How to play video poker in five steps
A hand of video poker is one deal and one draw, paid by a fixed paytable. There is no dealer to beat and no other player. Unlike a pokie, the cards you choose to keep change what the game returns.
You bet in coins. A coin is one unit of your bet, and its value is called the denomination. We opened the free Jacks or Better game at Wizard of Odds on 27 October 2026 from an Australian IP. Before the deal, its screen shows three buttons for the bet and the deal: Bet One, Bet Max and Deal. Casino games come from different studios, so their screens and labels differ.
- Read the paytable first. It is the grid of hands and payouts; in the free Wizard of Odds game it sits at the top of the screen. Its full house and flush cells tell you which version you are playing (how to read it).
- Set the bet. The Bet One button adds one coin, up to five. The Bet Max button bets all five coins. The returns on this page assume five coins (why).
- Deal. The Deal button gives you five cards.
- Choose the cards to keep: none, some or all five. Each game marks this step in its own way, so check its help screen. We did not play a hand, so we do not name these buttons.
- Draw once. The game replaces the cards you did not keep, one time only, and pays the final hand by the paytable. In Jacks or Better the lowest paying hand is a pair of jacks or better; anything lower pays nothing.
Which cards to keep is the skill, and it changes the return: see video poker strategy by game.
How to read a paytable in thirty seconds
A paytable has one row for each paying hand and one column for each bet size, from one coin to five. Two cells name the version: what a full house (three of a kind plus a pair) and a flush (five cards of one suit) pay for one coin. A full house paying 9 and a flush paying 6 is written “9/6”.
This is the paytable of the free Wizard of Odds game, copied on 27 October 2026. The two rows that name the version are in bold.
| Hand | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1,000 | 4,000 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four of a kind | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Full house | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Straight | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two pair | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
To read any paytable:
- Find the Full house row and read its one-coin cell.
- Do the same for the Flush row. The two numbers are the version: here, 9/6.
- If the screen shows only the five-coin column, divide by 5: 45 ÷ 5 = 9 and 30 ÷ 5 = 6.
- Look up the version in returns by paytable below.
Example: a Jacks or Better game pays 8 for a full house and 5 for a flush. That is 8/5, which returns 97.30%, or A$2.70 per A$100 bet, in the table below.
In Jacks or Better, the four common versions differ only in these two cells; every other row is the same. Bonus Poker, Double Bonus and Double Double Bonus also change the four-of-a-kind rows. In Deuces Wild the twos, called deuces, are wild: a wild card stands in for any card. There, check the rows for four deuces, wild royal, five of a kind, straight flush and four of a kind.
The grid above is the free game’s, not a casino’s. Games with the same name can carry different paytables, so read the two cells in each game before you bet.
Returns by paytable
The return is the share of all money bet that a game pays back over a very long run. “Perfect play” (“optimal play” in the table: the same thing) means the best choice of cards on every hand, as calculated by Wizard of Odds, with five coins bet. Cost per A$100 is 100 minus the return: the average loss for every A$100 of total bets, not of money deposited.
“Full pay” is Wizard of Odds’ name for two tables below: 9/6 Jacks or Better, and the Deuces Wild table that pays 25, 15, 9, 5, 3 and 2 for one coin on a wild royal flush, five of a kind, straight flush, four of a kind, full house and flush. The Joker Poker row we mark full pay is the table that pays 200 for five of a kind and 100 for a wild royal flush, with 20, 7 and 5 for four of a kind, full house and flush; a table with 150 and 80 in those first two rows returns less.
