The rules in brief
You get five cards from a 52-card deck, hold any of them and draw the rest once. A pair of jacks or better is the lowest paying hand. There is no dealer or opponent; the paytable sets every payout.
Read the paytable first
The numbers next to full house and flush name the machine. A 9/6 game pays 9 for a full house and 6 for a flush per coin; an 8/5 game pays 8 and 5. That single difference costs about 2.2% of every rand you wager. The royal flush usually pays 800 per coin only at maximum coins.
Hold order for common hands
- Royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house: hold them.
- Four to a royal flush, even if it breaks a made flush or straight.
- Three of a kind, straight or flush.
- Two pair.
- A high pair (jacks to aces).
- Four to a straight flush, then three to a royal.
- A low pair, ahead of four to a flush.
- Four to a flush, then two high cards of the same suit.
- Otherwise keep high cards, and with nothing at all, draw five.
Bankroll and bonuses
Video poker swings because a big share of the return is in the royal flush, which lands about once in 40,000 hands. A session bankroll of 300 bets or more, such as R1,500 at R5 a hand, keeps an ordinary losing run from ending it. Check bonus terms before you play: many casinos count video poker at a low rate towards wagering, or exclude it.