Learning Jacks or Better Video Poker the Right Way

Added: May 23, 2014

If you're looking to get into video poker, then Jacks or Better is the place to start. This is the most basic type of video poker out there, so when you learn the right strategies for this game, you'll automatically be learning good strategies for most other styles of video poker. Unfortunately, most players start off in a completely wrong way when it comes to learning Jacks or Better, and that really hurts their growth over the long-run. What we want to do here is provide you with the foundations for starting off on the right foot.

Everything in Jacks or Better comes down to comparisons. You will be comparing playing your hand one way or another, and you need to know which types of hands and draws are better than others. For the most part in Jacks or Better, there are only a few difficult types of situations to play because you'll usually have just one clear way to play your hand. For example, with AA945 with no flush draw or 88429 with no flush draw, it's pretty easy to see what to do. However, what if you have AA783 with a four-card flush draw or 99876 with no flush draw?

There are a few quick rules you need to know to get started off right. There are high pairs (jacks or better) and low pairs (tens or lower) in this game, and they are your main landmarks for knowing where draws rank. For example, flush draws are better than low pairs but worse than high pairs. Similarly, straight draws are worse than low pairs. This is the starting point for learning strategy, but there are a few other points to learn before you get started.

First off, four cards to a royal flush trumps anything unless you already have a straight flush. Three cards to a royal is better than four cards to a flush draw, though a high pair is better than three to a royal. Aside from these tricks, you need to gain some experience putting these rules into practice to the point that it becomes second nature. After that, it will be time to learn more advanced and detailed strategies for situations in Jacks or Better that do not come up all that often. For example, you'll learn that KQJT is the only straight draw that's better than a low pair.