The Jacks or Better category is named for the lowest paying winning hand – a pair of jacks or better. Each game in the Jacks or Better category has a pay table with all the same winning hands as the original Si Redd produced game. They are the royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pairs, and a high pair of jacks or better. The games also all play similar to the table game of draw poker, that is, five cards are dealt, the player can discard any or all of them and the discards are replaced with new cards.

Let’s look at the original game which is now called Draw Poker or Jacks or Better. Shown below is the maximum credit column of the pay table for full pay Jacks or Better. This game has a payback of 99.54 percent and a variance of 19.5.

The payback is high at 99.54 percent. For every $100 played through this game, the player will lose only 46 cents on average.

The variance is a low. At a mere 19.5, this variance is among the lowest of any video poker game commonly available today. The bankroll swings while playing this game are relatively gentle which means, again, that bankroll requirements are modest.

This game has a simple playing strategy. This may not be obvious from the pay table, but the playing strategy for Jacks or Better is among the most basic. It has fewer lines than almost any other game.

Because of the fact that there is really only one high paying winning hand in the pay table, the play can become pretty boring. The bankroll will drift up and down a bit, but it is not until a royal flush occurs that there is any real excitement.

In order to improve the excitement factor and appeal to additional players, video poker game manufacturers decided to add a bonus to the Jacks or Better game. This game was understandably called Bonus Poker. Presented below is the Maximum credit column of the full pay Bonus Poker pay table. The modified pays are highlighted.

Rather than pay 25 for 1 for every four of a kind, Bonus Poker paid a large “bonus” for hitting four aces and a smaller bonus for hitting four 2’s, 3’s, or 4’s as indicated in the rows highlighted in yellow. To pay for the bonus four of a kind hands, the pays for full house and flush were reduced by one credit each per credit played.

Relatively high payback of 99.1

Relatively low variance of 20.9

More high paying winning hands

A lower payback than jacks or better

While there are more high paying hands, they do not provide enough excitement for a lot of players.

In order to continue to grow interest in video poker, manufacturers once again tweaked the pay table and produced Bonus Poker Deluxe. Here is the pay table with the change highlighted.

This version of the game pays 80 for 1 for any four of a kind. The payback is 98.49 with a variance of 32. To pay for the high pays for four of a kind, the pay for two pairs was reduced to 1 for 1.

Because of the lower payback and especially because of the 1 for 1 pay for two pairs, Bonus Poker Deluxe was not that well received. A pay of 80 for 1 for a four of a kind was simply not enough to overcome the 1 for 1 pay for two pairs.

Higher paying winning hands

Payback under 99 percent with higher variance

Double Bonus Poker was the answer to the lukewarm response to Bonus Poker Deluxe. The game still paid just 1 for 1 for a hand of two pairs, but it compensated by offering some great pays for certain four of a kind hands.

Here is the pay table at maximum credits with the changes highlighted.

The payback for the full pay game is 100.17 percent. Yes, the player has an edge over time with proper play strategy! The variance of 28.3 is actually less than the 32 of Bonus Poker Deluxe.

Higher paying winning hands; 160 for 1 for four aces, 80 for 1 for four 2’s, 3’s, or 4’s and 50 for 1 for any other four of a kind.

Over 100 percent payback with proper play.

Higher variance than Jacks or Better and Bonus Poker means a larger bankroll is required.

The playing strategy is fairly complex.

Double bonus poker was very successful. In order to draw more players and increase the excitement factor, manufacturers needed to come up with something even higher paying than in Double Bonus Poker. Their answer was to add two lines to the pay table that introduced the concept of a kicker. With a hand of four aces, the kicker is a 2, 3, or 4. With a hand of four 2’s, 3’s, or 4’s; the kicker is an ace or a 2, 3, or 4. Here is the maximum credit column of the Double Double Bonus Poker pay table with changes highlighted.

This full pay game has a payback of 98.98 percent with a variance of 42.

