Jacks or Better Intermediate Strategy. If you’ve played using the simple strategy before and want to challenge yourself more as a player, then you can move onto the intermediate strategy. When utilized correctly, it can result in a theoretical RTP of 99.52% – a noted increase on its simple alternative. This strategy differs in that it does not follow the same order of value as the previous one. The best odds when you play Jacks or better Are best on a 9 / 6 machine, it simply pays out more money to go with this machine. Jacks or Better Paytables Paytables can vary a small amount when playing Jacks or Better at different casinos, generally speaking though, the following is fairly standard.

• Jacks Or Better Strategy Chart
• Simple Strategy Table For 9/6 Jacks Or Better
• 9 6 Jacks Or Better Strategy

As I mentioned last time, there are some important differences between these two Jacks or Better games. What makes their differences important is that a 99.66% 8/5/35 Jacks or Better game (misnamedBob Dancer is one of the world's foremost video poker experts. He is a regular columnist for Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and the Las Vegas Review-Journa land has written an autobiography and a novel about gambling. He provides advice for tens of thousands of casino enthusiasts looking to play video poker. Bob's website is www.bobdancer.com 'Bonus Poker' by IGT) is a better game than 99.54% 9/6 Jacks.

In 9/6 Jacks, for instance, 'QJ8', 'KQ9' and 'KJ9' are preferred to AKQJ. These are all 3-card straight flushes with two high cards and two gaps. In 8/5 Jacks (whether the quads return 25 or 35), 'QJ8' is preferred to AKQJ, but 'KQ9' and 'KJ9' are not.

Jacks Or Better Strategy Chart

The easy part of this, discussed last week, is that the 3-card straight flushes decrease in value by about 20¢ (for the 5-coin dollar player) when flushes pay 5 instead of 6. Since the value of the flush doesn't affect the value of AKQJ, it's no wonder that strategy isn't identical between the games.

The harder question is why is 'QJ8' higher than AKQJ and 'KQ9' lower. Both combinations are 3-card straight flushes with two high cards and two gaps. Why should they have different values?

If the other two cards in the hand were lower than an 8, 'QJ8' and 'KQ9' would have identical values. But when the other two cards are such that the hand includes AKQJ, things change. This is an example of a 'straight penalty'.

When we look at 'QJ8' (and the other two cards are AK), there are four 9s in the deck and four Ts which can be used to get straights. When we look at 'KQ9' (and the other two cards are AJ), there are three Js and four Ts to create straights. The reason we have few cards to make a straight is because we were dealt a J and threw it away.

This straight penalty is worth 7.4¢. Whether this is a major or trivial amount depends on your perspective. To me, every 7.4¢ counts.

Let's look closer at 3-card straight flushes when we go from 9/6 to 8/5. All 2-gap straight flushes (such as 'KT9', 'A35', or '357') change in value by 20.35¢. One-gap straight flushes (such as 'QJ9' or '457') change in value by 19.89¢, and the no-gappers (such as 'JT9' or '345') change by 19.43¢. Does this strike you as strange? Only the value of the flush changed. Why would this affect these straight flush draws differently?

When we draw two cards to any combination in a 52-card deck, there are exactly 1,081 different 2-card combinations we could draw. Drawing to any three spades, for example, there will be exactly 45 out of 1,081 combinations that will give us five spades. These 45 5-spade combinations may include a royal flush, one or more straight flushes and the rest will be regular flushes.

On the combinations we are considering, a royal flush is not possible, so the number of straight flushes and regular flushes must add up to 45. To a 2-gap straight flush (such as '347'), there is exactly one combination that will complete a straight flush (namely '56' in this case), so that means 44 regular flushes are possible. To a 1-gap straight flush (such as 'JT8'), there are exactly two combinations that complete the straight flush (namely 'Q9' and '97' in this case), so that means 43 regular flushes are possible. Starting with a no-gap straight flush (such as '678') there are three combinations to complete the straight flush (namely '45', '59' and '9T'), which means there will be 42 regular flushes.

One extra flush opportunity out of 1,081 chances on a dollar game amounts to 0.46¢ when we change the value of a flush by one unit. This is not a number worth memorizing, but understanding why different 3-card straight flush combinations are affected differently by a change in the value of a flush helps you memorize strategies. The more you understand about video poker, the more strategies 'make sense' rather than are just a jumble of unrelated rules.

If you’ve read the other pages on this site, you’ll notice that we’ve mentioned several times what the expected return and payout percentages are on various versions of Jacks or Better. All of these payout percentages assume that you’re playing with a close to optimal Jacks or Better strategy. If you’re just playing at random, you can expect to do well still, but not as well as you would do if you followed even a simple Jacks or Better strategy.

Jacks or Better Strategy Tips

Here are a few Jacks or Better strategy tips:

• Don’t hang onto a “kicker” ever. You want to maximize your chances of getting 3 or 4 of a kind. A big 2 pair doesn’t help your payout.
• Don’t draw to an inside straight. An inside straight is a straight where only 1 card can complete the straight. (As opposed to an outside straight, where 2 cards can complete the straight. Obviously this is twice as likely to happen.)
• Don’t draw to 3 cards to a flush or to 3 cards to a straight. That’s a common rookie mistake.
• Don’t draw to 3 cards to a royal flush unless you don’t have anything better to draw too.
• Don’t break 2 pair trying to get 4 of a kind.
• Don’t break a full house trying to get 4 of a kind.

Simple Strategy Table For 9/6 Jacks Or Better

Jacks or Better Strategy Card

9 6 Jacks Or Better Strategy

Once you’ve mastered playing Jacks or Better using those strategy tips, give our big strategy card a try. Start at the top and move down. When you get to your hand, stop. This is a solid Jacks or Better Strategy:

• Royal flush
• Straight flush
• Four of a kind
• Four cards to a royal flush
• Full house
• Flush
• Three of a kind
• Straight
• Four cards to a straight flush
• Two pair Pair of jack or better
• Three cards to a royal flush
• Four cards to a flush
• 10-J-Q-K, unsuited
• Pair of 10’s or lower
• 9-10-J-Q, unsuited
• 8-9-10-J, unsuited
• 9-J-Q, suited
• 9-10-Q, suited
• Four cards to a straight, open-ended
• Three cards to a straight flush with two gaps & two high cards
• Three cards to a straight flush with one gap & one high card
• Three cards to a straight flush, open-ended, & no high cards
• J-Q-K-A, unsuited
• Two cards to a royal flush (two suited high cards)
• Four cards to a straight with one gap & three high cards
• Three cards to a straight flush with two gaps and one high card
• Three cards to a straight flush with two gaps and no high card
• J-Q-K, unsuited
• Two unsuited high cards (throw away the ace if you have three)
• Two cards to a royal flush with a 10 and no ace
• One high card
• Three cards to a straight flush, with two gaps and no high cards
• None of the above – draw five cards