Every video poker pay table that matters, with full payouts and payback percentages — and how to read a pay table so you always sit at the best machine.
In video poker, the pay table is the game. Two machines can run the same rules and deal the same cards, yet pay back very different amounts of money — the only difference is the pay table printed on the screen. Because every video poker game is draw poker with fixed payouts, each pay table's payback percentage can be calculated exactly. This page lists the standard pay tables for the main video poker games, their payback, and how to spot full-pay from short-pay in a couple of seconds.
A pay table lists what each poker hand pays per coin bet, from a pair of jacks up to the royal flush. Video poker machines almost always let you bet one to five coins, and you should always bet five — the max — because the royal flush only pays its full 800-for-1 jackpot at a five-coin bet. At fewer coins the royal drops to 250 per coin, quietly costing about 2% of payback. The rest of the pay table is linear: a hand that pays 6 per coin pays 30 for a five-coin bet. Read the pay table, bet max, and the payouts do the rest.
The fastest way to grade a Jacks or Better game is to look at just two lines — the full house and the flush. The full-pay "9/6" schedule pays 9 and 6; every step down raises the house edge. The tables below show the standard pay tables for the most common video poker games.
Jacks or Better is standard video poker — the game every other variation is measured against. These are the common pay tables, best to worst:
| Hand | 9/6 | 9/5 | 8/6 | 8/5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 800 | 800 | 800 | 800 |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| Four of a Kind | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Full House | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 |
| Flush | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Straight | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Two Pair | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Jacks or Better | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Payback (perfect play) | 99.54% ✓ | 98.45% | 98.39% | 97.30% |
✓ = payback computed by our engine over all 2,598,960 deals. Full-pay 9/6 is the target; an 8/5 game pays back over two percent less for the identical game.
Bonus Poker is a Jacks or Better variation that pays more for four of a kind, funded by a lower full house and flush. Double Bonus goes further, and its full-pay pay table returns over 100% to a perfect player. These are the full-pay schedules:
| Hand | Bonus Poker (8/5) | Double Bonus (10/7) |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 800 | 800 |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 50 |
| Four Aces | 80 | 160 |
| Four 2s–4s | 40 | 80 |
| Four 5s–Ks | 25 | 50 |
| Full House | 8 | 10 |
| Flush | 5 | 7 |
| Straight | 4 | 5 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 | 3 |
| Two Pair | 2 | 1 |
| Jacks or Better | 1 | 1 |
| Payback (perfect play) | 99.17% | 100.17% |
Bonus poker games reward big quads but pay less on the full house and flush — the flush payout drops to fund the bonus. Note Double Bonus drops two pair to 1, so its strategy differs from standard Jacks or Better.
Deuces Wild replaces the jacks-or-better floor with a wild-card game: all four 2s are wild, pairs pay nothing, and the lowest paying hand is three of a kind. The full-pay Deuces pay table is one of the few in the casino that returns more than 100%.
| Hand | NSU Deuces | Full-Pay Deuces |
|---|---|---|
| Natural Royal Flush | 800 | 800 |
| Four Deuces | 200 | 200 |
| Wild Royal Flush | 25 | 25 |
| Five of a Kind | 16 | 15 |
| Straight Flush | 10 | 9 |
| Four of a Kind | 4 | 5 |
| Full House | 4 | 3 |
| Flush | 3 | 2 |
| Straight | 2 | 2 |
| Three of a Kind | 1 | 1 |
| Payback (perfect play) | 99.73% ✓ | 100.76% ✓ |
"Full pay" means the best commonly available pay table for a given video poker game; "short pay" is any schedule the casino has trimmed to lower the payback percentage. The game plays identically — same cards, same strategy — but a short-pay machine simply pays you less on the same hands. Full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better pays back 99.54%; short-pay 8/5 pays back 97.30%. Full-pay video poker games are worth walking the casino floor to find, because two machines side by side can offer different pay tables. Always read the pay schedule before you play, every time.
Some video poker machines add a random multiplier feature — Times Pay and Super Times Pay — that can boost a winning hand by up to 10x or 12x. The catch is that the base pay table is usually short-pay to fund the feature, so the long-run payback often lands below a plain full-pay game. Times Pay and Super Times Pay are fun, but for pure payback percentage a full-pay Jacks or Better or Deuces Wild machine without the multiplier is usually the better game. Don't let a flashy bonus multiplier distract you from a weak base pay table.
Payback percentage is simply the sum of every hand's probability times its payout, and the payouts come straight from the pay table — so the pay table is the payback. Change one line and you change how much money the game returns. That's why smart video poker players judge a machine by its pay table first and everything else second. Our engine calculates each game's payback exactly by evaluating all 2,598,960 possible deals with perfect strategy; see the full return comparison on the house edge page, learn optimal play on the strategy chart, and check any hand with the analyzer. Read the pay table, bet five coins, and play the best schedule you can find. Video poker is a draw poker game at heart, and like all casino games its returns are fixed and game based — set by the pay table, not by luck from hand to hand.
Beyond these, there are dozens of video poker variations, and each one comes with its own pay table and its own optimal strategy. Bonus poker games, Double Double Bonus, Joker Poker and the Deuces Wild family all change which poker hands pay and by how much, so a play that's correct on one game can be a mistake on another. Before you play video poker of any variation, find the pay table, confirm it's full pay, and adjust your play — the video poker strategy for a game is dictated entirely by its paytable. Watch the flush payout especially: on Jacks or Better a flush pays 6 on full-pay and 5 on short-pay, while the machines pay jacks or better at just 1. Learn the poker strategy and correct poker play for your chosen variation on our strategy chart before you sit down, and practise the video poker hands you find tricky in the trainer.
A machine's payback percentage tells you how much of every dollar wagered it returns over the long run with perfect play — payouts based on the pay table, not on luck or timing. Unlike a slot machine, where the odds are hidden, a video poker paytable is printed on the glass, so you can calculate the payback before you deal a single hand. That transparency is what makes video poker one of the best casino games for a thinking player: casinos that offer a full-pay paytable are handing skilled video poker players higher payouts than almost anything else on the floor. Poker players who take the time to read the pay table and wager the max are the ones who capture that payback. Every hand you're dealt comes back to the same question — does this pay table pay enough to play?
Paybacks marked ✓ are computed by our engine; others are the standard published figures for these pay tables. Educational content about probability and pay tables, not gambling advice.