Best Video Poker Machines To Play

Obviously, casino gambling enthusiasts all over the country consider Las Vegas to be their home away from home. The Strip alone is home to 30 casino resorts, spanning the spectrum from the opulence of Bellagio and Venetian to the gritty, old-school gambling halls like Casino Royale and O'Shea's.

Branching out away from The Strip offers dozens of additional options, so its no wonder why so many video poker fans flock to Las Vegas every single year.

On the flip side though, I know many players who only make it out here once or twice a year. For them, visiting Las Vegas offers just a few days to experience the country's best video poker options.

So what about the other 360 or so days during the year?

Online Video Poker At Sweepstakes Casino Sites (Best Option For Most States) Available in: All states except Washington state. If you don't happen to live in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, or West Virginia your best bet is a sweepstakes online casino where you can play online video poker for cash prizes. These include handy laminated strategy cards (available singly or as a full set) and Bob Dancer's celebrated Video Poker for Winners software, which allows you to practice and hone your skills on your. Of course, if players wish to increase their long-term profits, it would be best if they play video poker with a proper strategy in mind. Before joining any video poker game, players are advised to first look at the pay-tables of the different variants and look for full-pay video poker games, like the ones mentioned above. More Games Select from 19 different video poker variations with the button, including Jacks or Better, Bonus, Double Double, Triple Double, Full Pay Deuces, 16/10 (Not So Ugly) Deuces, Loose Deuces, three kinds of Joker Poker. At the best casinos for video poker players in Las Vegas it's possible to find machines that pay in excess of 100% with perfect play. Note those words ‘with perfect play'–most of the 100%+ payback machines are Deuces Wild or other variants that average players don't intuitively know the correct strategy for.

Hopefully folks have a quality local casino – either commercial or tribal – where they can enjoy their favorite video poker variants. And that's a fair bet, based on the map marking casino presence in all 50 states that you can check out down below:

As you can see, only nine states in the U.S. – Utah, Hawaii, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont, and New Hampshire – are casino no-go zones. Las Vegas style casino resorts can be found from coast to coast, in California and New Jersey and everywhere in between.

But here's the big question for video poker grinders – how do these non-Vegas venues compare with the real thing?

Examination of Las Vegas Casino Pay Tables for Comparison

As you well know, video poker pay tables are becoming increasingly hostile for low-stakes players. The trend definitely started in Las Vegas, where casinos aren't shy about offering the inferior pay tables shown below for a game like Jacks or Better:

Jacks or Better Pay Table Comparison

It's the same sorry situation for other popular versions of video poker too. As the tables below show quite clearly, any game – even the strategic gambler's fan favorite Deuces Wild – can be turned into a money pit when the casinos start tinkering with pay tables:

Deuces Wild Pay Table Comparison

Double Bonus Poker Pay Table Comparison

Double Double Bonus Poker Pay Table Comparison

If you're a video poker player who doesn't get out to Las Vegas as often as you'd like, but you still want to find the best pay table options near you, look no further than the vpFREE2 database. This invaluable video poker resource allows you to search your region (just use the 'FILTER' tab to get started) for every machine and pay table in the area.

I'll let you play around with the vpFREE2 search tool on your own, but the list below has been compiled to highlight the five best video poker venues in every corner of the country. Leaving aside Nevada and its various gambling zones, vpFREE2 breaks things down into five key regions – East, Midwest, Gulf Coast, West, and Canada.

On that note, I'll take the top contender for best video poker provider in each of the five regions.

1 – Fort McDowell Casino in Fountain Hills, Arizona

The vpFREE2 database reveals 10 casinos in the West region where 99.9 percent payback rates can be found.

But it's Fort McDowell that has the most, as this tribal casino located to the Northeast of Phoenix, Arizona house three variants which reach the 'golden' number video poker players crave:

Fort McDowell's Best Video Poker Options

The centerpiece of Fort McDowell's video poker lineup is Deuces Wild 44, which takes its name from the following pay table:

Deuces Wild 44 Pay Table

You'll also find 9.6 full pay Jacks or better at the Fort, and low limits of $0.25 make the games accessible for everybody.

2 – Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan

With hundreds of machines offering nine different variants – eight of which meet the minimum 99.0 percent payback rate – Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan is like a little slice of Las Vegas meets Midwestern charm.

