• How To Play Jacks Or Better Slots
• How To Play Jacks Or Better Video Poker Strategies
• How To Play Jacks Or Better Trips To Win

• In fact, Jacks or Better is the most popular version of video poker in the world. It is so popular because it is simple to play and a lot of fun. It is also popular because the game offers much better odds for the player than slot machines or table games. The house edge is only 0.5% for a player that uses the optimal strategy on a Jacks.
• Even 8/5 Jacks or Better has a payout percentage of 97.3%, which is far worse than a full pay but still far better than most bets on most other casino games. But in order to enjoy the high payback percentage, you have to play using expert Jacks or Better strategy.
• How to Play Jacks or Better. Jacks or Better is played as a five card draw game. In this version, betting is not allowed to open until at least one player at the table can open betting with a pair.

Basic Game Play

Jacks or Better is a very popular video poker game, which many players finds fun because of its high payouts and its easy game play. To play jacks or better doesn't take a whole lot from you, no matter if it is in a live casino or if you are sitting at home in front of your computer playing it.

The top three plays are (1) keep the low pair, (2) keep the 4 to a flush, and (3) keep the 2 suited high cards. The4 to a flush is listed highest and is thus the best play, so discard the 3 of hearts. Comparison to Optimal Strategy.

When you are ready to play you insert credits, choose the amount of credits you wish to bet and press the 'deal' button and five different cards will then appear on the screen of the machine or your computer. Your objective with these five cards is to form the best possible hand according to regular poker hand rankings, but in order to get a payout you will need to get a pair of jacks or better, hence the name.

How To Play Jacks Or Better Slots

The first five cards that appears on the machine or your screen can then be chosen to be 'held', which means that when you press deal for the second and last time, those cards will not change. This can be useful if you already have a pair of kings for example, making the chance of you hitting three of a kind or a better hand even bigger.

Once you have decided if you want to hold any cards or not, you simply press deal again and the machine will give you new cards on the cards you did not hold. Once the cards appears the machine will instantly show you if you have won a prize or not and pay you accordingly. A very simple and fun game to play both in live casinos and online.

Rules

The rules of the game are very simple. All you need to be aware of is how many credits you will be betting in each hand, try and form a hand that is a pair of jacks or better and the machine will take care of the rest for you.

There are two rounds of cards in jacks or better, the first round you can hold cards and the second round is known as a showdown round. You can only hold cards after the cards are dealt the first time, the second time there is no holding or changing any cards. Some jacks or better machines comes with bonus games where you can choose to try and double your prize by guessing if the next card will be higher or lower than the card shown on the machine, but in general this is not something that we recommend to do as it provides a lower payout in general.

Hand Rankings

The hand rankings system used in jacks or better is the same as used in regular Texas Hold'em poker and five card draw games. Below you will find a chart of how the hand ranking system works exactly, if you are not familiar with the ranking system already:

• High Card - When you have nothing on your hand, the highest card is the one that counts
• One Pair - Any two cards that are of the same denomination
• Two Pairs - Any two sets of cards with the same denomination
• Three of a kind - When you have three cards with the same denomination
• Straight - Five cards that are in sequence, no matter which suit they have
• Flush - Five cards of the same suit, no matter which denomination they have
• Full House - Three cards of one denomination and two cards of another denomination
• Straight Flush - Five cards in sequence all of the same suit
• Royal Flush - Best possible poker hand that exists. The hand is where you have ace to ten straight all in the same suit.

What is important to remember here is that high card doesn't provide a prize and that one pair only gives a prize if the pair is of jacks or better.

Payouts

The payouts for playing jacks or better are in general the same for most casinos, however it may vary some places. The general payouts are as shown below:

• One Pair of Jacks or Better Pays 1:1
• Two Pairs Pays 2:1
• Three of a Kind Pays 3:1
• Straight Pays 4:1
• Flush Pays 6:1
• Full House Pays 9:1
• Four of a Kind Pays 25:1
• Straight Flush Pays 50:1
• Royal Flush Pays 250:1

Always remember to check if the payouts are better, the same or worse than the scheme above, so you know if you should play jacks or better on the site you are currently on, or change to a site that offers higher payouts as it matters for your odds of winning in the game.

