Aces and Eights at Springbok: the pay table that rewards 8s and 7s

The rhythm is classic draw poker. Pick a coin size between R0.05 and R5.00, bet 1 to 5 coins and deal five cards. Mark the ones worth keeping, press draw, and the rest are swapped for new cards in a single replacement. Whatever you end with is checked against the table. Lobby reading · 9 Oct 2026 (opens the source)

The name nods to the "dead man's hand" of poker folklore, two pair of aces and eights, but the game pays that two pair like any other. What it rewards is four of a kind in the right ranks. Eights are the curious part: a pair of 8s sits below the Jacks-or-better line and pays nothing on its own, yet four of them pay as much as four aces.

Sevens get a row of their own a step lower, and every other four of a kind sits below that. With no wild cards and no kicker rows, the fifth card in a four of a kind never changes the award.

Each win can be banked as it stands or put up in Double or Nothing, a single higher-card-wins flip against the dealer that either doubles the amount or takes it.

The fifth row of the Aces and Eights pay table reads "4 Deuces w/Ace" on Springbok's game screen and pays 20 coins per coin. That label belongs to deuces-wild games. In Aces and Eights no card is wild, and the game's own help page lists plain Four of a Kind in that position.

The likeliest reading is a display slip, with the row standing for four of a kind in any rank that has no line of its own: 2s to 6s and 9s to Kings. That is an inference from the help page, not something the screen confirms, so Pay Table Room shows the label as the game prints it and the note under the pay table flags it. If a four of a kind in one of those ranks matters to you, open the help page from the game menu before you play for rand.

The same label turns up on Bonus Poker, another machine without wild cards, where the help page names a different set of ranks for that row.

Strategy here is about shaving the house edge on each decision, not about making the game pay. No published chart we found targets Springbok's exact table. The notes lean on the simple Jacks or Better order that Wizard of Odds publishes, and where the bonus fours could change a decision, the alternatives were compared draw by draw on this machine's rows.

• Two pair, the aces-and-eights hand included: keep all four cards. Two pair pays 2 per coin as it stands and leaves a one-card draw at a full house.
• Three aces, three 8s or three 7s: keep the three and draw two. There is no kicker row, so a fifth card held for company only removes a chance at the fourth.
• A pair of 8s or 7s: still a low pair that pays nothing by itself, but it is the start of a bonus four, so it is worth more than a pair of 5s or 6s with the same draw.
• Four to a flush against a low pair: the Jacks or Better chart keeps the flush draw. Counting every draw on Springbok's table, that still holds even when the pair is 8s, but the gap is much narrower than with a pair of 5s, because four 8s pay so well.
• A lone 8 or 7: not a high card. Unlike a Jack, a single 8 cannot become a paying pair, so it is no reason to hold.

For the full Jacks or Better hold order, see video poker strategy basics; to see this table beside every other machine in the lobby, open the pay table room on the home page.