Video Poker Strategy: Which Cards Should You Hold?

This guide uses 9/6 Jacks or Better with five coins, available in our free video poker simulator. There are no wild cards in this version. Every example below was checked against all possible holds and replacement draws for its exact five-card hand.

Start with the right game and settings

Select Jacks or Better 9/6 in the simulator. The name tells you that a single pair must be jacks or higher to pay. The “9/6” identifies two payouts: nine coins for a full house and six for a flush, for each coin staked.

A round has four steps: choose a denomination and coin count, select Deal, tap the cards you want to hold, then select Draw. Each unheld card is replaced once from the remaining deck. Your discarded cards do not come back during that draw. There is no opposing player to bluff and no dealer hand to beat.

Read the pay table before choosing a hold

These figures are the total coins returned, not profit plus a refunded stake. If you stake five coins and finish with a pair of jacks, five coins come back: you have broken even on that hand.

Most payouts scale directly with the coin count. The royal flush is the exception: one to four coins return 250 per coin, whereas five coins unlock a 4,000-coin return, equivalent to 800 per coin. That extra value affects which draws are worth keeping.

A flush is five cards of one suit. A straight is five consecutive ranks, with mixed suits allowed. An ace can be low in A–2–3–4–5 or high in 10–J–Q–K–A, but a sequence cannot wrap around from king through ace to two.

Seven hands worth learning

The highlighted cards are the ones to hold; the others should be replaced. These examples teach recurring decisions, but they are not a complete strategy chart. If the cards or pay table change, the best hold can change too.

Why the best decision can still lose

Expected value compares the average return of each possible hold. A five-card hand has 32 hold choices, from keeping nothing to keeping all five. For each choice, list the possible replacement combinations, work out their payouts and average them. The hold with the highest average is the best mathematical decision for that hand and pay table.

Consider the four-heart example above. Nine hearts remain among the 47 undealt cards, so drawing one card completes a flush with probability 9/47, about 19.15%. Three remaining kings can also make a paying pair. In units per coin staked, the expected return is therefore (9 × 6 + 3 × 1) / 47 = 57/47 ≈ 1.213. Most individual draws still return nothing.

The opposite can happen with a low pair: holding it may be the best available decision even when its average return is below the original stake. “Best” means highest among the choices available from that deal; it does not mean a profitable hand is guaranteed.

For full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better with the five-coin royal bonus, optimal play gives a theoretical long-run return of approximately 99.54%. That corresponds to roughly a 0.46% house edge over total stakes. A beginner using selected examples should not assume they achieve that figure. Michael Shackleford's strategy analysis distinguishes simplified play from the complete optimal strategy.

Common mistakes that change the result

Keeping a high card just because it looks valuable

An ace is not automatically more useful than an eight. In the low-pair example, keeping both eights gives the stronger draw. Evaluate what the cards can form together instead of ranking each card in isolation.

Keeping an unrelated kicker

In Jacks or Better, a spare high card beside a pair usually takes away a chance to improve the pair. The two-jack example shows the idea clearly. Do not carry this shortcut unchanged into Double Double Bonus, where certain kickers alter four-of-a-kind payouts.

Treating every four-card straight draw alike

With 6–7–8–9, either a five or a ten completes a straight. With 6–7–9–10, only an eight fills the gap. Suits, high cards and the fifth dealt card also matter. A discarded card remains unavailable during the draw, so even a card you throw away can affect the calculation.

Using one strategy for every variant

Our simulator also offers Bonus Poker, Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus and Deuces Wild. Different four-of-a-kind rewards, lower two-pair payouts or wild twos change the value of possible holds. The recommendations on this page apply to Jacks or Better 9/6, not to every option in the game selector.

Judging a hold by one lucky result

A poor hold can produce a royal flush, and a good hold can lose. Review the information you had before the draw. The cards that appeared afterwards cannot make an earlier decision better or worse.

A useful practice routine

1. Check the settings. Use Jacks or Better 9/6 and five coins, with a small virtual denomination.
2. Name the possibilities. Before drawing, identify any pair, made hand, flush draw or royal draw.
3. Explain your hold. Say which cards you are keeping and what improvements remain possible.
4. Review a small batch. After ten hands, revisit uncertain decisions. Compare choices, not just the session balance.

Once the familiar patterns feel natural, use a complete strategy reference for closer decisions such as competing three-card straight-flush draws and suited high cards. Video poker rewards careful decisions, but its short-term results remain variable.

Frequently asked questions

Does a pair of tens pay in Jacks or Better?

No. The lowest paying single pair is jacks. A lower pair can still be the best hold because drawing three cards can improve it.

Should I keep an ace next to a paying pair?

In the Jacks-or-Better example J-spades, J-hearts, A-diamonds, 7-clubs, 3-spades, keep only the jacks. The unrelated ace uses a slot that could instead improve the pair.

Should I always keep a made flush?

No. With five coins in 9/6 Jacks or Better, four cards to a royal flush can be worth more. In the example A-K-Q-J-6 all in spades, discard the six.

Is this a complete optimal strategy chart?

No. These are verified examples for 9/6 Jacks or Better with five coins. Close decisions depend on all five dealt cards and require a complete strategy chart or an exact hand analysis.

Does 99.54% RTP mean most hands win?

No. It is a theoretical long-run return under optimal play, not the chance of a winning hand or a promise about any particular session.

Can I use the same holds in Deuces Wild?

No. Wild cards and different payouts change the value of possible draws. Use a strategy matched to the selected variant and pay table.