So the best video poker to play is the highest-return paytable among the games in front of you. 9/6 Jacks or Better is the reference point.
| Game | Paytable | Return, optimal play | Cost per A$100 bet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jacks or Better | 9/6 (full pay) | 99.54% | A$0.46 |
| 8/5 | 97.30% | A$2.70 | |
| 7/5 | 96.15% | A$3.85 | |
| 6/5 | 95.00% | A$5.00 | |
| Bonus Poker | 8/5 | 99.17% | A$0.83 |
| Double Bonus | 10/7 | 100.17% | −A$0.17 (player edge) |
| 9/7 | 99.11% | A$0.89 | |
| Double Double Bonus | 10/6 | 100.07% | −A$0.07 |
| 9/6 | 98.98% | A$1.02 | |
| 8/5 | 96.79% | A$3.21 | |
| Deuces Wild | Full pay (25/15/9/5/3/2) | 100.76% | −A$0.76 |
| Joker Poker (kings or better) | Full pay | 100.65% | −A$0.65 |
| Tens or Better | Four of a kind pays 25 | 99.14% | A$0.86 |
| Four of a kind pays 20 | 97.96% | A$2.04 | |
| All American | 35-8 (four of a kind 35; full house, flush and straight 8) | 99.60% | A$0.40 |
| 34-8 (Playtech, per Wizard of Odds) | 99.38% | A$0.62 | |
| 30-8 | 98.49% | A$1.51 | |
| 25-8 | 97.38% | A$2.62 | |
| 30-7-7-7 | 94.00% | A$6.00 | |
| Aces and Faces | 8/5 | 99.26% | A$0.74 |
| 7/6 | 99.20% | A$0.80 | |
| 7/5 | 98.10% | A$1.90 | |
| 6/5 | 96.96% | A$3.04 |
Returns above 100% exist on paper: full-pay Deuces Wild, 10/7 Double Bonus, full-pay Joker Poker and 10/6 Double Double Bonus. A minus cost is the player’s average gain with perfect play over a very long run, not a promise. Which of these paytables the casinos below carry, we did not establish: a game’s paytable is shown inside the game, and we did not open them. Wizard of Odds labels some tables as used by online software (Real Time Gaming, NetEnt, Microgaming, Playtech), without saying where or when it saw them. How close simpler play gets to these figures is in strategy by game.
Five coins: why the royal flush decides the bet
Every return on this page assumes five coins, because of the royal flush. In the free Wizard of Odds game it pays 250 per coin for one to four coins, and 4,000 for five coins: 800 per coin.
The royal is rare. For 9/6 Jacks or Better with perfect play, Wizard of Odds gives it a probability of 0.00002476. That is on average about once in 40,400 hands (our division), and it supplies about 2% of the game’s return. It is an average over a very long run, not a schedule.
Bet fewer than five coins and the royal pays 250 instead of 800 per coin. Keeping the same cards on every hand, our arithmetic puts 9/6 at about 98.2% instead of 99.54%. A strategy adjusted to the smaller royal would do a little better; we found no published figure for it.
Wizard of Odds’ advice is “Always play the maximum coins”, and “If you are uncomfortable playing five coins, then drop down to a lower coinage.” Coinage is the denomination: the value of one coin. Example: at 20c a coin, five coins cost A$1 a hand; at A$1 a coin, they cost A$5.
Multi-hand games play several hands from one starting deal, so each deal costs several bets. Each mode can have its own paytable. Wizard of Odds gives one example: Playtech’s single-hand Aces and Faces follows the 8-5 table (99.26%), while its 25-hand mode uses another table that returns 95.44%. Read the paytable of each mode you play.
Video poker strategy by game
Strategy here means which cards to keep after the deal. Each game and paytable has its own order, so the list for one game does not carry over to another.
Terms used below. A high card is a jack, queen, king or ace. A low pair is a pair of tens or lower; it does not pay in Jacks or Better. “4 to a flush” means four cards of one suit, and “3 to a royal flush” means three of the 10, J, Q, K and A of one suit. An outside straight is four cards in a row that can be finished at either end, such as 7-8-9-10. An inside straight is four cards of a straight with a gap in the middle, such as 6-7-9-10; Wizard of Odds also counts A-2-3-4 and J-Q-K-A. A made hand is one already complete in the cards you were dealt. Suited means of the same suit; a wild card stands in for any card.
