If you have browsed a casino floor or an online video poker lobby, you have probably noticed dozens of game names — and wondered how many video poker variants actually exist. The honest answer is that there is no single fixed number, because most "variants" are really paytable variations of a smaller set of core game families. This guide explains the difference, walks through the main families, and shows you how to navigate the seemingly endless list without getting overwhelmed.
The Short Answer
There are roughly a dozen core game families, but each family has many paytable variations, so the total number of distinct playable games runs into the hundreds. On this site alone you can play more than 120 individual games, most of which are paytable variants of the same handful of base games. Understanding the families is far more useful than memorizing every variant.
Core Games vs Paytable Variants
The key distinction is between a game family and a paytable variant. A game family is defined by its rules: which hands pay, whether there are wild cards, and what the minimum paying hand is. A paytable variant keeps those rules but changes the payout amounts — like the difference between 9/6 and 8/5 Jacks or Better. Both are "Jacks or Better," but they pay differently and return differently.
So when you see "Jacks or Better," "Jacks or Better 9/5," "Jacks or Better 8/5," and "Jacks or Better 8/6" listed separately, those are four paytable variants of one family. Multiply that pattern across every family and you get the large total. To understand what those numbers mean, read our explainer on what a paytable is.
The Main Game Families
Here are the core families that account for nearly all video poker games you will encounter:
| Family | Defining Feature |
|---|---|
| Jacks or Better | The classic; pair of Jacks minimum, no wilds |
| Bonus Poker | Jacks or Better with tiered four-of-a-kind bonuses |
| Double Bonus | Larger quad bonuses, higher variance |
| Double Double Bonus | Kicker bonuses on four Aces and low quads |
| Deuces Wild | All four 2s are wild |
| Joker Poker | One Joker added as a wild card (53-card deck) |
| Aces and Faces / Aces and Eights | Bonus quads for specific ranks |
| All American | Straight, flush, full house pay equally |
| Tens or Better / Kings or Better | Different minimum qualifying pair |
| Triple/Super variants | Enhanced bonus structures on the above |
Within each of these families sit multiple paytable variants. Deuces Wild alone includes full pay, Not So Ugly, bonus, loose, double, and several short-pay versions.
Wild-Card vs Non-Wild Games
A useful way to split the field is by whether the game uses wild cards. Non-wild games (Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus, Aces and Faces) play with a standard 52-card deck and pay from a pair of Jacks up. Wild-card games (Deuces Wild, Joker Poker, and their derivatives) add wilds that complete hands, which raises the minimum paying hand and creates new categories like the wild royal and five of a kind. Wild-card games generally have higher variance and tougher strategy. Our comparison of Jacks or Better vs Deuces Wild illustrates the difference.
Multi-Hand and Format Variations
On top of the game families sit format variations that multiply the count further. Multi-hand video poker — Triple Play, Five Play, Ten Play, up to 100-Play — takes any base game and plays it across many hands at once. These are not new games strictly speaking; they are formats that wrap an existing paytable. The same is true of progressive-jackpot versions and themed cabinets. Learn more in our multi-hand video poker guide.
How to Navigate Them All
You do not need to learn every variant. The practical approach is:
- Start with one core family — almost always Jacks or Better.
- Learn to read paytables so you can tell full-pay from short-pay within any family.
- Expand to one or two more families that suit your style (for example Bonus Poker for low variance, Deuces Wild for action).
- Always compare on return, not on name, since two games with the same name can return very differently.
With this approach, the hundreds of variants collapse into a manageable handful of families plus the skill of reading a paytable.
A Closer Look at the Non-Wild Families
The non-wild games all descend from Jacks or Better and share its 52-card deck and pair-of-Jacks minimum. What distinguishes them is how they treat four of a kind. Understanding this small group covers a large share of every casino floor.
- Jacks or Better is the original: every four of a kind pays the same flat amount. Simple, low-variance, and the easiest to learn.
- Bonus Poker introduces tiers, paying more for four Aces and four low cards than for other quads, while keeping variance moderate.
- Double Bonus roughly doubles those quad bonuses and raises variance, funding the increase by trimming other payouts.
- Double Double Bonus adds "kickers" — paying even more for four Aces accompanied by a specific low card — creating the genre's signature high-variance jackpot chase.
- Aces and Faces, Aces and Eights reward quads of particular ranks, each with its own flavor of bonus.
Once you can read a paytable, moving between these families is mostly a matter of recognizing which four-of-a-kind structure is in play and adjusting a handful of decisions. The core skill of holding and discarding transfers almost entirely.
A Closer Look at the Wild-Card Families
The wild-card games are organized around which cards are wild and how many there are. The wilds raise the minimum paying hand and add new categories, which is why these games feel distinct from the non-wild families.
- Deuces Wild makes all four 2s wild. The minimum paying hand rises to three of a kind, and new hands like the wild royal and five of a kind appear. High variance, tougher strategy, but the highest return at full pay.