Higher paying winning hands; 400 for 1 for four aces with a kicker of a 2, 3, or 4, and 160 for 1 for four 2’s, 3’s, or 4’s with a kicker of an ace or a 2, 3, or 4.

Lower payback and higher variance than Jacks or Better and Bonus Poker means a larger bankroll is required.

The playing strategy is fairly complex.

Casinos are never content to leave things status quo. They are always looking for something more to draw the gambling crowds. And so it was – and is – with video poker. Periodically new Jacks or Better based games are added with one or more higher paying hands. Games with the names Super Double Bonus Poker, Super Double Double Bonus Poker, Triple Bonus Poker, Triple Bonus Plus Poker and Triple Double Bonus Poker are currently all a part of the current gaming landscape. While each of these games is based on the original hand hierarchy and play format of the table game of Draw Poker, each is also unique in the strong and weak points it offers the gaming public.

Each card in the Jacks or Better category has a distinct value. A 3 can only count as a 3, a king can only count as a king, and so forth. The lone exception is the ace which can count as the lowest or highest card in a straight or straight flush. Each game in the Wild Card category has one or more cards which can count as a card of any rank or suit. They are called wild cards and hence the name of the category. In the game called Deuces Wild, each deuce (2) is wild. Each can be used as any other card in the deck when it is advantageous to do so. In a Joker Poker video poker game, the joker is the wild card.

Obviously, having wild cards that can be any card possible means there are more paying hands. More paying hands means that pays for those winning hands is lower than in Jacks or Better category games. In fact, some of the lower paying hands such as two pair and high pair are eliminated from the pay tables.

There is also a new type of hand – the “wild” hand. A wild hand is any hand that contains a wild card. For example, in a deuces wild game a wild royal flush would have one or more 2’s in the hand. Because it is not an natural royal flush, the wild royal flush has a much lower pay than a royal flush formed without a wild card. Not all hands that contain a wild card are called “wild” hands, however. Many times the pay table does not differentiate between wild and non-wild hands. In those cases, the pay is the same whether or not the hand contains a wild card.

Because wild cards can substitute for any other card, it is possible to have more than four of a kind. Since there are five cards in a hand, five of a kind hands are possible if they contain one or more wild cards.

Having a wild card dramatically changes the dynamics of the game compared to a jacks or better based game. There are just so many more possibilities with wild cards that the strategy for playing a wild card game dramatically changes. Since the wild card is the most important card, it takes precedent in determining play. Rather than simply listing hands from best to worst, the plays are grouped by the number of wild cards that are in the originally dealt hand. This can simplify the strategy, since the more wild cards that are dealt, the less other things matter. Only when you are dealt zero wild cards does the strategy become a little complex.

Most wild card video poker games have at least one other jackpot type hand – such as four deuces. Because there are two high paying hands, variance is a bit higher in wild card games.

Deuces Wild video poker is hands down the most popular wild card video poker game. Here is the maximum credit column of a full pay deuces wild game. The modified rows (from a jacks or better category game) are highlighted.

Notice the high paying four deuces, the wild royal flush, 5 of a kind. These are all hands that do not exist in a jacks or better category game. Also notice the low payback for most of the other hands and that the lowest paying hand is 3 of a kind and it only pays 1 for 1.

This particular game has a payback of 100.76 percent. Yes, that is correct. This game will add to the player’s bankroll over time with proper play. Because of that, deuces wild games with this pay table have all but disappeared. However, all the lower paying versions have very similar pay tables so we can use this pay table as an example. The variance of this game is 25.8.

There are many different versions of Deuces Wild video poker games available today. Unlike Jacks or Better category games where only one or two lines of the pay table tend to be changed, almost any line of a deuces wild pay table can and has been changed. For this reason, we do not tend to use a couple of numbers such as 9/6 to define the different paying games. Instead actual names have been given to deuces wild games with specific pay tables. The names include:

Potential of a high payback game with a relatively low variance.

Two high paying hands: royal flush and four deuces.

