Last updated: 7 October 2026 · By Power.Win Editorial Team
Quick Answer: A 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker pay table pays 9 for a full house and 6 for a flush, returning 99.54% with perfect play. Check those two rows first: 8 and 5 means a short-pay table returning 97.30%. Power.Win’s game feed lists Jacks or Better Draw Poker; check its pay table against those two rows.
Two Jacks or Better games can look identical and still differ by more than two points of return. The difference sits on the pay table, and no Jacks or Better strategy can make up for a short-pay one.
Here’s what a 9/6 table is, the hold order to follow, how to read the table, what it costs when two rows are cut, and how coins change the maths. The return figures come from the Wizard of Odds Jacks or Better return tables.
What is a 9/6 pay table?
A 9/6 pay table pays 9 for a full house and 6 for a flush per coin bet. With perfect play, that full-pay version of Jacks or Better returns 99.54% of the money wagered, a house edge of 0.46%.
The two numbers are the full house and flush rows, the two rows that differ most between versions of the game. “Jacks or Better” means the lowest paying hand is a pair of jacks or higher, and it pays even money: your coin back.
The other rows on the full-pay table pay 50 for a straight flush, 25 for four of a kind, 4 for a straight, 3 for three of a kind and 2 for two pair.
Return is the share of your total wagers the game pays back over a very long run, and house edge is the rest. Neither tells you what a single session looks like, a point the RTP, house edge and variance guide covers in full.
The hand names follow standard poker order, so if the ranking itself is new to you, start with our poker hand rankings guide.
What is the basic Jacks or Better strategy?
Hold the highest-ranked option from a fixed list: made hands and four to a royal flush first, then pairs, flush and straight draws, and high cards. The Wizard of Odds’ simple version of the list returns 99.46% on 9/6.
This is basic video poker strategy for Jacks or Better. A “high card” is a jack, queen, king or ace. Find every reasonable way to play your five cards, then take the one that sits highest on this list.
- Royal flush, straight flush or four of a kind: keep the made hand
- Four to a royal flush
- Three of a kind (hold the three), or a made straight, flush or full house (hold all five)
- Four to a straight flush
- Two pair
- High pair (jacks, queens, kings or aces)
- Three to a royal flush
- Four to a flush
- Low pair
- Four to an outside straight
- Two suited high cards
- Three to a straight flush
- Two unsuited high cards (if you have three, keep the lowest two)
- Suited 10 with a jack, queen or king
- One high card
- Nothing useful: discard all five
Say you’re dealt 4♥ 4♠ 8♥ J♥ K♥. A low pair is on the list, but four to a flush ranks above it, so you hold the four hearts and discard the 4♠.
The Wizard of Odds simple strategy loses 0.08 points against perfect play, or one total bet every 1,178 hands. The optimal strategy page for 9/6 Jacks or Better lists the rare exceptions if you want the last fraction of a point.
That list assumes a 9/6 table, which is why the next step is to confirm you’re on one.
How do you read a video poker pay table?
Read it row by row: each row is a hand, each column is a coin count, and the number is what that hand pays. Check the full house and flush rows first, then the royal flush at five coins.
Here is the full-pay 9/6 table. The “chance” and “return share” columns assume perfect play and are from the Wizard of Odds, with return share measured in points of the 99.54% total.
| Hand | Pays at 1 coin | Pays at 5 coins | Chance on a hand | Return share (points) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 4,000 | 0.0025% | 1.98 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 250 | 0.0109% | 0.55 |
| Four of a kind | 25 | 125 | 0.2363% | 5.91 |
| Full house | 9 | 45 | 1.1512% | 10.36 |
| Flush | 6 | 30 | 1.1015% | 6.61 |
| Straight | 4 | 20 | 1.1229% | 4.49 |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 15 | 7.4449% | 22.33 |
| Two pair | 2 | 10 | 12.9279% | 25.86 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 5 | 21.4585% | 21.46 |
| Nothing | 0 | 0 | 54.5435% | 0 |
Return shares are rounded to two decimals, so they add to 99.55 rather than the exact 99.54.
