The Highest Paying Video Poker Games

Video poker attracts players from all over the world in part because of the fast-paced, easy game play. But it’s also notable because it offers some of the highest payback of any casino game. We’re here to help you navigate the world of video poker by telling you about the highest-paying versions of the game.

When you head to a casino or to a gambling website, you’re likely to find many different versions of video poker available to you. The most common way video poker manufacturers change things up is by altering the pay tables. Every change that they make on the pay tables will also change the expected amount of return.

To help you make the most of your game play, we’re here to tell you about the highest-paying video poker games that you can find in casinos and at gambling websites. We’ll explain how we know these games are the highest-paying. And then we’ll give a brief overview of each one to help you choose.

What Is Payback Percentage?

The determining factor for which video poker pay tables are the most lucrative is payback percentage. Essentially, payback percentage is an estimation of how much money you can expect to have in your bankroll after playing a certain video poker game. Remember that it’s only an average, and that your results might vary compared to the quoted payback percentage.

For one, you have to play the game perfectly, in terms of deciding what cards to hold and discard, to achieve maximum payback percentage. On top of that, luck will factor into the equation as well, especially when you’re only playing a small sample size. But, if you play perfectly and play a certain pay table for a long period of time, your results should match the payback percentage pretty closely.

Here are the two factors that determine video poker payback percentage:

• The likelihood of creating the winning combinations on the pay table
• The payback amounts for each winning combination

When you combine these factors, you come out with a payback percentage. 100 percent payback is the break-even mark. Anything over 100 means that the game is expected to give you a profit, while anything below will project as a loss.

A solid video poker payback percentage is 99 or above. With only a less than 1 percent expected loss, you can use loyalty rewards to bring your results into the black and eliminate the house edge. But any video poker pay table with a payback percentage of over 100 is especially beneficial, and all of the ones in our list below meet that criteria.

The games below come from some of the post popular of video poker pay table families. And, if you search hard enough, you can find them at casinos or on top video poker websites. These are the games you should be playing if you want to win consistently at video poker.

Deuces Wild (100.76 percent)

Deuces Wild is a brand of video poker that incorporates wild cards into the mix. A wild card can be turned into any card in the deck, whichever one is most beneficial to your hand. In the case of Deuces Wild video poker, there are four wild cards (the 2s) in the deck of 52.

Having wild cards means that you can achieve rare hands much easier than you would without them. But it also means that your threshold for a winning hand is higher. Most Deuces Wild pay tables, including the one below, don’t offer payback on anything lower than three of a kind.

The other factor with Deuces Wild is that you can make hands that don’t even exist in non-wild card games, such as five of a kind or a wild royal flush. Strategy might be a little bit tougher to learn with wild card games. That’s because you have to know what to do both when you have a wild card and when you don’t.

Take a look at the full-pay pay table for Deuces Wild:

Coins/Hands	1 Coin	1 Coin	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal Flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
4 Deuces	200	400	600	800	1000
Wild Royal Flush	25	50	75	100	125
5 of a Kind	16	32	48	64	80
Straight Flush	10	20	30	40	50
4 of a Kind	4	8	12	16	20
Full House	4	8	12	16	20
Flush	3	6	9	12	15
Straight	2	4	6	8	10
3 of a Kind	1	2	3	4	5

Joker Poker (100.65 percent)

Joker Poker is sometimes known as Joker Wild or Joker’s Wild, depending on where you encounter it. But the basic concept is the same, no matter the name, as it is another wild card video poker game, but it only features one wild card out of four. And it uses a deck of 53 cards, with the extra one being the Joker.

Because there is only one wild card in Joker Poker, the threshold for getting a winning combination is lower than it would be for Deuces Wild. But, because of the wild card, it is higher than in non-wild card games. In this case of this pay table, you can win with at least a pair of kings, a hand which will bring you even-money in return for your wager.

Joker Poker offers a middle ground between the Deuces Wild game and non-wild card games. The strategy is also a bit less cumbersome to learn than Deuces Wild. You’ll find that it’s the kind of game that satisfies both aggressive and conservative styles of play.