Simplified strategy because the strategy is organized by the number of deuces in the originally dealt hand.

Strategy is quite a bit different than that for Jacks or Better category games.

Hard to identify how good the game is because almost any line of the pay table could be altered.

While deuces wild is by far the most popular wild card video poker game, there is another – Joker Poker. In this game the joker is the only wild card. Here is the pay table.

This game has a payback of 100.65 percent and a variance of 26.2. This game is very hard to find. The more commonly available games pay only 18 for 1 for a four of a kind rather than 20 for 1 and have a payback of 99.29 percent with a variance of 33.1

Because there is a wild card, the additional hands of five of a kind and wild royal flush are a part of the pay table. But notice the lowest paying hand. It is a pair of kings or better, not three of a kind used by Deuces Wild. Actually there are two versions of Joker Poker. The other version has two pairs as the lowest paying hand. In either case, however, the lowest paying hand is lower than in deuces wild.

A wild card game that pays and plays similar to a jacks or better category game.

Can have a positive payback.

This game is not all that common.

The variance is relatively high.

When this category of video poker game was first introduced, the game was called Pick‘em Poker. This game enjoyed a reasonable run for many years and then slowly faded. Today there are only a few places where you can find a video poker game called Pick-‘em Poker.

However, some of the newer multiple game machines do include a game called Pick a Pair Poker.

It may be called by a different name, but it is the exact same game as Pick’em Poker.

Pick-‘em Poker is played totally different than other video poker game. Rather than dealing five cards and then allowing the player to hold or discard each individual card, Pick‘em Poker deals two cards face up plus two piles of three cards each with the top card on each pile face up. You must pick only one of the two piles of three cards to go with the two face up cards to complete the five card hand. You can see four cards and you must discard one of those cards. One pile of three in the originally dealt cards must remain in your hand. This can be particular annoying when your visible cards make a great hand such a four of a kind and you must break it up. Think of it. You have been dealt a great hand. You can see it, but you cannot form that hand by the rules of the game.

On the plus side, Pick’em Poker has a decent pay table with a good return, and low variance.

Here is the complete pay table information for the full-pay version of Pick’em Poker / Pick a Pair Poker.

The payback of this game is 99.95 percent. This is a great payback which costs the player only five cents for every 100 dollars he runs through this game. In addition, the variance is only 15. This is about as low as it gets. The previous best we have seen is the 19.3 variance for an 8/5 (8 for 1 for a full house and 5 for 1 for a flush) Jacks or Better game.

As the table shows, the royal flush is paid at a rate that is 50 percent higher than the standard jacks or better based game pays. There is also a 1,000 credit bonus for hitting a royal while playing five credits. As you might expect by the significantly higher royal flush payback, it is harder to get one. While the pay for a royal flush in Pick’em Poker is 50 percent higher, it is in actuality 10 times less likely to occur. A lot of that reduction is due to the fact that you may have to throw away cards that would complete the hand. This leaves fewer cards remaining in the deck that could complete a royal flush.

Another interesting feature of this pay table is the last line. The lowest pay is 2 for 1, not 1 for 1 like all other jacks or better based games. Not only that, the pay is for a pair of 9s or better, not jacks or better. Moving up the Pick’em Poker pay table, let’s look at other pays. The table below compares the Pick’em Poker pays to the 9/6 Jacks or Better pays.

Because of the high payback, the low variance and the simple playing strategy, Pick’em Poker is a great game for the casual video poker player. The only real problem may be locating a game in the casino.

The game has a decent payback and a low variance that is even better than full pay Jacks or Better.

The playing strategy is among the simplest making it relatively easy to play at the optimum level even if you are a casual player.

