Video poker pay tables explained, from the top row down

Start at the bottom row, because it tells you what kind of game you are looking at. On Springbok's Jacks or Better machine the last row is a pair of Jacks or higher. On Deuces Wild it is Three of a kind, because with four wild 2s in the deck a plain pair turns up too often to pay. On Pick Em Poker it drops to 9s or Better (a pair of 9s or higher). Everything above is a ladder of scarcer hands, and the numbers climb with them.

The figures are totals, not profit. When a pair of Jacks returns 1 coin on a 1-coin bet, you have your stake back and nothing more. Two pair, returning 2 coins on the same bet, is the first row on that machine that leaves you ahead on the hand. Multiply any figure by your coin value to turn it into rand.

1. 1

   Start at the bottom row

   It names the lowest paying hand. Anything weaker returns nothing, so it also tells you which pairs are worth keeping.

2. 2

   Check for wild cards

   Deuces, sevens or a Joker change which hands are possible. Five of a kind only appears on tables that have wild cards.

3. 3

   Read across at your coin count

   Use the column for the number of coins you plan to bet, then multiply by your coin value to get the rand amount.

4. 4

   Compare the middle rows

   The full house and the flush are where versions of one game most often differ, so check those two before the top line.

5. 5

   Look for jumps and odd labels

   A row whose 5-coin figure is more than five times the 1-coin figure, or a label that does not fit the rules, changes how you should read the rest.

To try it, open the full Jacks or Better table below, tap a hand to see an example, and switch Show pays as to rand at any coin value from R0.05 to R5.00.

Most rows simply scale with the bet. Put five coins in and a full house, flush or straight returns five times what it returns for one. The royal flush usually breaks that pattern: on Jacks or Better at Springbok it returns 250 coins at 1 coin but 4,000 at 5 coins, far more than five times as much. The pay-table viewer marks rows like that with a small +.

That jump is why published strategy charts price the royal at its 5-coin rate. If you play video poker at all, the cheaper way to keep the royal bonus is a smaller coin value with all five coins in, rather than one coin at a bigger value. Five coins at the lowest coin value cost exactly what one coin at the next value up costs, as the stakes table shows.

Not every Springbok machine follows the pattern. On Bonus Deuces Wild the natural royal returns 800 coins at 1 coin and 4,000 at 5, exactly five times as much, so on that machine a full bet earns no royal premium. On Loose Deuces, four deuces return 500 at 1 coin, more than the royal's 300, until the fifth coin lifts the royal to 4,000. Read the 5-coin column on each machine rather than assuming.

A bigger bet is still a bigger bet. Settle the coin value your session budget can carry first, and only then the number of coins.

A pay table fixes what each hand returns, not how often each hand arrives, and a machine's long-run return comes from the two together. Change one row and the deal shifts for every player over thousands of hands, though the cards, the rules and the name stay the same. Trim the full house and the machine keeps a little more on average; raise the four-aces row and value moves from common hands to a rare one.

Your own decisions are the other half. Every published chart is worked out against a particular way of holding cards. Throw away a high pair to chase a flush, or keep a spare high card beside a pair, and the return on your hands falls below what the table allows. That half is the subject of the holding guide.

What you will not find on any of Springbok's machines is the resulting percentage. No game screen, help page or Springbok page we read states a return-to-player figure for its video poker, and this site does not work one out. Comparing two tables row by row shows which hands each one favours; it does not show that either will pay you more tonight.