A Guide to the Best Video Poker Payback Percentages

Which Video Poker Games to Play?

There are dozens of video poker games available. But discerning players will only play a few of these. If you are playing video poker only to win, you want to play only those games that have a positive expectation.

What does positive expectation mean? It means the player can expect to make more money than he or she loses after playing the game steadily. In terms of payback percentage, it means a rate of over 100%. A game with, say, 100.5% payback percentage is a positive expectation game.

The Best Video Poker Games

The most famous video poker player in the world is Bob Dancer. He and his wife Shirley have won millions playing the best video poker games. Dancer always tells his students that if they would play only one game, it should be Deuces Wild.

Deuces Wild is a video poker game where all two's are wild cards. If you get two kings, a four, an ace and a two, for example, you get a three of a kind instead of a one pair. The trade-off is that the minimum hand is just that—a three of a kind. But a full-pay Deuces Wild game still has a high payback percentage at 100.76%.

Players around the world rushed to full-pay Deuces Wild machines when they read about the Dancers' success in video poker. Unfortunately for them, the casinos were paying attention too. Ever since the surge of popularity of the game thanks to the success of a few professionals, Deuces Wild has become increasingly rare. If you are lucky enough to find a casino that offers full-pay Deuces Wild, you will probably not be the only one eager to play it.

Other than Deuces Wild, there are a few other video poker games with a payback percentage of over 100%. You can play the 10/7 Double Bonus Poker or some versions of Joker Wild Poker. The 10/7 Double Bonus Poker game has a payback percentage of 100.17%. Joker Wild Poker with a pay table of 94/200/100/50/20/7/5/3/2/1/1 has the highest payback percentage of all video poker games: 101.0%.

Other Video Poker Games and Their payback percentages

If you play video poker for fun and not as a profession, you should check out some other games that also have high payback percentages. While they are not positive expectation games, the house edge in these variants are still very low and the games are quite enjoyable.

Look for a 9/6 Jacks or Better game. The 9 and 6 refer to the payoffs for a full house and a flush respectively. This variant has a 99.Look for a 9/6 Jacks or Better game. The 9 and 6 refer to the payoffs for a full house and a flush respectively. This variant has a 99.54% payback percentage if played with correct strategy.

Another game is Pickem Poker, a video poker game derived from Stud Poker. The lowest paying hand in this game is a pair of nines. The payback percentage is an impress 99.95%.

In summary, the best video poker choices are:

Deuces Wild Double Bonus Poker Joker Wild Poker (some) Jacks or Better Pickem Poker

For best results, play only those video poker games with a payback percentage of 99% or higher. You will break even in the long run, if not make money. And that's on top of having hours of fun at the casino.