How to play video poker — from zero to first smart session

Video poker deals you five cards; you choose which to hold, draw replacements once, and get paid by the final hand per the machine's paytable. No dealer, no opponents — just you against a printed table of payouts, which is exactly why perfect strategy is computable. Play a free hand first →

One hand, step by step

1. Bet. Pick a denomination and 1–5 coins. Play 5: the royal pays 800:1 at max coins but only 250:1 below — short-coining donates ~1.4% to the house for nothing.

2. Deal. Five cards appear. Every hand has 32 possible holds — from keeping nothing to keeping everything.

3. Hold. Tap the cards to keep. This is the entire skill of the game: each hold has one exact expected value, and you can see all 32.

4. Draw. Replacements come from the same 47-card remainder. The final hand pays per the table — jacks-or-better pair is usually the minimum.

Read the paytable before you sit

Two machines that look identical can differ by 4%+ in return. The tell is the single-coin column: full house 9 / flush 6 is the good Jacks or Better; 8/5 costs you $16.90 per hour at quarter stakes. The analyzer covers 18 tables with exact returns.

Your first five strategy rules

1. Never break a made straight or better — except four to a royal. 2. High pair beats keeping a kicker, always. 3. Low pair beats four to a straight, loses to four to a flush. 4. Don't hold two pair-plus-kicker; draw one. 5. No pair, no draw? Keep suited high cards, else J/Q/K/A singles, else toss all five.

That's ~90% of correct play. The last 10% — the part charts compress away — is what the trainer drills with exact EV feedback.

Bankroll reality

Even at 99.54%, variance is violent: royals fund ~2% of return and arrive once per 40390.5 hands — see the drought table before deciding what a "fair" session looks like.