And as you can see below, this venue's video poker lineup is top-notch:

Soaring Eagle's Best Video Poker Options

With coin denominations ranging from a nickel to a five-spot, nobody is left out of the premium pay table party at Soaring Eagle.

3 – Silver Slipper Casino Hotel in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Of all the casinos found in the Gulf Coast region, only the Silver Slipper in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi has four different variants offering a full pay table.

Well, the Deuces Wild game isn't 100.76 percent payback, but the Not So Ugly Ducks version and its 99.73 percent rate is the best you're going to get outside of Las Vegas:

Silver Slipper's Best Video Poker Options

4 – Mohegan Sun Casino Resort in Uncasville, Connecticut

One of two massive mega-resort casinos in Connecticut (along with Foxwoods), the Mohegan Sun Casino holds a special distinction among East Coast video poker venues.

As the only place back East offering a player edge game – albeit at the high-limit $10 coin denomination – Mohegan Sun has the best pay tables around:

Mohegan Sun's Best Video Poker Options

5 – Pure Casino Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Unfortunately for the canucks out there, Canada's video poker scene is as sparse as the Great White North landscape in winter.

You won't find a single 9/6 full pay Jacks or Better machine, for example, and ditto for most popular variants.

With that said, Pure Casino Calgary in Alberta has an array of low-stakes options that make the weaker pay tables much more palatable:

Casino Calgary's Best Video Poker Options

And in an honorable mention, check out Casino de Montreal for quarter-stakes machines.

Conclusion

Playing video poker against an inferior pay table leaves sharp gamblers feeling a little empty inside – just like 6 to 5 blackjack or watered down 3x-4x-5x on the Odds bet in craps. When you know the casino could offer a game at standard odds that give players a chance, only to see the house pad their edge with substandard pay tables, the blood can start boiling in a hurry. Fortunately, the vpFREE2 database makes it easier than ever before to avoid the sucker machines and confine your action to the best video poker venues around.

Video poker is a casino game based on five-card drawpoker. It is played on a computerized console similar in size to a slot machine.

History[edit]

Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television-like monitor with a solid statecentral processing unit. The earliest models appeared at the same time as the first personal computers were produced, in the mid-1970s, although they were primitive by today's standards.

Video poker became more firmly established when SIRCOMA, which stood for Si Redd's Coin Machines (and which evolved over time to become International Game Technology), introduced Draw Poker in 1979. Throughout the 1980s video poker became increasingly popular in casinos, as people found the devices less intimidating than playing table games. Today video poker enjoys a prominent place on the gaming floors of many casinos. The game is especially popular with Las Vegas locals, who tend to patronize locals casinos off the Las Vegas Strip. These local casinos often offer lower denomination machines or better odds.

A few people that are skilled in calculating odds have made money playing video poker.^[1]

The game[edit]

After inserting money (or a bar-coded paper ticket with credit) into the machine, play begins by placing a bet of one or more credits and pressing the 'deal' button. The player is then given 5 cards (like five-card draw) and has the opportunity to discard one or more of them in exchange for new ones drawn from the same virtual deck. After the draw, the machine pays out if the hand or hands played match one of the winning combinations, which are posted in the pay table. Unlike the table version, the player may discard all 5 of their original cards if they so choose.^[2]

Pay tables allocate the payouts for hands and are based on how rare they are, the game variation, and the decision of the game operator. A typical pay table starts with a minimum hand of a pair of jacks, which pays even money. All the other hand combinations in video poker are the same as in table poker, including such hands as two pair, three of a kind, straight (a sequence of 5 cards of consecutive value), flush (any 5 cards of the same suit), full house (a pair and a three of a kind), four of a kind (four cards of the same value), straight flush (5 consecutive cards of the same suit) and royal flush (a Ten, a Jack, a Queen, a King and an Ace of the same suit).^[3]

Some machines offer progressive jackpots or other unique bonuses, spurring players to both play more coins and to play more frequently.

Regulation[edit]

Video poker machines in casinos in the United States are regulated by state or Indian gaming agencies. These agencies typically require that the machines deal random card sequences using a virtual deck of cards. This is based on a Nevada Gaming Commission regulation later adopted by other states with a gaming authority. Video poker machines are tested to ensure compliance with this requirement before they are offered to the public.