In each and every instance, Pick’em Poker pays more than full pay Jacks or Better. There is also one slight anomaly in the Straight Flush pay line. It pays 1199 credits for a five credit bet. Why 1199 and not 1200? The dollar limit where a casino must file a W2-G for slot type games is $1200. If you are playing a dollar game and hit a straight flush, by reducing the pay by one dollar, the casino and player were both spared the paperwork hassle. The strategy for Pick’em Poker is also different from jacks or better or wild card based games. This is because you must always save exactly three cards that you can see – plus the two you cannot see under the pile of three that you select. For that reason there are no four- or five-card hands listed in the strategy. The strategy for playing Pick’em is among the most straightforward of all strategies.

This game is not all that common. It may be dicult to locate in the casino.

The frustration of having to throw away a card that would have completed a winning hand because you have to discard one of the two piles of three cards.

The extremely rare occurrence of the royal flush (once every 351,817 hands) and straight flush (once every 38,450 hands) makes this a somewhat boring game to play.

Pick’Em Poker / Pick a Pair Poker is totally different from every other video poker game.

It has a relatively simple playing strategy allowing a casual player the opportunity to play the optimum strategy.

There is a very long time between royal flushes and straight flushes.

There can be a good deal of frustration when you are required to throw away a card that would have completed a nice winning hand.

So far we have only learned about single play video poker games. You bet your credits, you push the deal button and one hand is dealt. You decide which cards of that hand you want to hold and press another button. New cards are dealt to replace the discards. You are now ready to play the next hand. These games are called single play games because you play one hand at a time.

Single play games are not the only kind of video poker games that are available. Scattered throughout the casino floor are video poker games where you can play three, five, 10, 50 and even 100 games at one time. These games are called multiple play or multi-play for that reason. When you play a multiple play game you bet enough credits for all the lines (plays) you wish to play at once. When you hit the deal button, the exact same hand is dealt to every line you have in play. That can be up to 100 repeats of the exact same hand. The cards you choose to hold are held in all of the lines you are playing. When you hit the Draw button each line has the discards replaced by cards from a different (virtual) deck having the originally dealt five cards missing from it.

One thing I should mention at this point, playing strategy does not change at all when you are playing multiple play video poker. The strategy that is proper for the single play game – whether it is Jacks or Better, Double Double Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild Poker, Joker Poker, or whatever – is exactly the same as the strategy used for the multiple play version of that game.

What is different is the impact of the originally dealt hand. Imagine your excitement if you are dealt four of a kind. You are guaranteed a four of a kind on each line you play. Imagine your excitement and anticipation when you are dealt four cards of a royal flush. If you are playing 50 plays, you will complete at least one of them in the long run in those 50 hands. This is because there is a one on 47 chance of completing a four card royal flush. You will complete two of them in the long run if you are playing a 100 play game.

If you are dealt a good initial hand, you can make a lot of money in a very short time. But what if you are dealt a very poor hand? In that case you stand to lose a lot of money very fast.

Why am I bringing this up?

When playing multiple play games, whatever results you can expect from the initially dealt hand are multiplied by the number of hands you play. Because of this, the variance, which is the intensity of bankroll swings both plus and minus, for multiple play games is higher than for single play games. Put simply, you will need a bigger bankroll in order to play multiple play games of the same denomination than you need for single play games.
 

What determines variance in a single play game is the amount of payback that is tied up in a few high paying hands. For example, the game of 9/6 Jacks or Better, where a full house is paid at 9 for 1 and a flush is paid at 6 for 1, has only one very high paying hand. That is the royal flush. The variance for this game is 19.5. Bonus Poker pays a bonus for four aces and four 2’s, 3’s or 4’s. Payos for a full house and a flush are reduced to make up for the higher payos on the four of a kind hands. The variance for Bonus Poker is 20.9 which is a seven percent increase over Jacks or Better. Double Bonus Poker increases the bonus on four aces to 160-for-1, the bonus on four 2s, 3s, or 4s to 80-for-1, and the bonus on 5s through kings to 50-for-1. The pay for a hand containing two pairs is reduced to 1 for 1 to compensate for the increased pays on the four of a kind hands. The variance on a Double Bonus Poker game soars to nearly 28.3; a 48 percent increase from Jacks or Better.

