Download the poker hand ranking charts image or PDF: What are the odds of hitting a royal flush on a video poker machine? The odds of Best MTT Poker Strategy Tips For Crushing Your Opponents! Free Triple Play Draw Video Poker Texas Holdem strategy with an easy-to-use poker chart.
Video poker is one of the few casino games where the player's input has a major effect on the outcome of the game. Every time you push Deal you receive five new cards and have a total of thirty-two ways to play the hand. To be a successful video poker player, you have to make the best choice out of those thirty-two options as often as possible.
Since computers can mathematically analyze all thirty-two ways to play any given hand, it is possible to figure out the absolutely correct decision for every hand you receive. However, most players don't carry around high powered computers when they are in the casino, so how is this useful?
Well, fortunately for us, some video poker experts have taken it upon themselves to analyze every single hand that can come off the deck, and assemble their findings into easy to read charts that teach players how to play. Below we have strategy charts for the most common video poker games:
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Most of our pages above list just an expert-level strategy chart that will get you to within 0.1% of the maximum payout percentage for the respective game. Some of the pages also list a beginner-level strategy chart that isn't as accurate, but is easier to follow. If you want to play video poker on your PC check out our guide here. Alternatively, you can also have a look at this site's list of ipad video poker app for real money.
The strategy charts on our site are actually very simple to understand, but to a beginner they may be a bit overwhelming at the start. To use a chart you follow these steps:
If you still are a little confused, check out the below example to clear things up:
Imagine you are playing a normal Deuces Wild video poker machine. You push 'Draw', and are dealt the hand below:
Ok, so what do we have here as far as options? Well, first of all, we have a Pat Straight, Seven to Jack - a made hand. We also have four clubs, so we have Four to a Flush. If we look at the chart below (a condensed strategy chart for Deuces Wild), we can see that a Pat Straight is just above Four to a Flush, so the Pat Straight is the better hand of the two.
Hand | Expected Return | Example |
Pat Royal Flush | 800.0000 | Th-Jh-Qh-Kh-Ah |
Royal Flush Draw | 19.5957 | Th-Jh-Qh-Kh-4h |
Pat Straight Flush | 10.0000 | 6h-7h-8h-9h-Th |
Four of a Kind | 6.2128 | Ac-Ad-As-Ah-5c |
Pat Full House | 4.0000 | Ac-Ad-As-Js-Jc |
Pat Flush | 3.0000 | Ac-Jc-6c-5c-4c |
Three of a Kind | 2.0176 | Ac-Ad-As-Js-Tc |
Four to a Straight Flush | 1.5745 | 4c-5c-6c-7c-Js |
Three to a Royal | 1.3053 | Ks-Qs-Js-9c-4c |
Pat Straight | 1.0000 | 4c-5s-6h-7h-8h |
Four to a Flush | 0.7660 | Ac-Jc-6c-5c-4h |
But wait! Since all we need for a straight flush is the nine of clubs, we also have Four to a Straight Flush. Because Four to a Straight Flush is higher on the chart than both a Pat Straight and Four to a Flush, the correct play here is to hold the four clubs and discard the nine of spades in hopes of hitting the Straight Flush.
See - it really isn't bad at all, as long as you pay attention to all the cards in your hand.
Another intelligent question to ask is how accurate are these charts? If you find a game that returns 100.5%, but your chart has 0.6% error in it, then you are actually only playing at a 99.9% return - also known as a losing gamble.
Well, the charts on our site are on roughly accurate to within 0.1% of perfect play. So, if you find that game that returns 100.5%, you would be actually earning about 100.4% with our charts - not too bad. Not many charts get much closer than 0.1% because they would have to be extremely long and complicated to explain the subtle differences in rare hands.
There are quite a few programs out there than can develop custom strategy charts for all kinds of games with various pay tables. We have reviewed quite a few of these programs, here are links to our reviews:
Any player who wishes to win more payouts in video poker can easily do so by just mastering the strategies created for specific video poker games. However, starters may find this task quite challenging and intimidating, especially learning the various poker hands and how to catch them. Fortunately, some video experts have already devised effective mechanisms in the form of a video poker strategy chart to guide players in aiming to get higher-ranked hands.
A video poker strategy chart shows a long list of 40 to 80 possible hands that you can have once you’re dealt with five cards. The list ranks the hands from highest to lowest based on their expected return. Since you won’t always receive a made hand, expect that you must find ways to form better hands.
How does a video poker strategy chart work?
When you’re playing video poker, you can always refer to a strategy chart. You can even bring this inside a casino as having a guide is allowed. So, after receiving five cards, it’s important that you analyze all your cards first before doing anything else. Then look at the chart, starting from the top and work your way down until you find the hand that your cards match up with. Keep in mind that you may find a few matching hands, but only get the one that gives the highest expected return, which, therefore, ranks higher in the chart.
Say you’re playing Deuces Wild, and you’re dealt 10 of hearts, 10 of spades, 10 of diamonds, 8 of hearts, and 5 of clubs. Based on these cards, you already have a three of a kind which yields a 2.0176 expected return as shown on the example chart.
But you can also have a pat full house, which ranks higher than three of a kind, by discarding either the 8 of hearts or 5 of clubs and receive a card of either value. However, the much higher ranked four of a kind is also possible when you get the 10 of clubs from the draw.
It’s now a toss-up between four of a kind and pat full house. In this scenario, you can choose to discard either of the unmatched cards or have those two replaced in order to increase your chances of hitting a four of a kind with the 10 of clubs.