Video poker occupies a special place on the Las Vegas casino floor. Unlike a slot machine, it tells you exactly what it pays. The pay table printed on the screen or glass, combined with the fixed probabilities of a standard 52-card deck, determines the game’s theoretical return. Two machines that look identical can differ by more than two percentage points purely because of a couple of numbers on that table.
This guide explains how to read a Jacks or Better pay table, why “9/6” and “8/5” matter so much, and what those return figures do and do not mean. It is not a way to beat the casino. Even the best common pay tables return slightly less than 100 percent with perfect play, and most players make strategy errors that lower their return further.
How video poker plays
In Jacks or Better, the most common base game, you are dealt five cards from a virtual 52-card deck. You choose which to hold, the rest are replaced, and the final hand is paid according to the pay table. The lowest paying hand is a pair of jacks or better. Pairs of tens or lower pay nothing.
As with slots, a certified random number generator deals the cards. Unlike slots, the probabilities are fixed by the deck, so the pay table together with your decisions sets the long-run return. That is why knowledgeable players read pay tables before they sit down.
Reading a pay table
A pay table lists each winning hand and what it pays for each coin or credit wagered, usually from one to five coins. A typical Jacks or Better table lists royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair and jacks or better.
Most payouts scale evenly with the number of coins, except the royal flush, which usually jumps to a bonus of 4,000 coins at five coins played instead of 1,250. That jump is why the published return figures assume maximum coins. Playing fewer coins lowers the return noticeably.
What “9/6” and “8/5” mean
The shorthand refers to the per-coin payouts for a full house and a flush. On a 9/6 machine, a full house pays 9 for 1 and a flush pays 6 for 1. On an 8/5 machine, they pay 8 and 5. Everything else on the table is usually identical.
With optimal strategy, 9/6 Jacks or Better returns about 99.54 percent. Reduce the full house and flush by one coin each and 8/5 Jacks or Better returns about 97.30 percent. That difference of roughly 2.24 percentage points means the long-run cost of play on an 8/5 machine is roughly five times higher than on a 9/6 machine at the same bet size.
| Version | Full house | Flush | Return with optimal play |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/6 (full pay) | 9 | 6 | ≈99.54% |
| 9/5 | 9 | 5 | ≈98.45% |
| 8/6 | 8 | 6 | ≈98.39% |
| 8/5 | 8 | 5 | ≈97.30% |
| 7/5 | 7 | 5 | ≈96.15% |
| 6/5 | 6 | 5 | ≈95.00% |
Short-pay tables and why they matter
Casinos can and do reduce pay tables further. The 9/5, 8/6, 7/5 and 6/5 versions of Jacks or Better all exist, with returns falling as the numbers drop. Machines advertising “bonus” hands for particular four-of-a-kinds often compensate by cutting the full house, flush or two pair payouts.
On the Strip, the best pay tables are increasingly found at higher denominations or in specific banks rather than across the whole floor. Pay tables vary between casinos and even between machines side by side, so read the glass rather than assuming.
What “optimal play” really means
The published returns assume a player makes the mathematically best hold decision on every single hand, as calculated by computer analysis. Most players do not. Common errors, such as holding a kicker with a pair, keeping a low pair over a four-card flush in the wrong situations, or chasing inside straights, reduce the actual return below the theoretical figure.
Even perfect play at 99.54 percent is still a negative expectation. Over a long enough period the house retains its edge, and short-term results are dominated by variance, especially the rare royal flush that accounts for a meaningful share of the game’s total return.
Beyond Jacks or Better
Jacks or Better is the reference game, but Strip casinos carry many other video poker families: Bonus Poker, Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus, Deuces Wild and Joker Poker among them. Each has its own pay table structure and its own optimal strategy, and a pay table that looks generous in one game may be poor in another. A 9/6 schedule in Double Double Bonus, for instance, does not return the same as 9/6 Jacks or Better.
Multi-hand machines, which play three, five, ten or even a hundred hands from the same starting cards, multiply the amount wagered per deal. The percentage return is set by the pay table, but the money at risk each hand rises quickly, and so does the speed at which a budget can disappear.
Whichever game you choose, the principle is the same: identify the pay table, understand that the return depends on it, and remember that no version of the game offers a way to win over time.
Thinking in cost per hour
A useful way to compare machines is to estimate the average cost of an hour of play. Multiply your bet per hand by the number of hands per hour and by the house edge. At five quarters a hand and several hundred hands an hour, even a small difference in pay table translates into a meaningful difference in expected cost.
Treat that cost as the price of entertainment. Players’ club comps and free play reduce it somewhat, but they do not turn video poker into income. Set a budget, stop when it is gone, and never chase losses.