In multiple play games, the variance increases as the number of plays increase. This is not because more money in concentrated in fewer high paying hands, but because the strength of each hand is determined by the initial five cards that are dealt. If those five cards make a strong and, each play will have a strong hand. However, if those five cards make a weak hand, each play will have a weak hand.

How about looking at some specific games, plays and variances?

You learned earlier in this guide that the variance for single-play Jacks or Better is 19.5. If instead you play a three play Jacks or Better game, its variance is 23.4; or a 20 percent increase. If you are playing a five play version of Jacks or Better, the variance now becomes 27.3 which is 40 percent greater than playing single play. 50 play Jacks or Better has a variance of 115.8 and the 100 play version has a variance of 214. This is a whopping 997 percent greater than the single play version of the game.

That is a pretty big increase for a low initial variance. Now let’s look at a game with a higher single play variance.

Double Bonus Poker has a single play variance of 28.3 which is 48 percent higher than single play Jacks or Better. Using the same benchmarks as we did with the Jacks or Better example above, the three play version of Double Bonus Poker has a variance of 35.0 which is a 24 percent increase from the single play version. Five play Double Bonus Poker has a variance of 41.8 which is 48 percent higher. The variance on a 10 play game is 58.5 which is a full 108 percent higher. The variance for the 50 play version is 194.4; 588 percent higher. Finally the 100 play version has a variance is 364 which is 1188 percent higher!

What do these very large numbers mean to you as you learn to be a skillful video poker player?

It is simple. If you are planning to play multiple play video poker you will need to bring a larger bankroll in order to play as long as could on a single play game. Even on the relatively low variance Jacks or Better games, the variance of the 100 play game is 10 times that of the single play game. This means that even if you were to play a lower denomination multiple play version of the game you still may need a larger bankroll.

If you normally play single play Jacks or Better at the $1 level, it may seem logical that you could play 100 play Jacks or Better at the 1¢ level and that the same bankroll will be sucient. At maximum coin in you wager five dollars on each hand in either game. The increased variance for 100 is 10 times that of single play. However, because that 10 times variance is only working against a penny base bet the same bankroll will be more than enough.

The potential of hitting some big winning hands on each play of the multiple play game.

The playing strategy is exactly the same as for the single play version of the same game.

Much higher variance which causes larger bankroll swings that require a larger bankroll to play the game.

In each of the games you have seen do far in this guide, each line of the pay table has only one value and that value ever changes. For example:

• A pair of jacks or better pays 1 for 1
• A straight flush pays 25 for 1
• A royal flush always pays 800 for 1 with maximum credits played.

Progressive video poker on the other hand has a jackpot that normally starts at the same value as the non progressive game and slowly increases as the game (or a bank of games) is played. The most common progressive jackpot is for the royal flush, but there are also games that have progressive jackpots for other hands such as a straight flush or certain four of a kind hands.

In every case of which I am aware, progressive games have lower payouts for some of the lower paying hands such as the full house and flush. A very common example is a 9/6 Jacks or Better non progressive game that would become an 8/5 of even a 7/5 game when it is a progressive. By lowering only these two pays by just one credit per credit played, the overall payback of the game is reduced by about 2.25 percent to 97.3 percent from 99.54 percent.

Progressive games start o with a worse return than standard non progressive video poker. But there is a plus side. As the progressive jackpot climbs, the house edge decreases. If the jackpot amount gets high enough, the game can match the payback of a non progressive version. It can even eventually pay back more than 100 percent, becoming favorable for the player.
 

With a Jacks or Better game, for each additional 1,000 credits in the progressive jackpot, the return improves for the player by about 0.5 to 0.6 percent. Here are several jackpot values and corresponding returns and variance for an 8/5 Jacks or Better game.

As the table shows, the return improves about one half percent for each 1,000 additional credits until it matches the increasingly hard to find full pay 9/6 jacks or better games when at about 8,000 credits. The game ultimately returns 100 percent with proper play at about 8,670 credits.

