House Edge
The odds in video poker vary from machine to machine. On full pay machines, the House edge for a jacks or better game with perfect strategy is less than .5 percent.
On a full pay deuces wild machine with optimal strategy, the edge actually shifts in favor of the player, for about a .77 percent edge. Finding a full pay deuces wild machine is difficult. Playing optimal strategy consistently is also a challenge, but it is possible.
Full Pay Video Poker
What does full pay mean? The optimal pay table for the type of video poker you are playing. To get the best odds, you must be working with a pay table this favorable or better.
A full pay jacks or better machine pays 1-for-1 for a pair of jacks through aces, 2-for-1 for two pair, 3-for-1 for three of a kind, 4-for-1 for a straight, 6-for-1 for a flush, 9-for-1 for a full house (due to the flush and full house payouts, these machines are often referred to as 9/6 machines) and 25-for-1 for a full house.
On progressive video poker machines, a straight flush usually pays 10 percent of the progressive prize pool and a Royal flush the entire prize pool. If the machine is not progressive or you do not play the maximum amount of coins, you can expect 50 coins for a straight flush and 800 for the Royal.
The full pay deuces wild machine pays 1-for-1 for three of a kind, 2-for-1 for a straight or flush, 3-for-1 for a full house, 5-for-1 for four of a kind, 9-for-1 for a straight flush, 15-for-1 for five of a kind, 25-for-1 for a Royal flush with wild cards and 200-for-1 for four deuces. On a Royal flush with no wild cards, the payout is 800-for-1.