Which cards to keep
- Jacks or Better, 9/6. Wizard of Odds’ simple strategy: find every way to play your five cards in this list and keep the one ranked highest.
- Four of a kind, straight flush, royal flush
- 4 to a royal flush
- Three of a kind, straight, flush, full house
- 4 to a straight flush
- Two pair
- High pair (jacks or better)
- 3 to a royal flush
- 4 to a flush
- Low pair
- 4 to an outside straight
- 2 suited high cards
- 3 to a straight flush
- 2 unsuited high cards (if more than two, keep the lowest two)
- Suited 10/J, 10/Q or 10/K
- One high card
- Discard everything
- Deuces Wild, full pay. The twos (deuces) are wild. Wizard of Odds’ simple strategy returns 100.71%, against 100.76% for perfect play. It starts with how many deuces you hold, and every line keeps them: never discard a deuce.
- Four deuces: keep them.
- Three deuces: keep a made royal flush; otherwise keep only the three deuces.
- Two deuces: keep a made four of a kind or better, 4 to a royal flush, or 4 to a straight flush with two cards in a row from 6-7 up; otherwise keep only the two deuces.
- One deuce, in this order:
- a made four of a kind or better
- 4 to a royal flush
- a full house
- 4 to a straight flush with three cards in a row from 5-6-7 up
- three of a kind, straight or flush
- any other 4 to a straight flush
- 3 to a royal flush
- 3 to a straight flush with two cards in a row from 6-7 up
- otherwise the deuce alone
- No deuce, in this order:
- 4 or 5 to a royal flush
- a made three of a kind up to a straight flush
- 4 to a straight flush
- 3 to a royal flush
- a pair
- 4 to a flush
- 4 to an outside straight
- 3 to a straight flush
- 4 to an inside straight (unless the missing card is a deuce)
- 2 to a royal flush, jack or queen high
- Joker Poker. We found no published Wizard of Odds strategy: its Joker Poker strategy pages returned errors on 27 October 2026. The Jacks or Better list does not carry over, because the joker is wild and the lowest paying hand is kings or better. Use the game’s help screen and compare paytables in returns by paytable.
- Tens or Better, All American, Bonus games. We have no strategy source for these games on this page; their returns are in the table above.
The practical rule: the paytable matters more than the strategy. Perfect play at 6/5 Jacks or Better costs about ten times as much as perfect play at 9/6 (A$5 against A$0.46 per A$100 bet). It still costs about nine times as much as the simple list at 9/6.
Which casinos carry video poker
On 27 October 2026 we read the lobby lists of the 16 casinos in the table below, from an Australian IP and without an account. A title in a list does not prove the game opens for your account, and it does not show the game’s paytable. Check the two cells inside the game before you bet (how). ACMA says the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 makes it illegal for gambling providers to offer some online services to people in Australia, including online casinos; what that means for players.
