There is a pay-off between the complexity of a strategy and the payout. Here we will look at a video poker strategy for Jacks or Better and which is relatively simple and will produce a payout of 99.46%. This is a little sub-optimal however. The optimal strategy will give a payout of 99.54%.

First let’s look at the pay table for Full pay jacks or better. A royal flush pays 800; straight flush 50; four of a kind 25; full house 9; flush 6; straight 4; three of a kind 3; two pair 2; pair of jacks, queens kings or aces 1.

The question always arises as to should you ever sacrifice a winning hand in the hope of improving on it. The answer to this is never.

First you should look at the cards that do not make up a winning hand and consider all
realistic ways to play them. You should look at all possible targets, the payout of the targets and the probabilities of achieving them. Thus for every possible play you should compute the expected value of playing in that manner and choose the play that produced the highest possible expected value.

As an example, if you need only one card to make a flush and you also have a low pair (that is a pair lower than jacks) the highest expected value is to forget about trying to do anything with the low pair and instead go for making the flush.

First of all, find Jacks or Better machines with good payout. You may find 7/5 Jacks or Better — 7/5 means you get 7 coins for a full house and 5 coins for a flush. You need to avoid playing on these machines because the house’s advantage is too high.

One of the most common mistakes when playing Jacks or Better is keeping a kicker. You don’t need to keep an extra high card with your pair; just draw three cards and you will have a better chance of scoring three of a kind or even better. Never break up two-pairs just because you want to aim at the four of a kind. Jacks or Better is very simple, and you need to keep your playing strategy simple as well. If you see two pairs, keep them and draw one instead. They payout ratio is high enough, and aiming at the big prize constantly will cost you your coins.

Once you can develop a certain playing style, you can move on to other variations of video poker or stick to Jacks or Better for better playing experiences.