The Best and Worst Microgaming Video Poker Games

Added: December 19, 2014

If you want to evaluate whether a video poker game is good, there are three main factors to consider. The first factor is the highest possible payout rate, and the higher this is, the better. The second factor is the difficulty of achieving that payout rate (or close to it). For example, wild card games are typically more difficult than their non-wild counterparts. Third, you have the overall fun factor of the game which will change from person to person. Because it's so hard to describe objectively, we're not really going to worry too much about it here.

By far, the best two Microgaming video poker games in terms of payout rates are All Aces and Jacks or Better. All Aces has a 99.92 percent potential payout rate, and it's a non-wild game that isn't particularly difficult to learn to play well. Even if you aren't playing perfectly, you can still get the house advantage down to about half a percent with basic strategies. Jacks or Better at Microgaming uses the standard 9/6 payout table for a normal 99.54 percent payout rate which is the industry standard for the best rate available in this particular game.

On the low end of things, you have Louisiana Double which is by far the worst video poker game Microgaming offers, and it might actually be the worst game in the genre that's widely available. With a super-low 93.45 payout rate (with perfect play), you should just stay away from this title. Deuces Wild at Microgaming-powered online casinos is also a bad pick because it has a relatively low maximum payout rate of 96.77 because of the sub-optimal payout table used for it. In addition to this, strategy for Deuces Wild is notoriously difficult making it even harder to get close to that maximum.

A major league honorable mention in order as well. All American video poker can give you a 99.38 percent payout rate with correct play, but it's a little tricky to learn how to play because the flushes and straights both have the same payout as a full house at the 8x level. The trick here is that it's a really fun game because it's a change of pace from typical strategies, and it's not terribly difficult to learn how to make the right adjustments. Just don't try to play this game like Jacks or Better without adjusting or you'll lose in a major way.