When nothing on the screen pays

The deal is 5♠ 5♦ 2♠ 9♠ K♠, and nothing on the screen pays. Do you keep the pair of fives, or the four spades?

The same five cards with two different holds. The figure under each hold is what that hold gives back on average, in bets, over every possible draw from the cards left.

Leoformer dealer · rules and maths

The deals that trip people up are the ones where nothing pays. With a paying hand on the screen there is at least something to protect. With nothing, people grab whatever looks closest to a hand, very often a little pair, or they throw the lot away and start again.

A pair of fives pays nothing

In the online version of Jacks or Better, the lowest hand that pays is a pair of jacks. A pair of twos, of fives or of tens is on the screen and pays nothing: before the draw, a low pair is a start towards a hand, not a hand.

The only decision left is which cards to keep for the draw. Five cards can be kept in 32 different ways, from all five to none. A hold is worth the average of what every possible draw from the 47 cards left would pay, counted in bets: a hold worth one bet would give back, on average, exactly what was bet.

Four to a flush is worth more than a low pair

Back to the deal from the start. The four spades are a draw: 9 of the 47 cards left are spades, and any one of those spades makes a flush. The pair of fives has to turn into two pair, three of a kind or better before it pays anything at all.

The pair of fives ends in a paying hand on a larger share of its draws than the four spades do. The four spades are still worth more, because a flush pays far more than the two pair or three of a kind that a low pair mostly turns into.

So how often a hold ends in a paying hand is only half of the count: what each draw pays is the other half, and the value of a hold adds both halves together. Four to a flush is worth more than a low pair, and in Jacks or Better a pair from twos to tens never pays as dealt.

Three to a royal is worth more than four to a flush

The deal Q♠ J♠ 10♠ 3♠ 7♥ holds two draws at once: three to a royal flush, and four spades to a flush. The four spades include all three cards to the royal flush, so the whole choice is whether to keep the three of spades as well.

The three of spades is the reason. With the three of spades kept, only one card is drawn, and a royal flush needs both the ace and the king of spades, so the royal flush is out of reach. With the three of spades thrown away, two cards are drawn, and those draws reach a royal flush, straight flushes, flushes, straights and pairs of jacks or queens.

Each row is one hold of the same deal, and each column is a final hand. The four spades make a flush more often; three to a royal flush is still worth more, because its draws reach many more kinds of paying hand.

High cards: K Q J is worth more than Q J

A high card is a jack, a queen, a king or an ace: one of the four ranks whose pair pays. With no pair and no draw on the screen, high cards are what is left to keep, and keeping more of them gives more ways to a pair that pays.

Three cards whose pairs pay are also three cards to a straight.

Even one high card is worth more than throwing everything away. A low card kept beside the high card only takes a new card away: a pair of eights pays nothing, so an eight next to the queen adds no pair that pays.

Nothing at all: draw five

The deal 9♦ 4♣ 7♠ 2♥ 6♦ has no pair, no four cards to a flush or a straight, and no high card. Every hold left keeps one or more low cards, and every low card kept takes away one of the new cards, which could have been a jack or better.

Drawing five new cards is worth more than keeping any one of the five cards, and the five single cards sit close together, a little below the draw of five.

The order, from the hold worth the most down

The largest difference in the table is the first row: keeping a pair of fives that pays nothing, instead of four spades to a flush.

The order printed for the online version of the game runs the same way: three to a royal flush, then four to a flush, then a low pair, then one high card, then no card at all.

1. Three cards keptThree to a royal flushsuch as Q♠ J♠ 10♠
2. Four cards keptFour to a flushsuch as 5♠ 2♠ 9♠ K♠
3. Two cards keptA low pair, twos to tenssuch as 5♠ 5♦
4. One card keptOne high card, a jack or highersuch as Q♦
5. No card keptNothing: draw five new cardsas in 9♦ 4♣ 7♠ 2♥ 6♦

Each rung has an example from the deals above. The printed table numbers each line by how many cards to keep and gives no values; the values here are our count.

Under the standard for B.C. casinos, a machine may mark on its screen the holds it suggests, where that is allowed, and the held and non-held cards have to be clearly marked. The standard asks for the marking only; no casino, operator or regulator on land whose documents we could read prints which cards to hold.

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

None of these differences is large on a single deal, and a video poker machine deals fast. Mistakes are part of the price: count them in your plan, the same way you count the money and the time you set aside before the first deal.

When a run of bad draws makes you want the money back, take that as the moment for a break, not the moment for another bet.

Practice: which hold, with no pay

Every deal in the practice run pays nothing as dealt. Level 1 puts two draws into one deal and asks which draw is worth more. Level 2 brings high cards, and the deals where the answer is to keep nothing and draw five new cards. After each answer, every offered hold is named with its value and with how much less it is worth than the answer.

Nothing is bet here. There are no coins, no draws played out and no money coming back: the only decision practised is the one you make before pressing Draw.

Check yourself

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.

Back to the question we opened with. Keep the four spades. A pair of fives pays nothing in Jacks or Better, so the pair is a draw like the spades are, and four to a flush is the draw worth more.

Further reading

19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page

Further reading

• Jacks or Better: game rules (online version) · Loto-QuébecA full pay table by number of chips and a printed holding strategy, from Loto-Québec’s online casino.

How it’s worked out