Variations[edit]

There are many variations of video poker. They include Deuces Wild, where a two serves as a wild card; Joker's Wild, where a joker serves as a wild card; Anything's Wild, where the player selects any card (by rank) to act as the wild card before the hand is dealt; pay schedule modification, where four aces with a four or smaller kicker pays an enhanced amount (these games usually have some adjective in the title such as 'bonus', 'double', or 'triple'); and multi-play poker, where the player starts with a base hand, and each additional played hand draws from a different set of cards with the base hand. (Multi-play games are offered in 'Triple Play', 'Five Play', 'Ten Play', 'Fifty Play' and 'One Hundred Play' versions.)

In games which do not have a wild card, a player on average will receive the rare four-of-a-kind hand approximately once every 500 hands, while a player may play tens of thousands of hands before a royal flush, which usually has the highest payout.

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Video poker games online are now available in the US in 3 different states: New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada. Players in all three states are able to enjoy fully regulated online video poker games provided that they are physically present in the respective state, of legal age to gamble, and can validate their identity.

Full pay games[edit]

When modern video poker games first appeared, the highest-paying common variant of a particular game was called 'full-pay'. Game variants that returned a lower payback percentage were termed 'Short-Pay'. Though the term full-pay is still in use, today, there are many game variants that return more. Payback percentage expresses the long-term expected value of the player's wager as a percentage if the game is played perfectly. A payback percentage of 99 percent, for example, indicates that for each $100 wagered, in the long run, the player would expect to lose $1 if they played every hand in the optimal way. Full-pay Jacks or Better, for example, offers a payback percentage of 99.54%. Some payback percentages on full-pay games are often close to or even in excess of 100 percent.

Casinos do not usually advertise payback percentages, leaving it up to the player to identify which video poker machines offer the best schedules. Wild west gold pragmatic definition.

The payoff schedules for most video poker machines are configured with a pay schedule that pays proportionally more for certain hands (such as a royal flush) when the maximum number of credits (typically 5 coins) is bet. Therefore, players who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are playing with a smaller theoretical return.

Jacks or Better[edit]

'Jacks or Better,' sometimes simply called 'Draw Poker,' is the most common variation of video poker. Payoffs begin at a pair of jacks. Full pay Jacks or Better is also known as 9/6 Jacks or Better since the payoff for a full house is 9 times the bet, and the payoff for a flush is 6 times the bet.^[4] Sometimes, 10/6 and 9/7 versions of Jacks or Better can be found as promotions.^[5]

Bally's All American[edit]

Bally Technologies All American video poker is based on Jacks or Better with an increased payout for flushes, straights and straight flushes, but reduced payout for full houses and two pairs (8-8-8-3-1 versus 9-6-4-3-2). The full pay version (quads return 50 bets), once common but now rare, is one of the highest return versions of video poker offered, but the play strategy is very complex and mastered by few. IGT's version of the game is called USA Poker.

Tens or Better[edit]

'Tens or Better' is a variation of 6/5 Jacks or Better. The minimum paying hand is a pair of tens, rather than a pair of Jacks. Strategy is similar between the two games, in spite of the very different full house and flush payouts.

Joker's Wild[edit]

'Joker's Wild', as the name implies, adds a joker to the mix. The joker is fully wild and substitutes to make stronger hands. The inclusion of the wild joker also adds another winning hand in 5-of-a-kind. The game's name inspired a game show of the same name. The full pay version of Joker Two Pair or better (6-7-8), once common but now rare, is one of the highest return versions of video poker offered, but the play strategy is very complex and mastered by few.

Video Poker Payouts

Deuces Wild[edit]

'Deuces Wild' is a variation of video poker in which all twos are wild. (Wild cards substitute for any other card in the deck in order to make a better poker hand). In Deuces Wild, the payout for a four of a kind makes up approximately ⅓ of the payback percentage of the game, and a four of a kind occurs on average approximately every fifteen hands. Deuces Wild can be found with pay schedules that offer a theoretical return as high as 100.8 percent, when played with perfect strategy. This full-pay version is found only in Nevada. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:

Inter casino 20 free spins. Variations are available that pay different amounts for the quad 'deuces', such as Double Deuces (2000), Loose Deuces (2500), Triple Deuces (3000), and Royal Deuces (4000). Full pay Loose Deuces (25-17-10), once common but now rare, is one of the highest return versions of video poker offered.

