Video Poker Pay Schedules

Video Poker pay schedules reveal some of the secrets the game it represents, hides. The biggest problem though, is that nobody can ever tell you how to read the pay table - how do you know which machine is a good choice just by checking out that simple payout schedule? The quick answer is, you can't tell just by looking at it, you'd have to run it through a computer to really know. Computer programs are quite capable of producing Video Poker Strategy Cards for particular video poker pay schedules. Most people simply buy these strategy cards from experts, or find a few online. Michael shackleford, a gambling mathematician provides good video poker coverage in his dedicated section, located here.

The basic valuable information (that is, how much a machine pays back) isn't printed right on the pay table, but hidden within it. You can either learn how good a particular machine is by reading websites like this one, books, or from computer software. A big part of your strategy will be finding video poker machines with pay schedules that match those of your basic strategy card. Have a look at this pay schedule:

The table itself shows the payoffs being scaled according to the number of coins you play. This means that if you pay two coins, you get paid twice as much as playing one. But the odds of winning don't change with the number of coins, as they might with a slot machine. In this pay schedule, a flush will pay five coins per coin played. This concept holds true for every hand except the royal flush. The royal flush is the equivalent of the progressive jackpot on a slot machine. You are ineligible for it unless playing full coins.

You will still win on any Video Poker machine when you hit a royal regardless of the number of coins you put in, but you win significantly more when you hit a royal while playing full coins. Because of this, a great number of books and resources recommend you always play video poker with full coins. For the most part this is the better choice. The numbers in a Video Poker pay schedule include your original bet. This means that in a game of Jacks or Better when you get a pair of jacks, the 1 in the pay table indicates that you're paid back your bet, but nothing more. Don't be fooled into thinking the numbers on the pay table represent dollars, they only represent coins. If you're playing a quarter machine, a 1000 on the pay-schedule will indicated 1000 quarters are paid back.