This is the highest-paying pay table you’re likely to find in the Joker Poker family:

Coins/Hands	1 Coin	1 Coin	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal Flush	250	500	750	1000	5000
5 of a Kind	100	200	300	400	500
Wild Royal Flush	50	100	150	200	250
Straight Flush	50	100	150	200	250
4 of a Kind	20	40	60	80	100
Full House	10	20	30	40	50
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	5	10	15	20	25
3 of a Kind	2	4	6	8	10
2 Pairs	1	2	3	4	5

Double Bonus Poker (100.17 percent)

With Double Bonus Poker, we now enter the realm of high-paying video poker games that don’t use wild cards. Any time you see the word “bonus” in the title of a video poker game, you can usually expect certain things. The longer the name, the more heavily the game leans into the “bonus” concept.

Bonus games are known for paying four of a kind hands very well. They often do so at the expense of some of the more common, lower-paying hands. In the case of Double Bonus poker, you will only receive even-money for two pair, a hand that often brings 2 to 1 in other video poker games.

What that means is that bonus games are a bit higher on the volatility level. You can win jackpot-style payback on a single hand more often with these games than you could with others. But the low payback for two pair will also make your bankroll droop more significantly when you aren’t hitting the four of a kind and other rare hands.

Here is the top pay table for Double Bonus Poker:

Coins/Hand	1 Coin	2 Coins	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal Flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Straight Flush	50	100	150	200	250
4 of a Kind (aces)	160	320	480	640	800
4 of a Kind (2s, 3s or 4s)	80	160	240	320	400
4 of a Kind (any other)	50	100	150	200	250
Full House	9	18	27	36	45
Flush	7	14	21	28	35
Straight	5	10	15	20	25
3 of a Kind	3	6	9	12	15
2 Pairs	1	2	3	4	5
Jacks or Better	1	2	3	4	5

Double Double Bonus Poker (100.07 percent)

Here we have a riff on Bonus poker that goes even farther than Double Double Bonus. In fact, by the name of the game, you can probably tell that Double Double Bonus gives you the twice the payback on four of a kind hands as Double Bonus. The main area where it differs is by incorporating the concept of kickers.

A kicker is the fifth, odd card out when the other four cards in the hand make four of a kind. If you have specific kickers with your quads (four of a kinds) in Double Double Bonus, your payback rises even higher. It puts even further emphasis on getting those quads whenever possible.

As you’ll note when you see the pay table below, four aces with a kicker of two, three of four pays you back at 500 to 1. That is even higher than what the royal flush pays back at one through four coins wagered. It should give you an idea of the importance of four of a kind hands in this game.

Here is the top pay table for Double Double Bonus:

Hand/Coins	1 Coin	2 Coins	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal Flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Straight Flush	50	100	150	200	250
4 Aces w/any 2,3,4	400	800	1200	1600	2000
4 2s, 3s, 4s w/ any A,2,3,4	160	320	480	640	800
4 Aces	160	320	480	640	800
4 2s, 3s, 4s	80	160	240	320	400
4 5s through Ks	50	100	150	200	250
Full House	9	18	27	36	45
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
3 of a Kind	3	6	9	12	15
2 Pairs	1	2	3	4	5
Pair of Jacks +	1	2	3	4	5

Jacks or Better (100.0 percent)

Jacks or Better gets a bad rap sometimes in the video poker world because some players think it’s a bit vanilla. That’s because the payback is definitely conservative in that you really have limited chances at jackpot opportunities. Payback is strictly based on the likelihood that you’ll achieve a hand, with rarer hands paying more than more common ones.

But if you don’t mind grinding out winnings, Jacks or Better can be the game for you. That’s especially the case for the pay table below, which offers 100 percent payback on the dot. The key here is the 90 to 1 payback for straight flush hands, which is much higher than the 50 to 1 for that hand on most Jacks or Better pay tables.

The strategy for Jacks or Better is easy to learn as well, because there aren’t wild cards confusing matters. And you can play Jacks or Better for a longer time on a small bankroll than any other game. That can be a boon to players who don’t the rollercoaster of high-volatility games.

This is the best pay table around for Jacks or Better:

Coins/Hands	1 Coin	2 Coins	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Straight flush	50	100	150	200	250
4 of a kind	25	50	75	100	125
Full house	6	12	18	24	30
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
3 of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
2 pairs	2	4	6	8	10
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5