While the return for the progressive game may be the same as a full pay non progressive game with the royal flush progressive at 8,000 credits, all is not equal between the two games. As we learned earlier, as more of the total return is concentrated in the royal flush jackpot, the variance rises. As the above table details, the variance increases form 19.3 at the reset value of 4,000 credits to 95.6 when the return reaches 100 percent.

What this means for the player is, as the variance goes up, so too does the bankroll size requirement. In the above example, the variance increases by 495 percent between reset value and 100 percent return.

In addition to needing a large bankroll, your playing strategy will also have to change.

Why, you ask?

Because of the rising value of the royal flush, saving for it will become desirable in more and more instances.

As an example, when the jackpot is at the reset value of 4,000 credits, optimum strategy tells you that saving four of a kind will return more in the long run that saving four of a royal flush, and therefore the proper play is to hold four of a kind. But when the jackpot is 8,000 credits, that is, when it is worth twice the normal, reset amount, the average return for four cards of a royal flush is more than the average return for four of a kind. In this case, saving for the royal flush is a better move.

Here is another example. At the reset value of 4,000 credits it is favorable to save a high pair of jacks through aces over saving three cards of a royal flush. If you are at the same 8,000 credit progressive jackpot again, it is now favorable to save the three cards of a royal flush over saving the high pair. These are just two examples, but there are many more and they become more drastic as the progressive amount climbs. As the jackpot increases the player will increasingly choose to save for a royal flush over other plays that would win some smaller sum of money.

Here is another fact that you may not have considered. Saving for a royal flush more often causes the frequency of hitting a royal to increase. At 4,000 credits for a royal flush on an 8/5 Jacks or Better game, if you use optimum playing strategy you will hit a royal flush every 40,170 hands on average. When the jackpot for a royal flush climbs to 8,000 credits on the same 8/5 game, and if you play the optimum strategy that has been modified for the 8,000 credit jackpot amount, you should hit a royal flush every 32,644 hands on average. That is a 20 percent increase. As you may have already surmised, the percentage of overall payback contributed from hitting a royal flush also increases as the jackpot climbs from its reset value. It climbs to 4.90 percent at 8,000 credits from 1.99 percent at 4,000 credits which is almost two and one half times as much.

You may not want to play progressive video poker if you have other, lower variance games available. But if the only game you can find that gives you a decent return is a progressive game, and very importantly, if you also have an adequate bankroll, you may want to consider playing progressive video poker when the jackpots are high enough to make it worthwhile.

If you are planning to play a progressive video poker game, you want to play the best strategy. If you have video poker strategy software or an app to generate strategy, you should generate several different strategy charts. Make the first chart with the progressive jackpot at the lowest level you would consider playing the game. Then run a strategy chart with the progressive jackpot increasing at 1,000 credit intervals. While you are playing the game, simply use the strategy chart which has the progressive jackpot that is closest to the actual jackpot. This way you know that you are playing very close to perfect strategy.

It is possible to win more than you would on a standard video poker game due to the progressive jackpot amount.

You can actually play with an edge (over 100 percent payback) if the progressive jackpot is high enough.

There is a lower payback until the progressive jackpot gets very high.

A progressive game with a similar payback as a standard game will have a much higher variance.

As the progressive jackpot climbs, playing strategy must change in order to maximize results.

So far in this guide you have learned about several different types of video poker game. No matter what the differences in these games, they all had one thing in common – in each and every instance it was the player against the casino. Tournament video poker play no longer matches you against the casino. Rather, it is you against other players in the tournament. Video poker tournaments are entered by “buying in” for a fixed amount per tournament entry. In most cases you can buy in more than once in order to better your chances of winning. Not all tournaments require a buy in, however. Many of them give free entries to certain players based on their past play at the casino. Because of the buy in or free play component of tournament video poker play; the number of credits or time played is not directly tied to the player’s bankroll. They are the same for everyone. In tournaments where players buy in, the size of the winnings is usually determined by how much is collected from the buy-ins. If it is a free promotional tournament, the winning amounts are determined by the casino because they provide the purse. Usually the top 10 to 25 percent of player’s scores will win something. There are two major types of video poker tournament. The first type gives each participant a fixed number of credits to play until they are all gone. For example, the credit meter may be set at 1,000 credits. Each hand played will use five credits if the participant plays maximum credits. In this example each participant has 200 hands in which to produce a winning score.