Jacks or Better video poker offers some of the best odds in the casino. The best version of Jacks or Better video poker, the 9/6 variant, has a payback percentage of 99.5%, which is better for the player than just about any other game in the casino. Even 8/5 Jacks or Better has a payout percentage of 97.3%, which is far worse than a full pay but still far better than most bets on most other casino games.

But in order to enjoy the high payback percentage, you have to play using expert Jacks or Better strategy. The casinos and the manufacturers estimate that players who don’t use an expert strategy are giving up between 2% and 4%, which is a significant amount of money.

How significant?

Consider the average hourly loss of an expert player who’s running true to the mathematical expectation of a game. She’s making 600 wagers per hour at $1.25 per wager, so she’s putting $750 per hour into action. With a house edge of 0.5%, she can expect to lose $3.75 per hour. Assuming she gamblers for ten hours on her trip, she’s got lots of entertainment for just $37.50.

Then let’s take a look at her husband, who ignores expert Jacks or Better video poker strategy and just follows his hunches. (We’ll also assume that his hunches aren’t very good.) He’s losing 4.5% of his bets, which means that he’s losing nine times as much as his wife. At the end of the trip, he’s lost $337.50.

That’s a significant difference.

How to develop an expert Jacks or Better strategy

Computer programs can determine the expected value of any given hand. There are 32 different ways to play any given hand, but only one way has the best expectation for the player. The more often the player chooses to play her hand in that way, the lower the house edge becomes.

But since there are 2.5 million different possible starting hands in video poker, expert strategy groups hands according to types, in order to make the process easier to learn. After all, memorizing 2.5 million different potential decisions is probably impossible unless you’re a machine, but memorizing several types of hands isn’t as hard.

When you consider that 55% of your hands will lose no matter what, you can see that strategy decisions can be narrowed down pretty fast. In fact, a pair of jacks or better will make up 21% of the number of winning hands you get. The small hands, including three of a kind, two pair, and a pair of jacks, make up 70% of the total return on the game.

How To Play Jacks Or Better Video Poker Strategies

How to use a Jacks or Better strategy

All Jacks or Better strategy tables consist of a list of hands. The player starts at the top, which is the best possible hand, and then moves down until she finds the hand that she actually has. She then plays it according to the strategy instructions.

Different Jacks or Better strategy charts offer somewhat different instructions. Below I’ve provided one Jacks or Better video poker strategy that’s easy to learn. The house edge against someone using this strategy is only 0.8%, which isn’t as kind to the player as 0.5%, but it’s still considerably better than just about every other game in the casino. And of course, this assumes that you’re playing a full pay, 9/6 Jacks or Better game.

The Jacks or Better Strategy Chart

One of the main principles behind most video poker strategies is that you want the machine to deal you a winning hand. If you’re dealt a winning hand, you will very rarely discard any of those cards to draw to something else. The only exception is 4 cards to a royal flush, and that exception is only there because the payout on that hand is so large compared to the other hands.

In fact, you’ll notice that a lot of the Jacks or Better strategy focuses on the royal flush. You’ll only see a royal flush once in every 40,000 or so hands, but the payout makes for a big part of your overall expectation. If you have four cards to a royal flush, you’ll always draw to it. If you have three cards to a royal flush, you’ll always draw to it UNLESS you have a winning combination, in which case you’ll keep the winning cards instead.

A four-card flush draw is better than a low pair, but both of them are better than a straight draw. The reason, again, has to do with the differences in the payouts as compared to the possibility of finishing your hand.

How To Play Jacks Or Better Trips To Win

This Jacks or Better strategy requires memorizing 15 lines of rules/guidelines, but it’s far easier than a more advanced strategy. Once you’ve mastered this, you can easily move up to a more advanced strategy with about 21 lines or rules/guidelines, and then you can gain back that additional 0.3%. Play for free or real money today! Put this Jacks or Better video poker strategy into practice and watch your winnings grow!

Interested in trying your hand at other online video poker games? Check out this article on 7 tips to improve your video poker strategy to ensure you play at the top of your game.