Ad: we earn a commission if you sign up through our link on this page; it does not change the score. 18+Free help 24/7: 1800 858 858Full disclosure
| Casino | Video poker in the lobby (27 Oct 2026) | Links |
|---|---|---|
| 34 games in the lobby’s video poker category, which also holds non-video-poker games such as Caribbean Stud and Tri Card. Titles include Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker, All American Poker, Aces & Eights, Pick’em Poker, Jacks or Better 4000 Powerpoker and Aces 6000 Powerpoker | Review | |
| 34 games in the lobby’s video poker category, including some non-video-poker games | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| Lobby list not read (the connection was refused). The operator’s video poker page names “Jacks or Better, Double Double Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker, Joker’s Wild, and more” | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| 37 games in the lobby’s video poker category, including some non-video-poker games | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| Lobby list not read. The operator’s home page says: “Video poker — Jacks or Better, Aces and Eights, Sevens Wild, Loose Deuces and All-American Poker.” | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| A Video Poker menu item; its page showed filters but no game list, so the titles were not read | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| 27 games in the lobby’s video poker category | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| 26 games in the lobby’s video poker category | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| 26 games in the lobby’s video poker category | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| Not checked: the home page does not mention video poker or link a category, and the lobby was not read | Review | |
| 14 video poker titles found by lobby search, including Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Bonus Deuces Wild, Joker Poker and Bonus Poker | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| 14 video poker titles found by lobby search, including Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Bonus Deuces Wild, Joker Poker and Bonus Poker | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| 16 video poker titles found by lobby search, including Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker and Bonus Poker | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| 16 video poker titles found by lobby search, including Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker and Bonus Poker | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| 9 video poker titles found by lobby search, including Deuces Wild and Joker Poker; no Jacks or Better | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 | |
| 7 games on its video poker page: Double Double Bonus Poker (1 hand), Jacks or Better (1, 3 and 10 hands) and Joker Poker (1, 3 and 10 hands) | Visit ReviewHelp 1800 858 858 |
For Lucky Tiger, Rich Palms and Shazam the category lists include Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Aces and Faces, Joker Poker, Tens or Better, Double Double Bonus Video Poker and multi-hand versions. Each figure is one reading on one day; catalogues change.
Bonuses and video poker
A wagering requirement is the total you must bet before you can withdraw a bonus. Contribution is the share of each bet that counts toward it; Grand Rush calls it the “Percentage of wager that counts towards wagering requirements”. Here is what each casino’s terms said about video poker on 27 October 2026:
- Grand Rush: video poker counts 10%, and all match deposit bonuses carry a 60× wagering requirement. Its terms add: “New players may not use match offers on their first three deposits on video poker or table games.”
- King Billy, CasinoChan, PlayAmo, Dundee Slots: video poker counts 5%.
- Golden Crown: “other available games” count 5%. Video poker is not named, so 5% is our reading.
- Lucky Tiger, Rich Palms, Shazam: video poker is not on the list of games that “cannot be played with bonus funds”. Card games count 20%, but the terms do not say whether video poker is a card game.
- Fair Go: video poker bets “will not count towards” the wagering of free bonuses. We did not find a rule for its deposit bonuses.
- Jackpot Jill: “Video Poker and all Blackjacks count 2% to wagering requirements”, and the ‘Double’ feature on video poker does not count.
- King Johnnie, Wolf Winner, Casino Mate, Ignition, PlayCroco: we did not find a video poker rule in the terms we collected.
Grand Rush’s own example of a match bonus: “Deposit $100 and get a 100% match. You must wager $100 × 60 = $6,000”. Its first three match bonuses cannot be played on video poker, so this applies from the fourth deposit on. Example: an A$6,000 requirement at 10% needs A$60,000 of video poker bets (A$6,000 ÷ 10%). At 5% it needs A$120,000.
Even at 99.54%, the average loss on A$60,000 of bets is about A$276, and on A$120,000 about A$552: more than an A$100 bonus. Whether a 9/6 game is in these lobbies we did not establish, and a lower paytable costs more. So if you want to play video poker, decline a bonus whose wagering would tie up your own cash; we did not check how each cashier offers that choice. Casino bonuses explained has the general arithmetic.
FAQ
What is the best video poker game to play?
The one with the highest return among the paytables you can find in the game in front of you. On Wizard of Odds’ figures with perfect play, 9/6 Jacks or Better returns 99.54%, 8/5 Bonus Poker 99.17%, 8/5 Aces and Faces 99.26% and 35-8 All American 99.60%. Full-pay Deuces Wild (100.76%) and 10/7 Double Bonus (100.17%) pay more on paper. Which of these the casinos in our table carry, we did not establish.
Is Deuces Wild better than Jacks or Better?