The second type gives each participant a fixed amount of time, during which each player attempts to win as much as possible. Usually a timed tournament player will get 10 to 15 minutes. Each player has 10 to 15 minutes to play as many hands as possible hoping to snag a few big winners during that time.

Most video poker machines have a speed setting that can be set by the player. Machines used for tournament play are normally set for the fastest speed in order to help players get in as many hands as possible.

In standard video poker play, there is only one meter for credits. It goes up after hitting a winning hand and is reduced by five credits each time a new hand begins. When set for tournament play, most machines have separate counters for credits to play and to accumulate the win amounts. This way additional play will not diminish the win meter. The win meter can only go up.

In some instances the amounts paid for winning hands is increased in an eort to add excitement to the tournament. Rather than having total scores in the 3,000 to 4,500 range, you might see totals well over 10,000. The actual score is unimportant since it is not the actual score that matters, only how well you did compared to others in the tournament. But, a five figure score sure sounds better than a low to middle four figure score. One thing to consider when playing a modified pay table; if the pay for a royal flush remains at 800 for 1 and some lower paying hands have dramatically higher pays than normal, playing strategy changes might be in order. If you know the pay table that will be used in a video poker tournament beforehand and you have video poker strategy software, put the tournament pay table into the software and see what strategy is generated. Depending on the magnitude of the changes, the strategy could be quite different.

Each player’s tournament strategy can vary dramatically. There is only a short amount of time or a small number of hands. Luck plays a huge role in tournament play, and, the more luck is a factor, the less proper strategy matters.

But, you still should have a strategy.

Normally you will want to use your standard playing strategy for the game you play in the tournament. This is especially true for a fixed credit tournament where time is not a factor. However, since a royal can be the difference between winning and losing, you might want to “favor” a royal draw over smaller outcomes. For example, if you are dealt a high pair along with three cards of a royal, saving the three of a royal might be the hold you want to make.

The basic rule for playing in a video poker tournament is; play for accuracy if it is a fixed credit tournament and play for speed if it is a timed tournament. If both credits and time are a factor, make sure you play fast enough to use up all the credits before the time runs out.

One relatively extreme tournament strategy you might consider is to only hold for potential royal flushes. Hitting a royal means you have a great chance of winning at least something in the tournament. By only by saving cards that could turn into a royal, you improve the chances of hitting a royal to about 1 in 23,000 from the 1 in 40,000 with standard play. While still a lot of hands between royals, the chances of hitting a royal nearly double.

How can you develop a “royals only” strategy? Simple; if the hand doesn’t have any cards that will make a royal, discard the entire hand. Only keep cards that could make a royal. If you have video poker software on your computer set the pay table to only pay the 800 for 1for the royal flush. Set the pay for every other hand to zero. The strategy generated for this game will be the ”royals only” strategy. It is very simple. Once you learn it you can play very fast – and fast is good in timed tournament play.

If you play the “royals only” strategy and don’t hit a royal, your total score will be much lower than if you used conventional strategy. But does that matter? If you need 4,300 points to finish in the money and you end up with 215 points you do no worse than someone playing a more traditional strategy that ends up with 4,295 points. You either win some money or you don’t. The losing score is irrelevant. A loss is a loss. It is better to go down swinging for the fence than trying to bunt your way on base.

Just remember that tournament play is mostly about luck. If you are lucky you will win. If not, you won’t. If it is a timed tournament, play as fast as you can to ensure you play as many hands (and chances for a royal) as possible. If you connect and hit one over the fence you will most likely be in the money.