Jacks-or-Better Payoff Schedule

Jacks-or-Better video poker offers a more attractive payoff rate than most other casino games, provided you choose a “full pay” machine – that is, one that offers the best rate. It’s important to know how to do this because casinos often place full pay machines alongside ones that offer reduced payoffs, leaving players to work out for themselves which machine will cost them more to play.

A Jacks-or-Better payoff schedule for a full pay machine offers a payback of 99.54 percent – meaning that with perfect play and assuming that you play five coins per round, you can still expect to lose about half a percent of whatever you bet. However, if a casino offers a rebate for playing with a card instead of coins, you can actually realize a small profit. Over the long run, something of a loss is still likely – whereas the Deuces Wild payoff schedule actually offers a theoretical payback of over 100 percent.

Here’s the Jacks-or-Better payoff schedule for a full pay machine, assuming you play five coins per round:

The lower payoff for any number of coins less than five means that you’ll stand to lose a much bigger percentage of what you bet, even if you play almost perfectly. For example, if you play with four credits (four coins), the total payoff for a royal flush is only 1000 coins – a quarter of the payoff for the same hand with five credits.

It’s worth remembering that the theoretical 95.54 percent return offered by a Jacks-or-Better payoff schedule factors in the probability of a jackpot – that is, a royal flush. However, you may play literally thousands of hands before actually hitting a jackpot.

For strategy tips on how to play Jacks-or-Better well, see Jacks-or-Better video poker.