: betting the maximum of five coins. Almost every machine pays a disproportionately large bonus on the top hand, the royal flush, only when five coins are bet. On a typical game the royal pays 250 coins per coin at one to four coins, but jumps to 800 per coin at five coins. Betting fewer coins lowers the overall return of the game.

What the pay table and RTP mean

The pay table is the single most important thing on a video poker machine, because it alone decides how much the game returns. Two machines can run the identical variant and look the same, yet pay very different amounts for the same hands. That is why experienced players read the pay table before anything else.

Video poker games are often named by two numbers, such as “9/6”. On Jacks or Better these refer to the per-coin payouts for a full house and a flush: a 9/6 machine pays 9 coins for a full house and 6 for a flush. Lower-paying versions shrink those numbers — an 8/5 machine pays 8 and 5 — which quietly reduces the return.

That return is measured as RTP, or return to player: the share of all money wagered that a game pays back on average over a very long run of hands, assuming correct play. The flip side is the house edge (100% minus the RTP), the casino’s long-run margin. Full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better returns 99.54% with optimal play, a house edge of about 0.46%. The 8/5 version of the same game returns only about 97.30%. The RTP figure is a long-run average across many thousands of hands and assumes maximum-coin play with correct decisions; it does not predict any single session, which can swing well above or below it.

The main video poker variants

Dozens of video poker titles exist, but most are built on a handful of families. The return figures below are the best (full-pay) pay tables for each, played with optimal strategy; the schedules actually offered — especially online — are often less generous.

Jacks or Better

Jacks or Better is the baseline game and the easiest to learn. The lowest hand that pays is a pair of Jacks (hence the name), and there are no wild cards. A full-pay 9/6 machine returns 99.54% with perfect play, which makes it the standard reference point for every other variant.

Bonus Poker

Bonus Poker keeps the Jacks or Better structure but pays extra for four of a kind, with the biggest reward for four Aces. To fund those bonuses the full house and flush usually drop to 8 and 5. The standard full-pay version returns about 99.17% with optimal play.

Double Bonus and Double Double Bonus

These push the four-of-a-kind bonuses further. Double Double Bonus adds a “kicker” element, paying even more when a four-of-a-kind is accompanied by a particular fifth card — four Aces with a 2, 3 or 4, for example. The payoffs are larger but rarer, so these games are higher variance (bigger swings). A 10/7 Double Bonus table can return about 100.17% with flawless play, while a common 9/6 Double Double Bonus returns around 98.98%.

Deuces Wild

In Deuces Wild all four 2s are wild and can stand in for any card. Because wilds make strong hands more common, the lowest paying hand is raised to three of a kind. The full-pay version is famous for returning about 100.76% with perfect play — above 100% — but that exact pay schedule is uncommon, and any deviation from flawless strategy erases the theoretical edge.

Joker Poker

Joker Poker adds a single joker to make a 53-card deck; the joker is wild. A popular “Kings or Better” full-pay table can return up to about 100.65% with optimal play, though, as with Deuces Wild, that depends on finding the full-pay schedule and playing it perfectly.

Tens or Better

Tens or Better works like Jacks or Better but lowers the minimum paying pair to a pair of Tens. To balance that the other payouts are trimmed, so a common schedule returns about 99.14% with optimal play.

Is there a strategy, or is it pure luck?

Video poker is part luck and part skill, which is what sets it apart from a pokie. The RNG decides which cards you are dealt — that part is chance and cannot be influenced. What you control is which cards you hold, and over thousands of hands those decisions are what separate a game played at its full return from the same game played carelessly.

Correct play follows a ranked list of which holds are worth the most. A few principles cover most situations in 9/6 Jacks or Better:

• Never break a hand that is already a winner, such as a dealt flush, straight or full house.
• Keep a paying pair (Jacks or higher) rather than chasing most draws, including four cards to a flush.
• With four cards to a royal flush, break even a flush or a straight to go for it.
• Hold a low pair over three high cards, but draw to a four-card flush or a three-card royal over that low pair.
• When nothing links up, keep any high cards (Jack through Ace) and discard the rest; only truly dead hands are thrown away entirely.

