How video poker works, hand by hand
You are dealt five cards from a shuffled 52 card deck. You keep the cards you want, the rest are replaced once, and the hand you finish with is paid according to the table printed on the machine. There is no dealer hand to beat, no other players and no second draw.
That makes it the most arithmetic-driven game in a casino lobby. Every decision is a choice between two known prices: hold three cards towards a flush, or hold the low pair you already have. Which one is worth more is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of what that particular pay table pays for a flush and what it pays for two pair.
| Variant | What changes | What to read before the first hand |
|---|---|---|
| Jacks or Better | The base game: no wild cards, and the lowest paying hand is a pair of jacks | The full house and flush lines, the two lines operators trim most often |
| Bonus Poker and Double Double Bonus | Extra prizes for particular four of a kind hands | What has been taken off the common lines to fund those extra prizes |
| Deuces Wild | All four twos are wild, so the hand chart and the lowest paid hand both change | The lowest paying hand: a card written for Jacks or Better is simply wrong here |
| Joker Poker | A 53 card deck with one joker acting as a wild card | Whether the game starts paying at a pair of kings rather than a pair of jacks |
| Multi hand, 3 to 50 hands | Your held cards are copied into every hand, and each hand draws separately | The total stake, which is the per hand bet multiplied by the number of hands |
| Multiplier variants | A hand can set a multiplier that applies to the next hand | Whether the multiplier needs an increased bet every hand to be worth holding |
Compare the casinos on their published terms
Bonus, wagering, minimum deposit and the operator's full conditions under every row. Which video poker variants a given operator carries is not confirmed in the data we hold, so the ranking is on the offers, not the game lobbies.
Bonus terms
Offer placeholder. Bonus amount, wagering, minimum deposit and eligibility are to be confirmed with the operator before publishing. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
Bonus terms
Min. deposit €20 | 125% bonus up to €1,000 + 100 free spins | 40x wagering on bonus & free-spin winnings | Bonus valid 7 days | Free spins credited over 4 days | First deposit only | T&Cs apply.
Bonus terms
18+ | New customers only | Bonus code BLISS | Min. deposit €20 | 120% bonus up to €500 + 125 free spins | 40x wagering within 14 days | T&Cs apply.
- #4
Bonus terms
Min. deposit €20 | 1st dep: 100% up to €500 + 100 FS | 2nd dep: 75% up to €2,000 + 75 FS | 3rd dep: 50% up to €2,000 + 75 FS | 4th dep: 25% up to €3,500 + 50 FS | 5th dep: 50% up to €2,000 + 100 FS | 40x-50x wagering on bonus & FS winnings | Bonus and free spins valid 3 days | Max withdrawal 5x deposit | First 5 deposits only | T&Cs apply.
- #5
Bonus terms
New customers only | Min. deposit €20 | 100% bonus on the first deposit up to €600 + 125 free spins (25 free spins daily over 5 days) | Wager the bonus within 7 days | T&Cs apply | 18+ | Gambling can be addictive.
- #6
Bonus terms
Welcome bonus 280% up to €3,200 + 800 free spins. Bonus winnings are subject to wagering and are capped at €500. The bonus expires after 5 days if the wagering is not met. One bonus per person. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
- #7
Bonus terms
New customers only | Min. deposit €250 | Deposit bonus 100% up to €5,000 + 100 free spins on Collapsed Castle (€0.20 per spin) | Free spins credited in 2 packs of 50 every 24 hours | Bonus wagering x25 (free-spin winnings x25) | Wagering to be met within 14 days | Bonus can be reactivated after 7 days | Bonus is not withdrawable until fully wagered | Bonus T&Cs apply.
- #8
Bonus terms
18+ | New users | Welcome pack across 3 deposits: 100%/80%/60% bonus, up to €2,500 in total + 300 free spins | Min. deposit €20 | 45x wagering | Max bonus bet €5 | Activate within 48 hours, valid 5 days | T&Cs apply | BeGambleAware.org
- #9
Bonus terms
18+ | New customers only | 100% deposit bonus up to €200 | Min. deposit €20 | 40x wagering | Max bet €5 | Bonus valid 10 days | Max withdrawal 10x the bonus amount | T&Cs apply | Gambling can be addictive.
- #10
Bonus terms
18+ | New players | Min. first deposit €20 (CAD/AUD: 15) | Bonus code FIRST | 100% bonus up to €1,000 + 100 free spins | 40x wagering on bonus & free-spin winnings | Max bonus withdrawal equals the bonus amount received | Max bet €5 while wagering | T&Cs apply | BeGambleAware.org
- #11
Bonus terms
Welcome bonus: 100% up to €1,250 on the first deposit (min. €20). The bonus must be wagered 30x with real money and is valid for 14 days. One redemption per player. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
- #12
Bonus terms
18+ | All deposits | Min. deposit €50 | Privilege Wheel: up to €700 bonus or 50 free spins on 3 Royal Coins / Lucky Streak 1000 | 30x wagering | Max withdrawal from free spins €300 | The prize must be activated with a min. €50 deposit | T&Cs apply | BeGambleAware.org
- #13
Bonus terms
Min. deposit €20 | 1st dep: 100% up to €1,000 + 200 FS | 2nd dep: 100% up to €200 + 50 FS | 35x wagering on deposit & bonus | 40x wagering on free-spin winnings | Bonus must be activated within 7 days | Wagering to be met within 10 days | Max withdrawal 6x the bonus amount | First 2 deposits only | T&Cs apply.
