Variations Galore

Video Poker variations take over

Turns out Video Poker is popular. So popular in fact the public always wants more. Just like their Slot Machine cousin, Video Poker machine come in a huge variety of game-types and styles. Unlike Slot Machines though, more than just the pretty colors and pictures change. Video Poker variations often have pay-schedule variations that go along with them.

If you remember our discussion on the topic of full pay video poker, the pay schedule lets us know if a machine pays out as much as it should, or if we're being taken for a ride. The classic pay table difference is a 9/6 full-pay Jacks or Better machine changing to a 8/5 machine. This brings the payback-percentage down to 97.28%.

Many professional Video Poker players choose Double Bonus as their main game, simply because with a perfect strategy they can have a pay back percentage of 100.7%. A slip up that happens with novice players though, is finding a Double Bonus game, checking the pay-schedule, seeing a familiar 9/6 and thinking it's a good thing. 9/6 is only good in Jacks or Better, with Double Bonus you want to see 10/7. Since the payout on two pair is dropped to one coin, the 10 and 7 boost are needed to even things out a little. The strategy for Double Bonus is a good bit more complicated than Jacks or Better however, so you'll definitely want to start on Jacks or Better.