Walk into any casino in Las Vegas, from the glitzy resorts on the Strip to the smoky locals’ joints in Henderson, and you’ll see them. Row after row of glowing screens, often tucked into the bars themselves. They aren't slots. They don't have spinning cherries or booming cinematic soundtracks from the latest Marvel movie. These are video poker games, and if you know what you’re looking at, they represent the only time the house might actually be sweating your presence.
Most people walk right past them. They think it's just a lonely version of poker for people who are too shy to sit at a green felt table. That’s a mistake.
Video poker is essentially a hybrid. It takes the fast-paced, solitary nature of a slot machine and marries it to the math-heavy strategy of five-card draw poker. But here’s the kicker: unlike slots, where the "return to player" (RTP) is a total mystery locked inside a black-box chip, video poker tells you exactly what it’s willing to pay right on the glass. If you can read a pay table, you can calculate the house edge down to the second decimal point. Honestly, in a building designed to take your money, that kind of transparency is almost unheard of.
How Video Poker Games Actually Work
It's simple. You put in your money, you press "deal," and the computer gives you five cards from a virtual 52-card deck. You look at them. You decide which ones to keep and which ones to toss. You hit "draw," and the machine replaces your discarded cards with new ones from the remaining deck. If your final hand matches a winning combination—usually a pair of Jacks or better—you get paid.
That’s the basic loop.
But don't let the simplicity fool you into thinking it's just luck. Because the game uses a standard deck, the odds of hitting any specific hand are fixed by the laws of probability. There are exactly 2,598,960 possible five-card hands in a 52-card deck. The Random Number Generator (RNG) inside the machine is constantly shuffling that deck. When you hit deal, it freezes the state of the deck and hands you your cards.
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This is where the strategy comes in. Every single hand has a mathematically "correct" way to play it. If you have a low pair and four cards to a flush, should you chase the flush or keep the pair? There is a right answer. People like Lenny Frome and Bob Dancer made entire careers out of calculating these strategies. They proved that on certain machines, with perfect play, you can actually have a mathematical edge over the casino.
The Pay Table is Your Map
You have to look at the pay table before you sit down. Seriously.
Let's look at the gold standard: 9/6 Jacks or Better. This is often called a "full pay" machine. The "9/6" refers to the payout for a Full House (9 coins) and a Flush (6 coins) for every one coin bet. On a machine like this, the theoretical return is 99.54% with perfect strategy. If you find an "8/5" version of the same game, the return drops to about 97.3%. That might not sound like much of a difference, but over a few hours of play, it's the difference between a free steak dinner and a very empty wallet.
Casinos count on you not noticing. They'll put a 9/6 machine right next to an 8/5 machine and hope you just pick the one with the luckiest-looking seat.
Why Skill Matters Here More Than Anywhere Else
In a slot machine, your "skill" is limited to how hard you can press a button. You're just a passenger. Video poker games demand input. Every decision you make affects the outcome. This is why the "human" element is so strong. You can actually feel yourself getting better at it.
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I remember watching an old-timer at the South Point casino in Vegas. He was playing "Deuces Wild"—a variation where all 2s are wild cards. He was moving so fast his hands were a blur. He wasn't guessing. He had internalized the "optimal strategy" to the point where it was muscle memory. He knew that in Deuces Wild, if you're dealt a lone deuce, you keep it and throw everything else away. It feels wrong to toss four "good" cards, but the math says that lone deuce is your best ticket to a big payout.
Common Variations You’ll Encounter
- Jacks or Better: The baseline. It’s the "vanilla" flavor of video poker. You need at least a pair of Jacks to get your money back.
- Deuces Wild: This is a fan favorite because it's volatile. Since 2s can be anything, you're looking for four-of-a-kinds and five-of-a-kinds. The pay tables here can be incredibly generous if you find the right ones.
- Double Bonus Poker: This version pays extra for certain four-of-a-kinds (like four Aces). The catch? They usually squeeze the payout on smaller hands to compensate. It's a roller coaster.
- Multi-Strike Poker: This is a weird one. If you win a hand, you move up to a second level where the payouts are doubled. Win again, and they quadruple. It’s intense and requires a very different mindset.
The Mystery of the RNG
A lot of people think video poker machines go through "cycles." You'll hear players say things like, "This machine is due for a Royal Flush."
Nope.
That’s the gambler’s fallacy at work. The RNG is cycling through thousands of card combinations every second. The moment you press the button, the result is determined. The machine doesn't care if it just paid out a jackpot ten minutes ago or if it hasn't paid one in three years. Each hand is a statistically independent event.
However, because the deck is "fair" (meaning it must mimic the probabilities of a real 52-card deck by law in most jurisdictions like Nevada or New Jersey), the long-term results are predictable. You won't see a Royal Flush often—statistically, it happens about once every 40,000 hands—but you know it’s possible on every single deal.
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Transitioning From Table Poker
If you’re coming from Texas Hold 'em, video poker games might feel a bit stiff at first. There’s no bluffing. You can’t look the machine in the eye and try to figure out if it's holding a pocket pair. It’s just you and the math.
But there’s a certain peace in that. You don't have to worry about a "bad beat" from some guy who went all-in on a 7-2 offsuit and got lucky on the river. In video poker, the "dealer" is just a set of rules. If you play the math, the math eventually plays for you.
How to Not Get Cleaned Out
If you want to actually enjoy these games without losing your shirt, you need a plan. Don't just sit down and start punching buttons.
First, always bet the max coins. Usually, this is five coins. Why? Because the payout for a Royal Flush gets a massive "bonus" jump when you bet five coins compared to one through four. If you bet one coin and hit a Royal, you might get 250 coins. If you bet five, you get 4,000. It’s the single biggest mistake beginners make. If five coins is too expensive, move to a lower denomination machine (like a nickel or penny machine) rather than betting fewer coins on a quarter machine.
Second, use a strategy card. You can buy these in casino gift shops or find them online for free. They are perfectly legal to have at the machine. They rank every possible starting hand from best to worst. You just look at your cards, find the highest thing on the list that matches what you have, and hold those cards. It takes the guesswork out of it.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Trip
- Identify the Game: Look for "Jacks or Better" as your starting point. It’s the easiest strategy to learn.
- Check the Pay Table: Look at the Full House and Flush lines. If it's 9 for the Full House and 6 for the Flush, you’ve found a winner. If it’s 8/5 or 7/5, keep walking.
- Get a Player’s Club Card: Since the house edge is so thin on good video poker games, the "comps" (free meals, rooms, or "free play" cash) often tip the scales in your favor. The casino is essentially paying you to play a game where they barely have an advantage.
- Practice Online: There are dozens of free trainers that will beep at you when you make a "sub-optimal" move. Spend twenty minutes on one of those before you put real money on the line.
- Slow Down: Unlike a slot machine where you want to spin as fast as possible, video poker rewards thinking. Take your time. The machine isn't going anywhere.
Video poker games aren't just about gambling; they're about the challenge of playing a perfect game. It’s one of the few places in a casino where your brain is actually an asset. Whether you're playing for quarters at a bar or high-stakes in a private room, the goal is the same: stay disciplined, watch the pay tables, and wait for the math to do its thing.