Video Poker Strategy Charts: How to Play Every Hand
Video poker strategy charts for Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild, with the exact hold/discard priority order behind every optimal decision.
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Video Poker Strategy Charts: How to Play Every Hand
The short answer
A video poker strategy chart is a ranked list telling you exactly which cards to hold and which to discard for every possible five-card hand, ordered by expected value from best to worst. Video poker has a finite, calculable set of outcomes for every hold decision, so these charts aren't opinions or rules of thumb. They're the output of exhaustive combinatorial math. In 2026, following one closely was worth 2% or more of total return compared to playing on instinct (Wizard of Odds, Video Poker, retrieved 2026-07-24).
If you haven't read our video poker explained guide yet, that's the place to start for the basic deal-and-draw mechanics. This article assumes you already know the loop and want the actual decision-making reference.
Why does a strategy chart even exist for a card game?
Because video poker isn't really "poker" in the sense of reading opponents. It's a fixed-payout math problem. Every possible five-card starting hand, combined with every possible way you could hold 0 to 5 of those cards, produces a calculable expected value. That value is based on the odds of drawing into each possible final hand and what that final hand pays on the specific paytable you're playing. Run every combination through that calculation, rank the results, and you get a strategy chart. It's the same category of exercise as calculating basic strategy in blackjack, just for a different game structure.
This is also why strategy charts are paytable-specific. A chart built for full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better isn't identical to one for 8/5 Jacks or Better or for Deuces Wild. Change the payouts or add wild cards, and some of the close-call decisions flip. Always match your chart to the exact variant and paytable you're actually playing. See our odds and paytables guide to confirm which paytable you're looking at.
What's the general Jacks or Better hold priority?
For standard 9/6 Jacks or Better, which returns 99.54% with perfect play (Wizard of Odds, Jacks or Better Strategy, retrieved 2026-07-24), the priority order from best hold to worst runs:
Priority | Hold this | Notes |
|---|---|---|
1 | Royal flush | Hold all 5 |
2 | Straight flush | Hold all 5 |
3 | Four of a kind | Hold 4, discard the 5th |
4 | Four cards to a royal flush | Hold 4, draw 1 |
5 | Full house | Hold all 5 |
6 | Flush | Hold all 5 |
7 | Three of a kind | Hold 3, draw 2 |
8 | Straight | Hold all 5 (unless a stronger draw below outranks it) |
9 | Four cards to a flush | Hold 4, draw 1 |
10 | Two pair | Hold both pairs, draw 1 |
11 | High pair (jacks or better) | Hold the pair, draw 3 |
12 | Three cards to a royal flush | Hold 3, draw 2 |
13 | Four cards to an open straight | Hold 4, draw 1 |
14 | Low pair (10s or lower) | Hold the pair, draw 3 |
15 | Nothing above | Draw 5 fresh cards |
Two edge cases trip up most players: a low pair versus a four-card flush draw, and a high pair versus a three-card royal flush draw. In both cases the correct answer depends on exact card ranks. The safe general rule is that a made high pair (jacks or better) beats a three-card royal draw more often than instinct suggests, but a low pair usually loses to a four-card flush draw. When in doubt, prioritize the hand you can already see, such as a pair, over a draw you're chasing, unless that draw is specifically a four-card flush or four-card straight.
How does the Deuces Wild chart differ?
Deuces Wild changes the math substantially because all four 2s act as wild cards. A hand with even one deuce is already dramatically stronger than the same hand without one. In 2026, full-pay Deuces Wild returned 100.76% with optimal play, one of the few positive-expectation games in a casino (Video Poker Edge, Deuces Wild pay table, retrieved 2026-07-24; Wizard of Odds, Deuces Wild, retrieved 2026-07-24). The hold priority shifts to something closer to:
- Four deuces (an automatic top-tier hand)
- Natural royal flush
- Four of a kind or better made with deuces
- Wild royal flush (royal flush using 1-3 deuces)
- Five of a kind
- Straight flush
- Four of a kind
- Full house
- Three of a kind (with no deuces)
- Flush
- Straight
- Three deuces alone (extremely strong — draw 2)
Notice there's no pair-based payout tier at all in most Deuces Wild paytables. Three of a kind is typically the lowest paying hand, a fundamentally different structure from Jacks or Better's "pair of jacks or better" floor. This is why memorizing one chart doesn't transfer to the other game. They reward different holding behavior entirely.
