Video poker strategy - Royal Flushes

When you look at the payoff table for a video poke game, you can see that the payouts increase exponentially as you move up the table. At the top is a Royal Flush, which normally pays out something like 800 for 1 in a Full Payout game played with 5 coins (the amount per coin is less when the game is played with fewer coins, so you may only get 250 for 1 if you only play with 1 coin per game.

Going for a Royal Flush is the most lucrative main strategic goal when playing video poker. As such, whenever there is a possibility that you can get this hand, you should weigh up the strength of your hand and the potential payouts against the payout you would get if you won the jackpot prize.

Below are the main rules of thumb that relate to going for the Royal Flush. This will seem strange, as many hands that would be incredibly strong in a multiplayer game can be broken up in favour of going for the big prize:

If you have four to a Royal Flush:
Always retain four cards to a Royal Flush and discard the fifth card. This is true even if it means getting rid of a straight or a flush that would otherwise pay out.

If you have three to a Royal Flush
Keep a straight flush, four of a kind, a full house or three of a kind.
Otherwise retain the three to a Royal Flush.

If you have two to a Royal Flush
Hold any automatic winning hands, and any pairs that are lower than the minimum required for a payout. You should also hold on to four to a flush or four to a straight.

However, two to a Royal Flush should be kept in favour of standalone high cards, or three to a flush or straight. So if you had Ace of Spades, Jack of diamonds, ten of diamonds, four of clubs, six of hearts, you would discard the high Ace and the two low cards and keep the two consecutive diamonds.