Once you have mastered basic strategy and consistently play within a few hundredths of a percent of optimal, the question becomes how to close the final gap — and how to think about video poker like a serious player. Advanced strategy is not a set of secret tricks; it is precision. It means understanding expected value directly, recognizing penalty cards, and adapting your play across pay tables and game types. This guide assumes you already know the core strategy from our beginner guide and 9/6 Jacks or Better strategy.
Thinking in Expected Value
Every possible hold has an expected value (EV): the average number of coins it returns over millions of trials. Basic strategy is just a precomputed EV ranking. Advanced players learn to reason about EV directly so they can handle hands the simplified list does not perfectly cover.
For example, the EV of a four-card flush draw in 9/6 Jacks or Better is about 1.22 coins per five-coin bet. The EV of a low pair is about 0.82 coins. Because 1.22 beats 0.82, you keep the flush draw over the low pair — but only when both are present in the same hand. Internalizing these numbers lets you resolve close decisions instantly and explains why the strategy list is ordered the way it is.
Penalty Cards: The Last Fraction of a Percent
A penalty card is a card you must discard that would have helped a different draw. Penalty cards subtly change the EV of borderline holds, and accounting for them is what separates near-perfect play from truly perfect play.
Consider being dealt three cards to a Royal Flush alongside a paying high pair. The simple list says three-to-a-Royal outranks the high pair. But if breaking the pair also discards a card that was a "straight penalty" or "flush penalty" to the Royal draw, the EV shifts slightly. In some specific configurations, the high pair becomes the marginally better hold.
These cases are rare and each is worth only a few thousandths of a percent. Memorizing every penalty-card exception is the domain of professionals grinding huge volume. For most players, knowing they exist — and consulting a full strategy chart for the handful that come up — is enough.
The Two Suited High Cards Exceptions
One area where penalty cards genuinely matter in practice: deciding between two suited high cards and other marginal holds. The correct play among "two suited high cards," "two unsuited high cards," and "suited 10 with a face card" depends on exactly which high cards you hold and what you would discard. A J-Q suited is not identical to a K-A suited because of the straight and royal possibilities each retains. Advanced charts break these into separate lines; the simplified list collapses them, costing a tiny amount of EV.
Game Selection by Return and Variance
Advanced play means choosing the right game for your goal, not just playing well. Consider two axes: return (RTP) and variance.
| Game | Full-Pay RTP | Variance |
|---|---|---|
| Full-Pay Deuces Wild | 100.76% | High |
| 9/6 Jacks or Better | 99.54% | Low |
| 8/5 Bonus Poker | 99.17% | Low-Medium |
| 9/6 Double Double Bonus | 98.98% | Very High |
If your goal is to stretch a bankroll with minimal swings, low-variance Jacks or Better is ideal. If you want the best mathematical return and can tolerate swings, full-pay Deuces Wild is the only standard game over 100%. If you chase big jackpots, Double Double Bonus offers them — at the cost of a brutal variance profile. Matching game to goal is an advanced skill in itself.
Multi-Game Strategy Discipline
Each game has its own optimal strategy, and they are NOT interchangeable. The most common advanced mistake is applying Jacks or Better instincts to a wild-card or bonus game:
- In Deuces Wild, a bare pair does not pay — but you still hold it to chase trips. Never discard a deuce.
- In Double Double Bonus, single Aces and Ace pairs are premium because of the 400-coin quad.
- In Kings-or-Better Joker Poker, Queens and Jacks are low pairs, not paying high pairs.
Advanced players keep these distinctions sharp and switch their mental strategy completely when they change games. If you cannot recite the key deviation for a game, you are not ready to play it for serious money.
Adjusting for Pay-Table Variants
Optimal strategy shifts with the pay table. The strategy for 9/6 Jacks or Better is very slightly different from 8/5, because the reduced flush changes the value of flush draws relative to other holds. The differences are small, but at high volume they matter. An advanced player ideally uses a strategy chart matched to the exact pay table in front of them, rather than a one-size-fits-all list.
