Video poker strategy basics: what to keep before the draw

A chart is a ranked list. You look at the five cards you were dealt, note every hold that could make sense, then find the one that sits highest on the list and keep exactly those cards. The ranking comes from computer analysis of every possible draw against one pay table, so each line already weighs how often a draw comes in against what it returns when it does.

Two things follow. First, a chart belongs to its pay table: change the full house or flush payout and a few lines change places. Second, the most widely published charts are built for full-pay tables, which Springbok's machines do not always match. The pay tables guide puts Springbok's figures beside the published ones, and the notes below say where the gap matters.

1. 1

   Read the machine's table

   Note the lowest paying hand and any wild cards. Those two facts decide which pairs and draws are worth anything.

2. 2

   List what your five cards offer

   A made hand, a pair, four to a flush or straight, three or four to a royal, high cards. Most deals give you two or three options.

3. 3

   Take the highest line that matches

   Keep exactly those cards. No line on the charts cited here adds a spare card kept for luck.

4. 4

   Draw once and move on

   Each deal is independent of the last, so the chart reads the same after a win as after a loss.

5. 5

   Rehearse in practice mode

   Run the chart in Try It! with play credit until the holds come without a lookup, before any real money goes in.

The 9 Jacks-based machines at Springbok share a natural deck and the same lowest paying hand, a pair of Jacks or higher. The most widely cited chart for the family is the Wizard of Odds simple strategy for full-pay Jacks or Better. In plain words, its order runs like this:

1. A dealt four of a kind, straight flush or royal flush stays as it is.
2. Four cards to a royal flush rank second, above even a dealt straight or flush.
3. Then any other made hand from three of a kind to a full house, then four to a straight flush.
4. Two pair, then a single high pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces.
5. Three to a royal flush, then four to a flush, then a low pair of 2s to 10s.
6. Four to an open-ended straight, then two high cards of one suit.
7. Below that the chart works through smaller draws and loose high cards, and its last line is to redraw all five.

Two habits fall out of that list. A pair is kept on its own: no line adds a spare high card, or kicker, beside it. And a low pair outranks four cards to an open-ended straight, as in the deal below, where the two 6s stay and the 7, 8 and 9 go.

Springbok's own Jacks or Better pays a smaller full house and a smaller flush than the table behind that chart, so treat its finer lines as close rather than exact. On the bonus games, where quads pay by rank, the published charts move further. The Wizard of Odds chart for Bonus Poker, on a table close to Springbok's, puts an unsuited King-Queen-Jack-10 ahead of a low pair, where the short Jacks list keeps the pair. Each machine page carries notes for its own table: start with Jacks or Better at Springbok or Bonus Poker at Springbok.

Once every 2 is wild, nothing below Three of a kind pays, and the first question on any deal is how many deuces you hold. The Wizard of Odds simple chart for full-pay Deuces Wild is arranged exactly that way, with one short list for each count from four deuces down to none, and every hold on those lists keeps the deuces you were dealt.

• Four deuces: keep them. The hand already pays.
• Three deuces: keep just the three, unless the deal is already a wild royal.
• Two deuces: hold on to a pat four of a kind or anything better, or four cards to a royal. Apart from a few straight flush draws, everything else means keeping only the two deuces.
• One deuce: made hands and strong royal or straight flush draws come first; failing those, the deuce on its own.
• No deuces: a pair ranks above four to a flush. With two pair, keep one pair and throw the other away, because two pair returns nothing on these machines and the chart notes that a single pair is worth more.

Springbok's Deuces Wild is not the full-pay table that chart was built on: four of a kind returns 4 there, while the full house returns 4 and the flush 3. Loose Deuces returns 500 for four deuces at 1 coin, and Bonus Deuces Wild adds separate rows for five aces and other fives of a kind. The deuce-counting habit carries across all three machines; the finer lines do not.