- Joker Poker adds a single Joker to make a 53-card deck with one wild. The lone wild is less disruptive than four deuces, so the game sits between Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild in feel.
- Deuces and Joker, Double Joker combine multiple wilds for even more action and variance.
Wild-card games reward the most study because the wilds create many overlapping possibilities on each hand. The payoff for that study is access to some of the best returns in the building, including the rare positive-edge full-pay Deuces schedule.
How Paytable Variants Multiply the Count
This is where the "hundreds of games" figure comes from. Take a single family — say Bonus Poker — and a casino or software provider may offer it at 8/5, 7/5, 6/5, 10/7, and several other full house/flush combinations. Each is a distinct playable game with its own return, even though they are all "Bonus Poker." Now repeat that across every family, and the total balloons.
The crucial insight is that these variants do not require new skills. They require the one skill of reading a paytable. A player who knows that the full house and flush lines determine a non-wild game's return, and that the four-of-a-kind line determines a Deuces game's return, can instantly evaluate any of the hundreds of variants. The large number is intimidating only to players who treat each variant as a separate game to memorize; to players who understand the underlying structure, it is simply the same dozen families wearing different price tags.
Why So Many Variants Exist
It is natural to ask why the industry produces so many versions of essentially the same games. The answer is a mix of math and marketing. On the math side, adjusting payouts lets operators fine-tune the house edge to the denomination and location — tighter paytables in high-traffic tourist areas, looser ones in locals casinos competing for regulars. On the marketing side, fresh names, themes, and bonus structures keep the games feeling new and give players reasons to try something different. New families like the various "triple" and "super" bonus games are essentially repackaged versions of older structures with enhanced jackpots designed to attract attention. None of this changes the player's core task: identify the family, read the paytable, and judge the game on its return rather than its branding.
The "Or Better" Family of Variants
One group worth singling out is the "or better" family, which changes a single rule: the minimum qualifying pair. Standard Jacks or Better pays from a pair of Jacks. But you will also find Tens or Better (pays from a pair of Tens), Kings or Better, Aces or Better, and even Queens or Better. Each shifts the threshold for the smallest paying hand, and the paytable is rebalanced accordingly — a lower threshold like Tens or Better must pay less elsewhere to compensate for paying out more often, while a higher threshold like Kings or Better can afford richer payouts on bigger hands.
These variants illustrate the family-versus-paytable distinction perfectly. They are recognizably "Jacks or Better with a twist," and a player who understands the base game can pick them up immediately, adjusting only for the different minimum and the rebalanced payouts. They add to the total count of games without adding much to the total amount you actually need to learn, which is the recurring theme across the entire video poker universe.
How Multi-Hand Multiplies the Count Further
Format variations multiply the total again. Take any base game — say 9/6 Jacks or Better — and it can be offered as single-hand, Triple Play (3 hands), Five Play, Ten Play, and up through 50-Play and 100-Play. Each format plays the identical base paytable but deals your held cards across multiple simultaneous hands, each drawing from its own fresh deck. These are not new games in the sense of new rules; they are the same game wrapped in a format that changes the pace, the bet size, and the variance.
This is why a single casino can advertise hundreds of "games": one base paytable across six multi-hand formats is already six entries, and that pattern repeats across dozens of base paytables. For the player, the lesson is reassuring. Learning 9/6 Jacks or Better strategy means you can play it single-hand or 100-hand — the hold decisions are identical, only the stakes and swings change. The format affects your bankroll needs and the size of your swings, not the strategy. Our multi-hand guide explains how variance scales with the number of hands.
A Practical Mental Model
The most useful way to hold all of this in your head is a simple two-layer model. The first layer is the game family, defined by its rules: the deck, the wild cards, the minimum paying hand, and the four-of-a-kind structure. There are about a dozen of these, and they are what you genuinely learn. The second layer is everything that decorates a family without changing its rules: the specific paytable (full pay versus short pay), the format (single or multi-hand), the theme, and the branding.
When you sit at any machine, your job is to peel back the second layer and identify the first. Ask: which family is this? Then: is this the full-pay version of that family? Then: what format am I playing and does my bankroll suit it? Answer those three questions and you have fully evaluated a game, no matter how unfamiliar its name. This model turns the intimidating "hundreds of variants" into a quick, repeatable classification you can perform in seconds, and it is the real answer to navigating the entire field.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there an exact number of video poker games?
No. Because new paytable variants and themed versions appear regularly, the total is open-ended — commonly hundreds in practice. The core families, however, number around a dozen.
Which variant should a beginner start with?
Jacks or Better. It is the simplest, most widely available, and the foundation every other family builds on.
Are all these variants worth playing?
No. Many are short-pay versions with poor returns. Focus on the full-pay schedules within each family and skip the reduced ones.
Bottom Line
There are about a dozen core video poker families, but hundreds of paytable and format variants built on them. Rather than counting games, learn the families and master reading a paytable — that skill lets you evaluate any of the hundreds of variants instantly and pick the best one available.