The Royal Flush Cycle and Bankroll
The Royal Flush accounts for roughly 2% of Jacks or Better's return and hits about once every 40,000 hands. This means your "expected" return only materializes over enormous volume — and most sessions you will never see a Royal, making the game feel like it pays less than advertised. Advanced players understand this and bankroll accordingly, treating the long-run RTP as a statistical truth rather than a session expectation. Our bankroll management guide covers the math of surviving the Royal cycle.
Speed Without Sacrificing Accuracy
Professionals play fast — often 700 to 900 hands per hour — to maximize comps and coin-in. But speed must never cost accuracy; a single misplay can erase the EV gained from many extra hands. The advanced skill is reaching a speed where correct holds are automatic. This only comes from thousands of practice hands until the strategy is muscle memory. Drill on a free trainer until you can play correctly without conscious thought.
Common Advanced-Player Leaks
Strategy bleed between games. Applying one game's instincts to another. Reset your mental strategy on every game change.
Ignoring pay-table-specific strategy. Using a generic chart on a non-standard table.
Letting speed degrade accuracy. Playing fast but sloppy nets less than playing accurately at a moderate pace.
Treating long-run RTP as a session promise. Variance is real; size your bankroll for it.
A Closer Look at Penalty-Card Decisions
To see how penalty cards work, consider a concrete near-miss. You are dealt J♥ Q♥ K♥ J♠ 9♣. You hold a pair of Jacks (High Pair) and three to a Royal in hearts (J-Q-K). The simple list says three-to-a-Royal (position 7) ranks below a High Pair (position 6), so you would keep the pair. But here breaking the pair to draw to the Royal also discards the second Jack — which is a "pair penalty" reducing your Royal-draw value only slightly. In this specific configuration the high pair remains correct, but in a variant where the discarded card opens additional straight or flush outs, the Royal draw can edge ahead. These knife-edge decisions are worth fractions of a percent each and are exactly what full computer-perfect charts capture and simple lists approximate.
Comparing Holds with Direct EV Estimates
Advanced players sometimes reason in approximate EV when a hand falls between list lines. A rough mental table for 9/6 Jacks or Better holds (EV in coins per five-coin bet) helps:
| Hold | Approx. EV |
|---|---|
| High Pair | ~1.54 |
| Four to a Flush | ~1.22 |
| Four to an Outside Straight | ~0.87 |
| Low Pair | ~0.82 |
| Two Suited High Cards | ~0.60 |
| One High Card | ~0.47 |
When two holds are present in one hand, the higher-EV hold wins — which is precisely why the strategy list is ordered the way it is. Knowing these approximate values lets you resolve unusual hands the list does not perfectly address and helps you understand, rather than merely memorize, the ordering.
Tournament and Promotion Adjustments
Optimal expected-value play assumes a normal grind. In video poker tournaments or certain promotions, the optimal strategy shifts toward variance rather than EV. In a tournament where only a high score matters, you may correctly take lower-EV, higher-variance gambles — chasing royals and big quads aggressively — because second place pays nothing and you need a big hand to win. Recognizing when the objective changes from "maximize EV" to "maximize the chance of a top result" is a genuinely advanced skill that separates tournament specialists from grinders. Outside those special formats, however, always default to standard EV-maximizing strategy.
The Discipline of Game and Table Selection
Advanced strategy is as much about what you choose to play as how you play it. The best hold decisions on a 97% machine still lose money faster than mediocre decisions on a 100.76% machine. This is why elite players treat game and pay-table selection as the first and most important decision: find the highest-return game you can play accurately, confirm the exact pay table, factor in comps and progressives, and only then sit down. A player who masters strategy but ignores selection leaves far more on the table than one who plays slightly imperfect strategy on consistently excellent machines.
Frequently Asked Questions
How close to perfect can a human realistically play?
With dedicated practice, a serious player can reach within a few hundredths of a percent of computer-perfect on a familiar game. The remaining gap lives in rare penalty-card exceptions that occur infrequently enough to barely affect results.
Are strategy cards allowed in casinos?
