How to Find to the Best Video Poker Pay Tables
A Gambling Equation
Every game in a casino is set to pay back a certain amount of total wagers to the gamblers. This is known as the payback percentage. It does not mean the casino actually *pays* the players. The payback comes from the gamblers themselves, not the casino. What happens with payback is that the casino keeps less than 100% of all bets gambled in the house. This ensures that gamblers do win some of the time and have fun. After all, who would enjoy playing in a casino where one never wins?
With a payback percentage, casinos are essentially paying winning gamblers with some of the money of the losing gamblers; the rest they keep as profits. If a game is set to pay 85%, that means over the long term, players collectively get back 15% of total wagers in that game.
Payback percentage is determined by the odds of the game and the pay schedule. You can think of the configuration as something like this:
Odds + Pay Schedule = Payback Percentage
If you know both odds and payoffs, you will know how much a game is worth.
Video Poker Pay Tables
What about video poker? The odds of video poker games are the same since they use a known number of symbols, namely a deck of playing cards. You know there are 52 cards used in Jacks or Better, and you also know what the winning poker hands are. Combine this with the pay schedule shown in a video poker machine's pay table and the mystery is solved.
Casinos cannot change the odds of a video poker game since the cards are the same. But if they want to "loosen" or "tighten" up a machine, they can do so by adjusting its pay table. They do this cleverly and deceptively, so if you are not knowledgeable you may think that a pay table is a good choice when it isn't. Be wary of machines that pay higher on rare hands like flushes and four of a kinds. They probably pay out less on more frequent hands like two pairs, and/or the requirement for a minimum paying hand may be higher (e.g. two pair instead of one pair of jacks).
Try to play only those video poker games with the positive payback percentages, that is those games with more than 100% total expected return. These are the best pay tables of all. If you play these games with perfect video poker strategy, you will win more than you lose. Just don't expect to find these games in many land-based casinos as the houses don't like to lose money!
We present here the best pay tables with their respective payback percentages. Use these as a guide to finding the best video poker games online.
The Best Video Poker Pay Tables
Game Pay Table Payback Deuces Wild 25/15/9/5/3/2 100.76% Double Bonus Poker 10/7 100.17% Double Double Bonus Poker 10/6 100.07% Joker Poker 800/200/100/50/20/7/5/3/2/1/1 100.65% Joker Poker 940/200/100/50/20/7/5/3/2/1/1 101.00%
Video poker is one of the very few games in the casinos where you can make real money. But to be able to take advantage of that, you have to understand pay tables and how to find the best ones. We have articles on this site that explain more about pay tables and video poker. Please read these articles to learn more and then try and see for yourself in our recommended casinos.