Chasing a video poker jackpot 4j3g69

26 April 2025

By Jerry Stickman

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The selection of video poker games is wide-ranging. There are the basic games like Jacks or Better – the original video draw poker game. These are low variance (swings in bankroll) games. They offer only one huge winning hand – the royal flush.

As time went on, game manufacturers added new games that increased excitement by adding additional high paying hands.

They developed wild card games such as Deuces Wild that have a higher variance but offer a couple of jackpots – the royal flush and four deuces.

Next game manufacturers produced “bonus” games such as Bonus Poker and Bonus Poker Deluxe. These games greatly improved the pays for some (Bonus Poker) or all (Bonus Poker Deluxe) four-of-a-kinds. The cost for this increase in the number of higher-paying hands was a bit more variance.

Double-Double Bonus was introduced next. Certain four-of-a-kind hands that also had specific ranks of card as the fifth card paid even higher jackpots. Variance increased even more due to more of the overall return being tied up in less frequently occurring hands.

These games went over so well, manufacturers designed triple bonus games. These games include:
- Triple Bonus Poker
- Triple Bonus Plus
- Triple Deuces

These games pay even more for four-of-a-kind hands – and increase variance.

To generate even more excitement for their games, manufacturers introduced triple double games such as Triple Double Bonus where all four-of-a-kinds pay very well. A hand containing four aces and a 2, 3, or 4 pays the same as a royal flush. A hand containing four 2s, 3s, or 4s with a kicker of ace, 2, 3, or 4 pays half that – 2000 credits for a five-credit bet.

These high-jackpot games can be quite enticing. But there is a downside. To pay for the higher jackpots, other paying hands need to pay less. When more of the overall return resides in fewer and less frequently occurring hands, the variance (swings in bankroll) goes up.

Let’s look at examples of what happens on low variance games versus high variance games.

Jacks or Better – a low variance game – with a return of 99.54 percent, has a variance of around 19.5. On average a player will lose 46 cents for every $100 played through the game. The only jackpot sized hand is the royal flush. It occur about once every 40,000 hands and contributes 1.98 percent to the overall return.

Between royals, the player is at a larger disadvantage. He or she will lose $2.44 for every $100 run through the game. The next highest paying hand is the straight flush, occurring about once every 9000 hands. During this cycle the player will lose and additional 55 cents - $2.99 for every $100.

Let’s compare that to Triple Double Bonus Poker.

The best return for this game is 99.58 percent and has a variance of 98.3 – five time that of Jacks or Better. Less favorable pay tables may be more common, but the following numbers are reasonably close for those games. The high-paying hands for this game are:
- Royal flush – contributes return of 1.76 percent
- Straight flush – contributes return of .59 percent
- Four aces with a kicker of 2 thru 4 – contributes return of 5.63 percent
- Four 2s, 3s, or 4s with a kicker of ace, 2, 3, or 4 – contributes 6.9 percent
- Four aces – contributes 2.37 percent
- Four 2s thru 4s – contributes 2.56 percent

With expert play:
- Overall loss is 42 cents per $100.
- For the 45,000 hand no royal cycle the loss increases to $2.18 per $100.
- For the 14,000 hand no four aces and kicker cycle the loss increases to $7.18 per $100.
- For the 8,500 hand no straight flush cycle the loss increases to $8.40 per $100.
- For the 6,700 hand no four aces cycle the loss increases to $10.77 per $100.
- For the 5,800 hand no for 2s thru 4s and kicker cycle the loss increases to $17.67 per $100.
- For the 3,100 hand no four 2s thru 4s cycle the loss increases to an incredible $20.23 per $100.

For about 3,100 hands the player will lose $1 for every $5 played.

So, do you really want to go after the really big video poker jackpots? Fine, if you do. Now you know what it will cost you.

As always, may all your wins be swift and large, and your losses be slow and tiny.

Jerry “Stickman”

Jerry “Stickman” is an expert in craps, blackjack and video poker and advantage slot machine play. He is a regular contributor to top gaming magazines and 888casino.com. He authored the video poker section of Everything Casino Poker: Get the Edge at Video Poker, Texas Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, and Pai Gow Poker! You can Jerry “Stickman” at [email protected]