In most jurisdictions you may use a printed strategy card at the machine, since video poker strategy is public information and you are playing against a fixed pay table, not other players. Check local rules, but it is widely permitted.
Should I change strategy based on recent results?
No. The machine has no memory; each deal is independent. "Hot" and "cold" streaks are variance, not signals. Optimal strategy is the same on every hand regardless of what came before.
The Economics of Speed and Volume
For a player with a genuine edge — say, full-pay Deuces Wild plus comps — total profit is a function of edge multiplied by volume. This is why professionals play fast: at 800 hands per hour versus 400, they double their expected value per hour, provided accuracy holds. But the relationship is fragile. A single misplay can cost more EV than dozens of extra hands generate, so speed only pays when correct holds are fully automatic. The advanced skill is reaching the point where you can sustain high volume without any drop in accuracy. Below that threshold, slowing down to play correctly is always the higher-EV choice. Never trade accuracy for speed until the strategy is true muscle memory.
Combining Edges: The Full Advantage Stack
Serious advantage players do not rely on any single edge — they stack several small ones. The components are: playing a positive or near-positive base game, playing it with near-perfect strategy, betting max coins, earning cashback and comps, exploiting promotions and multipliers, and selecting the best available pay tables. Individually, each edge is small; combined, they can turn a marginal game into a clearly profitable one. The mediocre player captures none of these; the expert captures all of them. This stacking — not any secret strategy — is what genuinely beating video poker looks like, and it is available to any player disciplined enough to assemble every piece.
Knowing When Not to Play
An underrated advanced skill is the discipline to not play. If the only available machines are reduced pay tables, if the progressive is below break-even, if you are tired enough that accuracy will slip, or if your bankroll cannot support the variance — the correct play is to walk away. Every hand played on a negative-expectation machine, or played carelessly on a good one, erodes your results. The expert treats their play time as a scarce resource to be deployed only when conditions are favorable. Recognizing and declining unfavorable situations is as much a part of advanced strategy as any hold decision.
Reading Strategy Charts Efficiently
The advanced player's reference tool is the computer-perfect strategy chart, which lists every hand type in exact EV order for a specific game and pay table. Reading one efficiently is a skill in itself. The chart is used the same way as the simplified list — scan from the top and play the first matching line — but it includes the penalty-card distinctions and rare exceptions the simplified list omits. The key to using a full chart is recognizing that the top portion (made hands, strong draws, pairs) is identical to what you already know; only the lower, marginal lines add new information. Focus your study there, on the close decisions between two-card and single-card holds, since that is where the chart's extra precision actually changes your play.
Bankroll, Edge, and the Long Run
The advanced player understands that even a genuine edge means nothing without the bankroll and volume to realize it. A 0.76% edge on full-pay Deuces is real, but the standard deviation of video poker is enormous — your results can swing far from expectation over thousands of hands. This is why advantage players combine a sufficient bankroll, accurate high-volume play, and comp collection: the edge is the engine, but bankroll and volume are what let it run long enough to pay off. A player who understands the math treats short-term results, good or bad, as noise around the long-run signal, and stays the course through swings that would shake a less informed player off optimal play.
Continuous Improvement
Advanced play is never finished. New games and pay tables appear, promotions change the math, and your own accuracy can always sharpen. The committed player keeps a practice habit even after reaching expertise, periodically drilling on a trainer to catch any drift in their holds and to learn the strategy for any new game before playing it for real. They study pay-table surveys, track their results, and treat each session as data. This mindset of continuous refinement — never assuming the game is fully mastered — is what sustains an edge over a long playing career. The fundamentals are learnable in weeks; the discipline of lifelong precision is what separates the truly advanced.
Bottom Line
Advanced video poker strategy is precision, not secrets. Think in expected value, respect penalty cards on the borderline hands, match your game to your goal and variance tolerance, and keep each game's distinct strategy sharp. The final fraction of a percent comes from playing the right chart for the exact pay table, fast enough to maximize volume but never so fast that accuracy slips. Master that and you are playing video poker at the level of the players who genuinely beat it.