Video poker machines have wildly different payouts for the same games. The critical numbers for are the full house and flush payouts:
- 9/6 JoB: full house 9×, flush 6× → 99.54% return
- 8/5 JoB: full house 8×, flush 5× → 97.30% return
That 2.24% difference is massive. On a $5-per-hand machine playing 600 hands/hour, it's $67/hour in extra losses on a worse machine.
Rule: refuse to play below 9/6. Check the paytable before sitting down. A worse paytable with "better" bonus features is still worse.
Other good variants:
- (): 100.76% — a positive-expectation game!
- Double Bonus (10/7): 100.17% — also positive
- (9/6): 99.54% — great baseline
Video poker is the only casino game where finding the machine is more important than how you play it.