Video Poker Probability

Video poker is a little different from regular poker games, but that doesn't change some of the probabilities. When you have a poker hand that has five cards you will need to figure out what your chances of getting the winning hand are going to be. With the various video poker games we decided to offer a table full of probabilities. You will notice that there is not a probability stated for the five card poker with five of a kind. This is because the five card hand is based on not having a wild card. Even if there is a wild card this probability of a five of a kind hand would be very minimal. Keep that in mind if you want to play games such as Joker Wild or One Eyed Jacks.

Poker Hand                       Nbr. of Hands     Probability
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5 of a kind                                            0      0.00000000
Royal straight flush                              4      0.00000154
Other straight flush                            36      0.00001385
4 of a kind                                        624      0.00024010
Full House                                     3,744      0.00144058
Flush                                              5,108      0.00196540
Ace high straight                           1,020      0.00039246
Other straights                               9,180      0.00353218
3 of a kind                                   54,912      0.02112845
2 pairs                                        123,552      0.04753902
One pair >= Jacks                      337,920      0.13002124
One pair <= Tens                       760,320      0.29254779
Ace high                                     502,860      0.19348509
King high                                   335,580      0.12912088
Queen high                                 213,180      0.08202512
Jack high                                    127,500      0.04905808
Ten high                                       70,380      0.02708006
Nine high                                     34,680      0.01334380
Eight high                                     14,280      0.00549451
Seven high                                      4,080      0.00156986

In this chart above you will notice a couple of things. First of all we talk about different pairs, than we go into how many different combinations can be found in these hands. Lastly we look at the probability of the hand showing up. These can be altered a little depending on the casino you are playing at or the online casino game. In some of the video poker games you can't have any pair that is less than jacks so while we have included these, remember that is not an outcome you want. For example getting a pair has the highest probability if they are tens or a pair of something that is jack high, but that kind of hand is something you wouldn't want to keep.

With video poker you have to be aware of the rules in order to play successfully. After all you don't want to keep a hand that will do more harm than good later on. So remember to watch out for the probabilities as well as keep the pay tables in mind.

For more on strategy we have looked at a couple of games in our other articles outlining the differences. You mostly find that there are a lot of similarities and the major difference is the bonuses or what could be wild. This table above doesn't show what happens when you have a wild card. So games such as Jacks or Better, Aces and Faces, or others that don't have wild cards will be applicable to the information above. Games like Joker Wild, Deuces Wild or even Double Bonus are not applicable.