Jacks or Better at Springbok: the pay table and the holds that matter

You choose a coin value and from 1 to 5 coins, then receive five cards from a natural deck with no wild cards. Pick the cards to keep, draw once to replace the rest, and the finished hand is paid from the table. One hand per deal is all the machine offers: its hand selector showed a single hand when the table was read. Lobby reading · 9 Oct 2026 (opens the source)

The bottom row sets the tone. A pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces hands your stake back and no more, and a pair of 10s or lower returns nothing at all. That makes high cards worth keeping in a way low cards are not, and it is the thread running through every hold note further down.

After a win, the game offers Double or Nothing: pick a card higher than the dealer's and the win doubles, pick lower and it is gone. That round sits outside the pay table, so it does not change anything below. Treat it as a separate bet and decide in advance whether you will touch it.

The best-known guide for this game is the Wizard of Odds simple strategy for Jacks or Better. It was calculated for the full-pay table, not for Springbok's smaller full house and flush, so use it as a close guide rather than an exact one. Used on every deal, it lowers the house edge hand by hand without taking it away.

The points that come up most often on a Springbok deal:

• Made hands from three of a kind up: keep them, with one exception. Four cards to a royal flush are worth more than a made straight or flush, so the chart breaks the made hand and draws one card.
• Two pair: keep both pairs and draw one card.
• One high pair: keep the pair alone. No line on the chart adds a third card, so a spare Ace or King beside it is a discard.
• Three to a royal against four to a flush: the chart prefers the three royal cards.
• Low pair (2s to 10s): it ranks below four to a flush, but above four to an open-ended straight and above loose high cards.
• Nothing made: two suited high cards come first, then three to a straight flush, then up to two unsuited high cards (the lowest two if you hold three), a 10 suited with a Jack, Queen or King, and a single high card. Failing all of that, redraw five.

Here is the exception in the first point at work: a made straight, Ace down to 10, with four spades to a royal.

The chart keeps the four spades and gives up the straight's 20 coins at 5 coins for a one-card draw. Most of the time that draw misses the royal; the chart takes it because of what the royal returns when it lands, 4,000 coins with all five in, and because a flush, a straight or a high pair can still come out of it. For how these rules compare with the wild-card machines, see video poker strategy basics.

Every coin value in the lobby applies here, from R0.05 to R5.00, so a hand runs from R0.05 at one small coin to R25.00 at five large ones. Because the royal bonus needs all five coins, a smaller coin value keeps it in play for less than a bigger one would: five coins at R0.05 cost the same as one coin at the next value up.

Jacks or Better is one of two machines for which a desktop notice was recorded on 9 October 2026: the browser reported that the Flash version has been retired and that the game remains available on mobile. The table above came from the mobile client, so plan to play it on a phone. Its Try It! mode is the place to rehearse the hold notes above: it opened with R1,000.00 in play credit when the table was read, and Springbok says it is granted only once. Springbok's claim · 9 Oct 2026 (opens the source)

Before real money goes in, pick a session figure and a stop time. Jacks or Better deals fast, and a pay table only says what a hand returns, never how often it arrives. If play stops feeling like entertainment, the NRGP line on 0800 006 008 is free and confidential.