Sigma Flush Attack[edit]

Sigma Flush Attack is a combination of video poker and a banking slot, in this case what is being banked is flushes.^[6] After 3,4, or 5 flushes (varies by machine), the machine switches into 'flush attack mode' in which the next flush pays 100 or 125 credits instead of the more usual 30 credits of 9-6 Jacks or Better. Some of these machines are linked, which means players can simply wait for someone else to put the bank in flush attack mode, or alternately with non-linked machines a player can play after observing a previous player hit flushes but not enough to trigger the flush attack, a practice called 'vulturing'. The higher payoff of the flush attack represents one of the higher overlays of video poker. These machines, once common, are now relatively rare.

Bonus Poker[edit]

'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%. (3)The game has multiple versions featuring different bonus payouts based on the ranking of the four of a kind.

Double Bonus[edit]

'Double Bonus' video poker is a variation of Jacks or Better with a bonus payout for four aces. This variation offers up to a theoretical return of 100.2 percent, when played with perfect strategy — however, this % is only on a '10/7' version video poker game (10/7 being the payouts for a full house and a flush). There are many other video poker varieties of 10/6, 9/6, etc. that have slightly lower than the most generous 10/7 version payout. Although the full-pay version has a theoretically-positive return, few play well enough to capitalize on it. Double Bonus is a complex game.(4)

It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:

Double Double Bonus[edit]

'Double Double Bonus' video poker is a variation of Jacks or Better which offers bonus payoffs for different four of a kinds, as seen in the payout table below. Full pay Double Double Bonus can be found with pay schedules that offer up to a theoretical return of 100.1 percent, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:

Low pay video poker games[edit]

Often casinos choose to use pay tables which reduce the maximum payout percentage as compared to other commonly available game variants. This increases the house edge, but generally reduces net revenue for the casino as players experience less 'play time' on the machine, busting out of their buy-in at an earlier point. Casinos that reduce paytables generally have to increase promotions to compensate and attract customers.

9/5 Jacks or Better[edit]

9/5 Jacks or Better is a low pay version of the game. The payout for making a Flush is cut from 6x your bet to 5x your bet, but all other payouts remain the same. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 98.45% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.

8/6 Jacks or Better[edit]

8/6 Jacks or Better is another often used pay table for Jacks or Better games. The payout for making a Full House is cut from 9x your bet to 8x your bet, while all other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 98.39% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.

8/5 Jacks or Better[edit]

8/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full House payout from 9x your bet to 8x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet to 5x your bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 97.30% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus. A common promotion used by casinos to encourage play on this tight paytable was to add a 2% progressive meter to the royal flush.

7/5 Jacks or Better[edit]

7/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full House payout from 9x your bet to 7x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet to 5x your bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 96.15% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.

6/5 Jacks or Better[edit]

6/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full House payout from 9x your bet to 6x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet to 5x your bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 95.00% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.

Best Video Poker Machines To Play In Las Vegas

Progressive jackpot games[edit]

Other kinds of video poker only have positive theoretical returns when the progressive jackpot is high enough. Many establishments advertise with a billboard when the progressive jackpot is high enough. Otherwise sub-optimal games like 8/5 jacks or better can become positive expectation when the jackpot is large enough.

Terminology[edit]

As with regular poker, there are many different terms and phrases that are associated with playing video poker. Not knowing these terms may cause a disadvantage to anyone playing the game. The most important video poker terms ^[7] have been added to the table below.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Montero, David; Winton, Richard; Vives, Ruben (2017-10-09). 'In the solitary world of video poker, Stephen Paddock knew how to win. Until he didn't'. Los Angeles Times. ISSN0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
2. ^'Video Poker Rules & Gameplay'.
3. ^'Learn Video Poker Rules and Video Poker Hand Values'. OnlineCasinosDoc.com. Retrieved 2010-08-05.
4. ^'Video Poker Analyzer - Wizard of Odds'. wizardofodds.com.
5. ^Video Poker Optimum Play, Dan Paymar, Table 9: Attractiveness Quotient of Selected Games, page 175, ISBN1-886070-11-3
6. ^Robbing the One-Armed Bandits, Charles Lund, 1999, ISBN091057510X, page 37ff
7. ^'Video Poker Online Guide'. online-gambling.com. Retrieved 2019-09-17.

External links[edit]

• Video Poker Guides at Curlie