At full pay, Deuces Wild returns more: 100.76% against 99.54% for 9/6 Jacks or Better, both with perfect play. Reduced Deuces Wild tables pay less, so compare the four deuces, wild royal and five-of-a-kind rows before you play. Its strategy starts with how many deuces you hold.
How much does video poker pay out?
From 94.00% to 100.76% for the paytables in our table, on Wizard of Odds’ figures with perfect play and five coins. Simpler play costs a little: the 16-line Jacks or Better list returns 99.46% instead of 99.54%. Fewer than five coins costs more: about 98.2% at 9/6. A single session can pay far more or far less.
Which Australian online casinos have video poker?
On 27 October 2026 we found video poker in the lobby lists of King Johnnie, Wolf Winner and Casino Mate (34 to 37 games in the category), Lucky Tiger, Rich Palms and Shazam (26 to 27), Golden Crown, King Billy, CasinoChan, PlayAmo and Dundee Slots (9 to 16 titles by search) and Ignition (7 games). Fair Go and Jackpot Jill name video poker games on their own pages; Grand Rush has a menu item; PlayCroco we did not check. None is licensed in Australia.
How often do you hit a royal flush?
On average about once in 40,400 hands of 9/6 Jacks or Better with perfect play: Wizard of Odds gives the royal a probability of 0.00002476 (read 27 October 2026). It pays 800 per coin only at five coins (250 at one to four) and supplies about 2% of the return.
Can I play video poker for free?
Yes. On 27 October 2026 the free Jacks or Better game at Wizard of Odds loaded from an Australian IP with a 9/6 paytable and 1,000 play credits. We checked the screen, not a session. A free game’s paytable is not a casino’s, so read the full house and flush cells again in the casino’s game.
Is video poker legal in Australia?
Video poker for money online is sold by online casinos, and ACMA says the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 makes it illegal for gambling providers to offer some online services to people in Australia, with online casinos on its list. The ban is aimed at the provider. What it means for the player is set out in our guide to the law, listed below.
Game guides
- Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker and Tens or Better are covered on this page: returns by paytable for all four, and which cards to keep for Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild; their former separate pages now point here
- Online poker in Australia — the real poker room and the house-banked variants, with the house edge of each
- Is online gambling legal in Australia — what the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 bans and what it means for the player
- Best payout casinos — lobby return data and cash-out terms side by side
Sources and method
Return percentages are the optimal-strategy figures published by Wizard of Odds on its paytable pages for Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker (kings or better), Tens or Better, All American and Aces and Faces (pages last updated 3 August 2026, read 27 October 2026). For Joker Poker we show 100.65% from the table’s total; Wizard of Odds heads the same table 100.64%. The royal flush probability is from the 9/6 table on the Wizard of Odds Jacks or Better tables. The holding lists are Wizard of Odds’ simple strategies for 9/6 Jacks or Better and full-pay Deuces Wild, and the five-coin advice is from its video poker basics page (same dates). Our own arithmetic: cost per A$100 (100 minus the return); about once in 40,400 hands (all combinations divided by the royal’s); about 98.2% for fewer than five coins (the royal paid at 250 instead of 800 per coin, same cards kept); and the bonus turnover examples. The free game is Wizard of Odds’ video poker, opened on 27 October 2026 from an Australian IP; we did not deal a hand. Lobby lists were read on 27 October 2026 from an Australian IP without an account: full game catalogues and category lists, lobby searches for “poker”, “jacks” and “deuces”, and the operators’ own pages where a list could not be read. We did not open the games, so we did not see their paytables. Bonus rules are quoted from the operators’ terms read the same day. The ACMA sentence is from its page About the Interactive Gambling Act, read 27 October 2026. We earn a commission when readers sign up through links on this site; it did not decide what is written here.
No online casino is licensed in Australia. Gambling is a cost, not an income; you must be 18 or over. Free, confidential support is available 24/7 on 1800 858 858 through Gambling Help Online.
