Types of Video Poker Machines Explained

Video poker machines all share one core game — you are dealt five cards, choose which to hold, and draw replacements for the rest — but they split into a handful of families that change the paytable, the wild cards, and the minimum paying hand. The main types are Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus, Deuces Wild, and Joker Poker. Which one you sit at matters: the paytable printed on the screen decides the long-run return, and two machines running the “same” game can pay very differently.

Unlike a slot, video poker is a skill game. Because the full deck and every payout are known, mathematicians have solved the optimal hold for each variant, and the theoretical return-to-player (RTP) is fixed once you know the paytable.

The core video poker families

Machine type	Wild cards	Minimum paying hand	Full-pay RTP
Jacks or Better (9/6)	None	Pair of jacks	99.54%
Bonus Poker (8/5)	None	Pair of jacks	99.17%
Double Double Bonus (9/6)	None	Pair of jacks	98.98%
Deuces Wild (full pay)	All four 2s	Three of a kind	100.76%
Joker Poker (Kings or Better)	One joker	Pair of kings	~98.6%

RTP figures assume the full-pay paytable for each game and perfect hold strategy. Casinos frequently offer short-pay versions of the same title, which can drop the return by one to three full percentage points.

Jacks or Better: the baseline

Jacks or Better is the original and the reference point for every other machine. It has no wild cards, and the smallest hand that pays is a pair of jacks (paying even money). The paytable is named by its full-house and flush payouts, so 9/6 means 9-for-1 on a full house and 6-for-1 on a flush, giving a 99.54% return. Weaker 8/5 and 7/5 versions are common in tourist areas and pay noticeably less.

Bonus and Double Double Bonus

The Bonus family keeps the Jacks-or-Better structure but pays extra for four of a kind, especially quad aces. Double Double Bonus goes further, adding premium payouts for four aces with a low kicker (a 2, 3, or 4). That excitement comes at a cost: to fund the big quad jackpots, these games shave payouts on smaller hands, so even the full-pay 9/6 Double Double Bonus returns 98.98% — below plain Jacks or Better — and swings much harder.

Deuces Wild

In Deuces Wild, all four 2s are wild and can complete any hand. This creates so many made hands that the minimum paying hand jumps up to three of a kind, and a natural royal flush pays less than in Jacks or Better. The full-pay paytable is one of the rare positive-expectation games in a casino at 100.76% — but that specific paytable has become extremely scarce, and short-pay Deuces sits well below 100%.

Joker Poker

Joker Poker adds a single joker (a 53-card deck) as a wild card. The most common version raises the minimum paying hand to a pair of kings and returns around 98.6%. Adding a wild also introduces a five of a kind, which ranks between a straight flush and a royal.

A worked hold: the same hand, different machines

Say you are dealt Q♥ J♥ T♥ 9♥ 3♣. You hold the four hearts — but the right reason shifts by machine:

• In Jacks or Better, Q♥ J♥ T♥ 9♥ is a four-card straight flush that is also a four-card flush and an open-ended straight draw — a clear hold for a shot at the straight flush.
• In Deuces Wild, this same four-card straight flush is even stronger, because any of the four wild deuces you draw completes a paying hand more easily.

A note on terminology

Outside North America the phrase “poker machines,” or pokies in Australia, almost always means slot machines, which are games of pure chance with no drawing decisions. Video poker is a separate, skill-influenced game. If you are hunting for a video poker cabinet abroad, ask specifically — the local “poker machine” is probably a slot.

Video poker rewards reading the paytable more than anything else. Learn the 9/6 Jacks or Better baseline first, use the standard hand rankings that every machine is built on, compare it with the dealer-versus-player format of Caribbean stud, and browse the wider poker variants hub or the rules and how-to-play guides to round out your game.