Free Video Poker
9/6 Jacks or Better · 99.54% return with perfect play
Practice only. No real money, ever.
| Hand · coins bet | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four of a Kind | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Full House | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Straight | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two Pair | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Jacks or Better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Keys: 1–5 hold/unhold · Enter deal/draw · H best hold
Session stats
How to play
- Bet — choose a coin value, then 1 to 5 coins with Bet One. Bet Max sets 5 coins and deals right away.
- Deal — you get five cards from a fresh 52-card deck, shuffled every hand.
- Hold — tap the cards you want to keep (or press 1–5). Held cards are marked HELD.
- Draw — every card you didn't hold is replaced from the same deck. The final five cards are paid from the table above.
- Lowest win — a pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces returns your bet. A pair of 10s or lower pays nothing.
- Max coins — the Royal Flush pays 250 per coin for 1–4 coins but 4000 for 5 coins (800 per coin). That bonus is worth more than 1% of return, so always play 5 coins and lower the coin value instead if the bet is too big.
Why 9/6 matters
Jacks or Better machines are named for two numbers on the glass: what a Full House and a Flush pay per coin. This table is 9/6, the full-pay version, worth 99.54% with perfect play, a 0.46% house edge. Casinos cut those two numbers first. An 8/5 machine looks identical at a glance and returns about 97.3%, roughly six times the cost per hand. Check the Full House and Flush rows before you sit down.
The Best Hold button
Best Hold isn't a rule of thumb. For the hand on screen it tries all 32 ways to hold cards, deals out every possible draw from the 47 unseen cards (over 2.6 million final hands), and averages the paytable return of each. The top answer is the mathematically optimal hold for your coin level. Turn on Strategy check and the log tells you after each draw whether your hold matched it and what any mistake cost.
Simple strategy you can memorize
Hold the first item on this list that your hand contains. It's a simplified list, not perfect strategy: it returns about 99.46% versus 99.54% for perfect play, so use Best Hold when you want the exact answer.
- Royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind
- 4 cards to a royal flush
- Full house, flush, straight, three of a kind
- 4 cards to a straight flush
- Two pair
- High pair (Jacks or better)
- 3 cards to a royal flush
- 4 cards to a flush
- Low pair (2s through 10s)
- 4 cards to an outside straight (open at both ends, like 6-7-8-9)
- 2 suited high cards
- 3 cards to a straight flush
- 2 unsuited high cards (if you have three, keep the lowest two)
- 10 with a suited Jack, Queen or King
- 1 high card
- Nothing: draw five new cards
High cards are Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces. Two habits cost players the most: holding a kicker next to a pair, and keeping a lone high card instead of a low pair. A pair of threes beats a single Ace.
The full Jacks or Better strategy chart, with worked hands →
How 9/6 compares with 8/5 and other paytables →