The goal
Make the best five-card poker hand you can. There's no opponent and no dealer to beat: every hand is paid off the machine's paytable, and the paytable starts at a pair of jacks. That's where the name Jacks or Better comes from.
Money and betting
You start with $1,000 and bet 1 to 5 coins a hand, using − and +. Each coin is worth $5, so a bet runs from $5 to $25. The bet comes out of your balance when the cards are dealt.
If your balance can't cover the bet you picked, the machine lowers the bet to what you can afford.
It's all play money: you can't buy it, it isn't worth anything and it can't be cashed in. Video Poker on Selminha.com runs in demo mode and is just for fun.
The deal and the draw
Every hand uses a 52-card deck, freshly shuffled each time you hit DEAL. You get five cards face up.
Tap the cards you want to keep: the card pops up and shows a HELD tag. Tap it again to let it go. Then tap DRAW: every card you didn't hold is replaced with a new one from the same deck, one time only. Discarded cards don't come back.
You can hold all five and draw nothing, or hold nothing and draw five new cards. The hand you have after the draw is the one that gets paid.
Winning hands
From highest to lowest, these are the paying hands and what each one pays per coin bet:
- Royal Flush
- 10, jack, queen, king and ace of the same suit. Pays 250 per coin, and 4,000 coins on a 5-coin bet.
- Straight Flush
- Five cards in a row of the same suit, like 5-6-7-8-9 of hearts. Pays 50 per coin.
- Four of a Kind
- Four cards of the same rank. Pays 25 per coin.
- Full House
- Three of a kind plus a pair. Pays 9 per coin.
- Flush
- Five cards of the same suit, not in a row. Pays 6 per coin.
- Straight
- Five cards in a row in mixed suits. Pays 4 per coin.
- Three of a Kind
- Three cards of the same rank. Pays 3 per coin.
- Two Pair
- Two pairs of different ranks. Pays 2 per coin.
- Jacks or Better
- A pair of jacks, queens, kings or aces. Pays 1 per coin.
The ace is the highest card, but it also starts the lowest straight: A-2-3-4-5 is a straight, and so is 10-J-Q-K-A. Straights don't wrap around: Q-K-A-2-3 doesn't count. A pair of 10s or lower pays nothing. Payouts include your bet: a pair of jacks simply gives your bet back.
The 9/6 paytable
This is the 9/6 paytable, the full-pay version: a full house pays 9 and a flush pays 6. A Royal Flush on 5 coins pays 4,000 coins ($20,000) instead of the 1,250 it would pay at the regular rate. That's why it pays to bet max.
The paytable is always on screen, showing the dollar amounts for your current bet, and the row for the hand you're holding lights up. PAYTABLE opens the full table, from 1 to 5 coins.
After a win: collect or double up
When a hand wins, the amount shows under WIN. COLLECT adds it to your balance. If you hit DEAL with a win still on screen, it gets collected before the next hand.
DOUBLE puts the win on the line in a quick card round. Using a fresh deck, the machine turns up one dealer card and leaves four cards face down. You pick one of the four:
- Higher than the dealer's card: your win doubles.
- Lower: you lose the win.
- Same rank: it's a push. The win stays, and you choose again whether to collect or double.
In Double Up, aces are high and 2s are low; suits don't count. You can double up to five times in a row: after the fifth, the win is collected automatically.
The HINT
Not sure what to hold? Tap HINT before you draw. The machine checks all 32 ways to hold your hand and holds the cards for the play that pays the most on average at your current bet. You can still change them before you draw.
With perfect play on 5 coins, this machine pays back 99.5% of what goes in, averaged over a huge number of hands. Over one short night, luck matters far more than that number.
The end of the night
- CASH OUT, between hands, ends the night with the balance you have. That balance is your score and goes on the top-five leaderboard.
- If your balance drops below $5, the smallest bet, the night is over.
- On a computer, keys 1 to 5 hold cards, ENTER or SPACE deals, draws and collects, X doubles, H asks for a HINT, the arrow keys change your bet, T opens the paytable and R cashes out.
Tips for beginners
- Bet 5 coins: it's the only way the Royal Flush pays its bonus.
- Almost always keep the cards that already make a winning hand. The big exception: with four cards to a Royal Flush, it's worth breaking up even a flush or a straight to go for the Royal.
- With two pair, hold both pairs and draw one card.
- A pair of jacks or better beats four cards to a flush. But four cards to a flush beat a low pair.
- A low pair, 2s through 10s, is worth more than loose high cards and more than four cards to an open-ended straight.
- Don't hold a kicker (an extra high card) with a pair: it only hurts your odds.
- With nothing at all, hold your high cards (jack, queen, king or ace), ideally of the same suit. With none, draw five new cards.
- When in doubt, tap HINT and see what the right play would hold.
Video poker variations
There are lots of video poker games: Bonus Poker, Double Bonus, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker and more, each with its own paytable. Even Jacks or Better changes from casino to casino: many machines use the 8/5 paytable, where a full house pays 8 and a flush pays 5, and pay back less. Not every machine has Double Up. On Selminha.com, the rules on this page apply: Jacks or Better with the 9/6 paytable, the Royal bonus on 5 coins and Double Up up to five times.