Hit Royal Flushes More Often in Video Poker

Optimal strategy varies depending on the game (jacks-or-better, deuces wild, joker poker, and so forth.), but two-card royals are generally much better to hold than three or four high cards. That's just one example of optimal strategy. You're missing many more valuable combinations.

For example, a major part of video poker's payback comes from trips, full houses, and quads. Most of those paying hands will never appear unless you properly holds low pairs over non-paired high cards. Optimal strategy produces quads about once every hour on a single-hand 9/6 jacks-or-better machine. That's a nice 125-credit payoff when wagering maximum credits. Mini-jackpots like that keep your bankroll from withering. This allows you more opportunities to shoot for the big royal.

Consider this hand:

 

You should hold the low pair. The long-term value of holding the pair is almost twice as high as the value of the three high cards.

Here's another example:

You should hold the queen and jack (two-card royal); drop the ace, 10, and 5.

Here's a tricky one:

You should hold the three-card royal; drop the king and 4.

Keep this in mind. A royal flush usually appears about once in every 40,000 hands when a player uses optimal strategy. It takes about 100 hours of single-hand video poker to play 40,000 hands, or about 25 hours if you're playing four-handed. You told me that you've been playing "for the past seven years." Let's say you played two days per month (four hour per day, single-hand games). That's 672 hours. You probably have missed about six royals, or $24,000 on $1 games, $6,000 if it was quarters. And that's just lost royals. Think of all the other paying hands you may have missed.

Let's end the drought. It's time for you to hit a royal.

You'll find optimal strategies for video poker and more money-saving tips in The Smarter Bet Guide to Slots and Video Poker. Good luck... or better yet... good strategy!