- #14
Bonus terms
Welcome package: 100% bonus up to €10,000 + 500 free spins, min. deposit €20. Bonus funds and deposits must be wagered 3x before a withdrawal is possible. Check whether your country is accepted before depositing. Full terms apply. 18+. Play responsibly.
- #15
Bonus terms
18+. New customers only. The casino welcome bonus of 100% up to €500 + 50 free spins applies on a successful first deposit after the bonus code is entered. Before any withdrawal a 5x wagering of the deposit is required, counting only sports bets at minimum odds 1.6 and casino bets without minimal or zero risk. Withdrawal limits and further bonus conditions apply under the general terms. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
The pay table is the whole game
A pay table lists every paying hand and what it returns per coin bet. Two versions of the same variant usually agree on the top and the bottom of that list and differ in the middle, and the middle is where most of your paid hands land.
| Hand | Example table A, per coin | Example table B, per coin |
|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 250 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 50 |
| Four of a kind | 25 | 25 |
| Full house | 9 | 8 |
| Flush | 6 | 5 |
| Straight | 4 | 4 |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 3 |
| Two pair | 2 | 2 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 1 |
Only two lines moved, and they are two of the hands you will actually make. A single coin off the full house and one off the flush is the difference between a game worth sitting at and one to walk past, which is why players name a table by those two numbers rather than by the title above it.
The top line deserves a separate look. In many pay tables the royal flush does not scale evenly: at five coins it pays more than five times what it pays at one. If the table on your screen is built that way, betting four coins gives up the largest prize on it for a small saving, and betting one coin turns the headline hand into a rounding error.
Work the stake out before you sit down rather than during the session. Five coins at A$0.25 is $1.25 a hand, and 300 hands is $375 of turnover. That number is your real exposure for the session, and it is also the number a wagering requirement counts, which is covered in how wagering is calculated.
Why the same title pays differently at two casinos
Studios ship video poker titles with more than one pay table, and the operator chooses which one to load. The return is therefore an operator setting, not a property of the game's name, and it can differ between two lobbies showing identical artwork.
For that reason this site publishes no return percentage for any video poker variant. The authority is the information screen on the game you have open, usually behind a question mark or an information icon, and it takes ten seconds to read. Treat any page that prints one figure for a video poker title across every casino as guessing, and if the idea of a published return figure is new, what RTP means and the highest RTP page set out what the number does and does not promise.
A strategy card belongs to one pay table
Hold charts are calculated against a specific set of payouts. Use a Jacks or Better card on a Deuces Wild game, or on a version with the flush line reduced, and some of its decisions become the wrong ones. Match the card to the table in front of you or work from the payouts directly.
The max bet clause that voids a video poker bonus
Video poker is where bonus conditions and bet caps collide, because the game encourages a five coin bet by design. Several sets of terms in the table above cap what you may stake while bonus money is in play, and a five coin bet at A$1 a coin is $5 on the nose.
| Winshark | Max bonus bet €5, with 45x wagering, activation within 48 hours and a five day validity. |
|---|---|
| Drakaris | Max bet €5 while wagering, 40x on bonus and free-spin winnings, and a maximum bonus withdrawal equal to the bonus received. |
| MegaBet | Max bet €5, 40x wagering, bonus valid 10 days, maximum withdrawal 10x the bonus amount. |
| RedRacer | 40x to 50x wagering, bonus and free spins valid 3 days, maximum withdrawal 5x the deposit. |
| FairCrown | Deposit and bonus funds to be wagered 3x before a withdrawal, with a note to check whether your country is accepted first. |
Two things follow from that list. A bet cap is measured per hand, so on a multi hand game the total stake across the hands is what counts, not the per hand figure. And whether video poker contributes to turnover at all is set per operator: table games are frequently counted at a reduced rate or excluded outright, which turns a bonus into a pokies-only bonus in practice. The wording under each row of the table is the operator's own on both points.
How to play a video poker session without guessing
- 01
Open the information screen first
Read the full house and flush lines, then check whether the royal flush jumps on the fifth coin. Do this on every operator, even for a title you know.
- 02
Pick the coin value, not the bet
Decide the five coin stake you are comfortable repeating a few hundred times, then set the coin value to match. Dropping coins to afford a higher denomination is the wrong way round.
- 03
Match your hold chart to that table
If the payouts differ from the chart you are using, the chart's marginal decisions no longer hold. Either find the right one or play the obvious holds and stop guessing the close calls.
- 04
Check the bonus rules before you use bonus money
Look for the bet cap, the contribution rate for table games and the maximum withdrawal. Any one of those three can make a session pointless before you deal a card.
- 05
Count hands, not time
Video poker has no spin animation to slow you down, so a session runs faster than it feels. Set the number of hands in advance and treat that as the session.
Read the terms, then pick a table
Every row in the comparison above opens the operator's published conditions, including the bet cap that matters most to a five coin game.
Open the tableWhere video poker sits legally in Australia
The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits the supply of online casino games to a person physically in Australia without a licence, and poker is named in the Act alongside pokies, roulette and blackjack. That licence does not exist for these games here, so no operator in the table holds one and none is described on this site as approved for this market.
The Act places its obligations on the business supplying the service. It contains no offence for the individual placing the bet, and the 2017 amendment strengthened enforcement against services rather than players. The legal page works through the detail, and if you came here from a card table rather than a machine, online blackjack and online baccarat cover the two games closest to it. For a dealt hand with a person on camera instead of a pay table, see live dealer tables.
