Video Poker Calculator

A video poker calculator does the math you can't do in your head at a machine. Set the five cards you were dealt, choose your pay table, and it calculates the expected value of all 32 possible holds — then tells you which cards to keep for the highest return. There's no sampling or estimation: this video poker strategy calculator evaluates every possible draw from the remaining cards exactly, so the answer is the mathematically optimal play.

How to use the calculator

1. Pick your pay table — Jacks or Better (9/6, 9/5, 8/5) or Deuces Wild. The right holds change with the pay schedule, so this matters.
2. Enter your five cards by tapping them in the grid, or press Deal random to practise a hand.
3. Press Analyze. The calculator highlights the optimal cards to hold and lists the expected value of every option, best first.
4. Read the EV. The number next to each hold is its exact long-run value in coins — the higher, the better the play.

What the video poker calculator computes

For your five cards, the calculator considers every subset you could hold, from keeping all five to discarding everything. For each one it calculates the average payout across all possible draws of the replacement cards, weighted by exact probability. The hold with the highest expected value is the optimal play. Because it's a complete calculation over every possible outcome — not a simulation — the numbers this poker strategy calculator returns are precise to the last decimal.

Works for every video poker game

The calculator covers the games that reward strategy most: Jacks or Better, where a pair of jacks is the smallest paying hand, and Deuces Wild, where the wild cards change the correct play entirely. The same engine also underpins our coverage of Bonus Poker and Double Bonus Poker — Bonus Poker uses nearly the same strategy as Jacks or Better with bigger four-of-a-kind payouts. Whatever poker game you're playing, calculate the hold here, learn the pattern on the strategy chart, and drill it in the trainer.

From calculator to instinct

A calculator is perfect for settling a tricky hand or checking your reasoning, but you won't have it open at a real machine. Use it to understand why a hold is best, then commit the patterns to memory with the strategy chart and trainer. Combine correct strategy with a full-pay 9/6 pay table and you'll play video poker at close to its theoretical return. See exactly what that return is on our house edge page.

Calculations verified against our engine's exact per-hand EV over all 2,598,960 deals. Educational content, not gambling advice.