There were as many players at the low-payers as at the 9-6ers. In the days when each video poker machine had just one game - no touching the screen to try a different game - I once found a long row of 18 machines that alternated between 9-6 and 8-5 pay tables. The average loss for two hours of betting $1.25 a hand on a quarter machine is $5.75 with a 9-6 pay table, $34.75 at 8-5 and $48.12 at 7-5 - which ought to tell you why I’m always harping on finding the best pay tables. But the 2-for-1 payoff on two pairs packs a different kind of wallop, one that will keep you going for extra chances at the bigger pays. All quads pay 125 coins for a five-coin wager. There are no big four-of-a-kind bonuses that are going to make your day.

Jacks or Better is the least volatile of common video poker games, a game that’s designed to keep you in your seat. I showed him a bankroll calculator that was available on a video poker software program, and I worked on calculations for expert play for 1,000 hands - about two hours play for an average player.įirst up was Jacks or Better on three pay tables - the full-pay 9-6 game, paying 9-for-1 on full houses and 6-for-1 on flushes, which returns 99.54 percent with expert play the 8-5 game (97.30 percent) and the 7-5 game (96.15 percent) that’s becoming all too common on quarter games. “Do you have a guide to how much cash I need to last a couple of hours?” he asked. His goal is just to have a good time and stay in action for a couple of hours. My friend Mark isn’t a casino regular, but he likes to play a little video poker now and then.

Video poker bankroll requirements