The Jacks Or Better Video Poker Game
As we've seen, the casino has a .5% advantage. But because it's readily available in Vegas arid a lot of other video poker variations are derived from it, I also consider it the de-facto standard. Often you'll see payouts of 9/2, 10/1, or even 100/1 when you're playing video poker, especially in slot machines. The trick, if you can it's called Jacks Or Better, is to have a Jacks Or Better machine. A lot of players think that because it's easy to get a high cards payout, it's a good machine. That's not the case, the machine has a built in inherent disadvantage that you'll almost certainly lose more hands than you win. Take a look at the graph below.
The Jacks Or Better machine graph looks like this for a reason, and that reason is that the Q-J combinations tend to wipe out the lower pairs. If you're good with your jacks and above, you're not going to win much money with just a pair of 6's or less. Ideally, you'll want a royal flush right? That's why video poker is so addictive. The Jacks Or Better is a variant that offers that. The U.S.opoly Video Poker also offers a variation of the same, featuring all of the familiar symbols (minus the zeros). Essentially it's the same game, just with bonus games. U.S.opoly Video Poker is a popular variant of online video poker that is offered at many online casinos.
Your starting hands - The Jacks Or Better, Sleets, Deuces Wild, Double Joker, Taw Ink, Three Card Poker (and "days" of the week).
Bonus games - Yes, you can play bonus games in Jacks Or Better, except the payoff is usually $50,000 instead of $1.00. In addition, bonus games are offered in U.S.opoly Video Poker.
U.S.opoly Video 7Meter is normally played on a 6+5 video poker machine. Some U.S.opoly variations, like Wild Card USA and Jackpot Stars, use all 6-regions. But, these games have the distinct disadvantage of the player having to pay more to win less. But, they're still worth playing, and the ease of winning with all hits and nines makes it very entertaining.
Jacks Or Better is the simplified form of video poker. It's the simplest form since all you have to do to win is match the hand with the banker's hand.
The most effective way to win playingJacks Or Better is to get as close to 21 as possible, without going over; but, you can't really count cards so it's harder to get the hang of the game.
Tips for winning - The most important tip is to understand the frequency of each hand; it's easy to learn the rules of Jacks Or Better, but it's trickier than Blackjack. The most difficult part with this game is learning when to hit and press your bets, when to stand, but once you get the hang of it, the game becomes easier.
Two of a kind is the most common hand in Jacks Or Better, and thanks to that, you have a better chance of hitting two of a kind, than the banker does.
The ideal hand to have, according to mathematical calculations, has a card total of 8,9,10,J, or Q. Obviously, if two players both have a nine-high hand, it's a tie, and you get the choice of picking a loser. That's the worst hand in a way, because you have no chance of winning… unless you've bucked all the odds with a gut-shot straight.
Naturally, if you both have a low hand, and a high card, that will always win, because you're both trying to bust the dealer.
"Jacks Or Higher" will win at showdown against all hands of 23 all the time. But, the best hand a player can have is "better than a Jacks" but that rarely happens, and even when it does, you'll likely win only a small amount.
Big Numbers and Small Numbers
Remember that in a 52-card game of Blackjack, the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are low and the numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10 are high.
The small numbers are 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, and King. So, if you have three cards, you have a pair, and you want three more. You don't want two pairs, and you don't want a third card. So, you have three cards and you want three more.