Why does chart-based play matter so much more than it seems?
The house edge on a good paytable is already tiny, just 0.46% for full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better (Wizard of Odds, Jacks or Better Strategy, retrieved 2026-07-24; confirmed by ReadyBetGo, 9/6 vs 8/5 Jacks or Better, retrieved 2026-07-24). Because of that, the gap between chart play and instinct play is usually several times larger than the edge itself. A player giving up 2% to bad decisions on a game with a 0.46% built-in edge is losing roughly four to five times more to their own play than to the house. That ratio flips the usual casino-game framing. In most games, the house edge dominates your results; in video poker played on a good paytable, your own decision quality dominates.
How do you actually use a chart at the table or on a screen?
Practically, most serious players keep a physical printed card or a phone reference open beside them. Many casinos and sites allow this, since it's not "advantage play" in any prohibited sense; it's public, calculated information. Scan your dealt hand, find the highest-priority category it matches on the chart, hold accordingly, and draw. With repetition the common patterns become close to automatic, especially for the clear top-tier hands like flushes and full houses, leaving only the genuine close calls to actually think through.
Where can you practice using these charts?
Wild.io's video poker category has Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild Video Poker available to play directly. That's the fastest way to build pattern recognition against a chart in real hands rather than just reading about it. Our Jacks or Better deep-dive walks through the same chart with worked hand examples if you want more context before playing.
How do you play responsibly while using a strategy chart?
A strategy chart improves your long-run expected return. It does not guarantee any individual session goes well, and it doesn't eliminate variance or the underlying house edge. Set your bankroll and loss limit before you start playing, and don't let a string of correctly-played but unlucky hands tempt you into raising your bet size to "catch up." Wild Academy's responsible gambling resources has support tools if you'd like them.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a different strategy chart for every casino?
No, but you do need a chart that matches the exact paytable of the machine you're playing, not just the variant name. Two machines both labeled "Jacks or Better" can have different full house and flush payouts, such as 9/6 versus 8/5, and the correct chart differs slightly between them. Check our odds and paytables guide to identify which paytable you're on.
Is using a strategy chart considered cheating?
No. Strategy charts are publicly available, mathematically derived reference material, no different in principle from a blackjack basic strategy card. They tell you how to play the cards you're already dealt; they don't affect what cards you receive or manipulate the game in any way.
What's the single most common strategy mistake?
Holding an unrelated high card, or "kicker," alongside a low pair instead of discarding it and drawing three fresh cards. It feels intuitive but is measurably wrong in Jacks or Better. It reduces, not increases, your chances of ending up with a winning hand.
Why is Deuces Wild strategy so different from Jacks or Better strategy?
Wild deuces change what's achievable from a given hand so dramatically that the entire payout structure, and therefore the entire hold-priority order, is built around deuce count first and made-hand quality second. A hand with a deuce is usually much stronger than it looks at a glance, which is exactly the kind of thing a chart corrects for that instinct alone would miss.
How much practice does it take before chart play feels natural?
Most players report the clear top-tier decisions, like already-made flushes, full houses, and four of a kinds, become automatic within a session or two, since those don't require judgment calls. The genuine close-call decisions, such as low pair versus flush draw or high pair versus royal draw, take longer to internalize and are worth keeping the reference chart handy for indefinitely. ## Sources - Wizard of Odds: Video Poker Strategy — strategy calculation methodology and return figures (retrieved 2026-07-24) - Wizard of Odds: Video Poker — variant and paytable overview (retrieved 2026-07-24) - Wizard of Odds: Deuces Wild — full-pay Deuces Wild return figures (retrieved 2026-07-24) - Wikipedia: Video poker — game mechanics and history (retrieved 2026-07-24) - ReadyBetGo: 9/6 vs 8/5 Jacks or Better — return comparison across paytable cuts (retrieved 2026-07-24) - Video Poker Edge: Deuces Wild pay table — full-pay identification guide (retrieved 2026-07-24)
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About the author
Trust & Responsible Play Writer
Marcus focuses on judging casinos before you deposit — licensing checks, red flags, scam patterns — and the bankroll habits and limit tools that keep play under control.