It is important to be realistic about what strategy can do. Correct play moves the long-run return toward the game’s stated RTP; it does not guarantee a winning session and it does not make an outcome “due”. Every hand is dealt independently, so a machine is never hot, cold or overdue for a royal flush. On almost all pay tables the house keeps a long-run edge, so video poker should be treated as paid entertainment, not a way to make money.

How video poker compares with pokies and table games

The clearest contrast is with online pokie machines: a pokie resolves automatically once you spin, so there is no decision that changes the result, whereas video poker gives you a hold-and-draw choice that affects the return. Well-chosen full-pay video poker also tends to carry a lower house edge than a typical pokie.

Against table games the picture is mixed. Skilful play of blackjack can reach a comparably low house edge, and games such as baccarat and roulette have fixed edges you cannot influence through decisions. Video poker’s appeal is that the maths is transparent — the pay table is printed on the screen — and the best full-pay versions are among the lowest-edge games you can find, provided you read the schedule and play correctly.

Common mistakes players make

Most of the value lost at video poker comes from a short list of avoidable errors:

• Not betting maximum coins. Playing fewer than five coins forfeits the enhanced royal-flush payout and lowers the game’s return.
• Playing a poor pay table. A 6/5 or 8/5 Jacks or Better machine can return several percent less than the 9/6 version for exactly the same-looking game. Check the full house and flush payouts first.
• Ignoring strategy. Guessing which cards to hold throws away the edge that makes video poker attractive in the first place.
• Assuming over-100% games are easy money. The positive-return schedules for Deuces Wild and Joker Poker are rare and demand near-perfect play; in practice the games on offer are usually below 100%.
• Chasing losses. Each hand is independent, so increasing bets to “win it back” only increases the amount at risk.

Video poker and New Zealand law

Video poker exists in two settings relevant to New Zealand readers. Physical video poker and pokie machines are found in the country’s licensed land-based casinos. Online, the picture changed with the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, which took effect on 1 May 2026 and created New Zealand’s first licensing regime for online casinos, administered by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA). The regime applies regardless of where an operator is based, advertising of unlicensed offshore casinos to New Zealanders is prohibited, and a limited number of operators are expected to be licensed through a staged auction process, with the system rolling out into 2027.

Because the rules are still being implemented and licences are being issued in stages, the legal status of any specific online site can change. This article does not provide legal advice; if you are checking whether a particular operator may lawfully offer games in New Zealand, confirm its status against the DIA before relying on it, and consider how questions of fair dealing and whether online casinos are safe apply to it.

Responsible gambling

Video poker is a form of gambling and is for adults only. No variant, pay table or holding strategy guarantees a profit, and on almost every machine the house keeps a long-run edge — so only ever stake money you can afford to lose, and set limits before you start. Using the responsible gambling tools offered by licensed operators, such as deposit limits and self-exclusion, can help keep play under control.

If gambling is causing harm to you or someone you know in New Zealand, free, confidential support is available 24 hours a day from the Gambling Helpline Aotearoa on 0800 654 655 or by texting 8006, and further resources are at safergambling.org.nz.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which video poker variant is best for beginners?

Jacks or Better is the usual starting point. It has no wild cards, the simplest pay table and the most forgiving strategy, and a full-pay 9/6 machine still returns 99.54% with correct play. Learning it well first makes the wild-card variants, such as Deuces Wild, much easier to understand later.

How often does a royal flush come up?

On 9/6 Jacks or Better the probability of a royal flush is roughly 0.0000248 per hand with optimal play, which works out to about once in every 40,000 hands on average. Because every deal is independent, a royal can land at any time and a machine is never “due” for one.

Do demo or play-money video poker games have the same odds?

A reputable demo generally uses the same RNG and pay table as the real-money version, so the underlying maths is the same. The difference is that nothing is won or lost, which can make it easy to overlook how the house edge plays out over time once real stakes are involved.

Can you beat video poker in the long run?

Only in rare and demanding conditions. A handful of full-pay schedules, such as classic Deuces Wild, carry a theoretical return above 100%, but they are hard to find and require near-flawless play to realise. On the pay tables most players actually encounter, the house keeps a long-run edge, so video poker is best treated as entertainment rather than income.