When you play video poker there is a total of over 2.5 million completely different hands that can be dealt to you. If you take a hard look at video poker odds you’ll find that after players draw more cards they will get a royal flush about once every 40 000 hands and a straight flush about one in every 9000 hands. So, you’ve got about a 63% chance of getting a royal flush and about a 27% of getting two royal flushes in the same round of about forty thousand hands.
The time needed to play 40 000 hands in a typical Las Vegas casino is about 80 hours of play or about two to four weeks depending how long and how often you play. You can identify video poker machines by their name and by their payout schedule. You may come across machines like 9/6 Jack or Better and an 8/5 machine.
Regardless of their payout schedules, every video poker machine plays the same way. Some machines just pay more or less than others. All you need to do to tell the machines apart is examine the payout schedule of each machine. Always play the machines with the highest payout schedules.
The difference between a 9/6 video poker machine and an 8/5 video poker machine is that one has a better overall return than the other. On a 9/6 machine, when the maximum number of coins is bet and the game is played with perfect video poker strategy, your return will be about 99.5%. In the same situation an 8/5 game will only return 97.3%. In the long term, that small difference can dramatically affect your overall rate of winning hands. Check out the following chart to see how different machines vary.
The frequency of the appearance of certain hands depends on the video poker machine that you are playing. A Joker’s Wild machine will differ from a Deuces Wild machine. The chart below shows the payouts of a 9/6 Jacks or Better game and the frequency of the appearance of certain hands.
Video Poker Odds Charts
Odds between different machines
Machine type
Payout
10/7
(double bonus)
100.2%
9/7
100.7%
9/6
99.5%
8/5
97.3%
7/5
96.3%
6/5
95.2%
Frequency of hands (9/6 Jacks or Better machine)
Hand
Payout
Frequency
Royal Flush
4,000
1 in 40,390
Straight Flush
250
1 in 9,148
Four of a Kind
125
1 in 423
Full House
45
1 in 86
Flush
30
1 in 90
Straight
20
1 in 89
Three of a Kind
15
1 in 13
Two pair
10
1 in 7
Jacks or Better
5
1 in 4
If you happen to be playing in a casino that doesn’t offer very good video poker odds and you really want to play, I would suggest only risking a small amount and hope for a big jackpot win in the short term.
What’s the secret to breaking even, even if you are playing a machine with good video poker odds? Well, live casinos offer extra benefits, often referred to as complimentary items or comps. Make sure you join the slot club of the casino you are playing at so that you’ll be eligible for as many freebies as possible. Keep track of everything you receive that has some value and make sure you take that into account when adding up your winnings. Taking comps into account, you’ll probably break even or you may even find your bankroll up.
