Jacks or Better is the base game of video poker. It uses a standard 52-card deck with no wild cards, and the lowest paying hand is a pair of jacks. Most other video poker variants are built on its paytable, so learning Jacks or Better first makes the rest easier.

Rules in Brief

• You are dealt five cards from a shuffled 52-card deck.
• You hold any number of cards (none to all five) and draw replacements once.
• The final hand is paid according to the paytable. Payouts include your stake, so “1” for a pair of jacks means you get your bet back.
• Pairs of 2s to 10s pay nothing. A pair of jacks, queens, kings or aces is a “high pair” and pays 1.

The 9/6 Paytable

“9/6” refers to the payouts for a full house (9) and a flush (6). This is the full-pay version.

Hand	Pays per coin (1–4 coins)	Pays for 5 coins	Probability after the draw (optimal play)
Royal flush	250	4,000	0.0025% (1 in 40,391)
Straight flush	50	250	0.0109% (1 in 9,148)
Four of a kind	25	125	0.236% (1 in 423)
Full house	9	45	1.15% (1 in 87)
Flush	6	30	1.10% (1 in 91)
Straight	4	20	1.12% (1 in 89)
Three of a kind	3	15	7.44% (1 in 13.4)
Two pair	2	10	12.93% (1 in 7.7)
Jacks or better	1	5	21.46% (1 in 4.7)
Nothing	0	0	54.54%

With optimal strategy and the 4,000-coin royal, the return is 99.54% (house edge 0.46%). The common reduced tables are 8/5 (97.30%), 7/5 (96.15%) and 6/5 (95.00%). Online versions sometimes pay 800x the total stake for a royal at any bet size; check the help screen.

Optimal Strategy: Hold Order

The list below ranks what to keep from your first five cards. Find the highest line that matches your hand and hold those cards. It is a simplified version of the computer-derived strategy for 9/6 and comes within a few hundredths of a percent of the full 99.54%.

1. Royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind (made hands; keep all)
2. Four to a royal flush
3. Full house, flush, straight, three of a kind (made hands)
4. Two pair
5. Four to a straight flush
6. High pair (jacks or better)
7. Three to a royal flush
8. Four to a flush
9. Low pair (2s to 10s)
10. Four to an outside straight (open at both ends, e.g. 5-6-7-8)
11. Two suited high cards (e.g. Q♥ J♥)
12. Three to a straight flush
13. Two unsuited high cards (if you have three, keep the two lowest)
14. Suited 10 with a J, Q or K (e.g. 10♠ J♠)
15. One high card
16. Discard everything

Worked examples

Dealt hand	Correct hold	Why
K♠ K♦ 8♣ 4♥ 2♠	K♠ K♦	High pair (line 6); never keep a kicker
A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥ 3♥	A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥	Four to a royal (line 2) beats the made flush (line 3)
9♣ 9♦ J♠ Q♥ 4♣	9♣ 9♦	Low pair (line 9) beats two unsuited high cards (line 13)
J♦ Q♦ K♦ 7♦ 2♣	J♦ Q♦ K♦	Three to a royal (line 7) beats four to a flush (line 8)
5♠ 6♥ 7♣ 8♦ K♠	5♠ 6♥ 7♣ 8♦	Outside straight draw (line 10) beats one high card
A♣ K♦ Q♠ 7♥ 3♣	K♦ Q♠	Line 13: with three unsuited high cards, keep the two lowest
3♣ 7♦ 9♠ 2♥ 5♣	Draw five	Nothing qualifies

Why some holds look wrong but are right

• Breaking a flush for a royal draw. A made flush is worth 6. Drawing one card to A-K-Q-J suited has a 1 in 47 chance of the royal (800 per coin at max bet), plus chances of a flush, straight or high pair. The expected value of the draw is higher.
• Low pair over two high cards. A low pair pays nothing as dealt, but it improves to two pair, trips, a full house or quads about 29% of the time. Two high cards make a paying hand less often.
• Keeping the two lowest of three high cards. With A-K-Q unsuited, holding K-Q leaves more ways to make a straight than holding A-K, because an ace can only complete straights at one end.

Mistakes That Lower Your Return

Errors are measured against the 99.54% ceiling. The paytable and coin choices have exact, fixed costs:

Mistake	Approximate cost
Playing fewer than max coins on a 250/800 royal game	About 1.2%
Playing 8/5 instead of 9/6	2.24%
Playing 6/5 instead of 9/6	4.54%

Strategy errors such as holding a kicker with a pair, chasing inside straights over a low pair, or keeping a single high card over a low pair each cost a fraction of a percent when repeated. The paytable choice is still the largest single factor: choosing a 9/6 game matters more than learning the last lines of the strategy.

Expected Results Over a Session

With A$1 per hand (5 coins of 20 cents) at about 600 hands per hour, you put A$600 per hour into play. The theoretical cost at 99.54% is about A$2.76 per hour. The swings are much larger than that: in a few hundred hands without a royal, results usually land below the theoretical return, because about 2% of the game’s value comes from royal flushes. A session of 500 hands has roughly a 1.2% chance of including a royal.

For bankroll planning, treat 9/6 Jacks or Better as low to medium variance. Read bankroll management before choosing your stake, and use deposit and session limits on your casino account.

Where Jacks or Better Fits

Game	Paytable	RTP (optimal)	Variance
Jacks or Better	9/6	99.54%	Lower
Bonus Poker	8/5	99.17%	Slightly higher
Double Double Bonus	9/6	98.98%	High
Deuces Wild	Full pay	100.76%	Medium-high

If you want table poker with a dealer instead, Three Card Poker and Casino Hold’em are the closest live options. Hand values follow the standard poker hand rankings. For the theory behind RTP, see RTP explained. Jacks or Better is in the video poker sections of casinos running Games Global (Microgaming) or Betsoft titles, for example MrPunter; check the paytable in the game before you play. More poker games are listed in the casino poker guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Even at 99.54% the house keeps an edge. Only play if you are 18 or older; Gambling Help Online (1800 858 858) offers free, confidential support 24/7.