Three things stand out. The small rows do most of the work: jacks or better, two pair and three of a kind together supply about 70 of the 99.54 points.
The royal flush supplies only 1.98 points, yet it lands about once in 40,000 hands, which is why a short session often shows a loss. And the royal is the only row that doesn’t scale with coins: it pays 250 per coin for one to four coins, then 4,000 for five, or 800 per coin.
Full pay vs short pay: what does 8/5 cost you?
An 8/5 pay table cuts the full house to 8 and the flush to 5, dropping the return from 99.54% to 97.30%. That’s $2.70 lost per $100 wagered instead of $0.46, nearly six times the cost.
Each cut row gives something up. On the same holds, paying 8 instead of 9 for a full house removes about 1.15 points of return (a 1.1512% chance times the 1-coin cut), and paying 5 instead of 6 for a flush removes about 1.10 (1.1015% times 1).
That’s about 2.25 points on the same holds. The published returns differ by 2.24 (99.54% minus 97.30%), because re-optimising your holds for the new table wins back a small amount. Common versions compare like this, all at five coins with perfect play.
| Pay table | Full house | Flush | Return | Cost per $100 wagered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9/6 (full pay) | 9 | 6 | 99.54% | $0.46 |
| 8/6 | 8 | 6 | 98.39% | $1.61 |
| 8/5 | 8 | 5 | 97.30% | $2.70 |
| 7/5 | 7 | 5 | 96.15% | $3.85 |
| 6/5 | 6 | 5 | 95.00% | $5.00 |
Check the other rows too, not only those two. The 9/6 label describes two numbers, and a table can match it on the full house and flush while paying less on two pair or the straight flush.
If any row pays less than the full-pay 9/6 table, treat it as short pay with a return below 99.54%.
Worked example: 1,000 hands at $1.25
Say you play 1,000 hands at five 25-cent coins, which is $1.25 a hand and $1,250 wagered in total.
- On 9/6, the expected cost is $1,250 × 0.456% = $5.70.
- On 8/5, the expected cost is $1,250 × 2.702% = $33.77.
- The gap is $28.07 for the same hands and the same holds, so 8/5 costs about 5.9 times as much as 9/6.
Expected cost isn’t what a session looks like. The standard deviation of 9/6 is 4.42 bets per hand, which over 1,000 hands is about $175 either side. The $5.70 is the long-run drag underneath that swing.
Why does the number of coins change the return?
Playing five coins lifts the royal flush from 250 to 800 per coin, worth 1.36 points of return. Using the full-pay holds at fewer than five coins, 9/6 drops from 99.54% to about 98.18% (derived: 99.54% minus 1.36).
The pay table only reaches its published 99.54% at the full five-coin bet. At one to four coins the royal pays 250 per coin, and the royal’s contribution falls from 1.98 points to about 0.62.
The Wizard of Odds puts the loss at 1.36% of return for playing less than maximum coins on 9/6. The 98.18% is derived here, not published: it takes that 1.36 off 99.54 on the five-coin holds, and a strategy re-tuned for fewer coins recovers a little of it.
Take the same $1,250 of wagering. At five coins on 9/6, the expected cost is $5.70. Spread over fewer coins per hand with the full-pay holds, the cost rises to about 1.82% of wagers (derived: 100% minus 98.18%), which is about $22.75 on $1,250. A re-tuned strategy would land slightly lower.
The cards and the pay table haven’t changed. Only the royal’s pay has.
Not every Jacks or Better game offers a coin choice. If the game you’re playing takes one bet per hand, find the pay column that bet uses and read the table from that column. The return it implies is the return you’re getting.
What are the common holding mistakes?
The costly errors are breaking a made hand for a weaker draw, keeping a kicker with a pair, and chasing inside straights with no high card. Each one gives up return the pay table has already priced in.
- Breaking a made straight or flush for a straight-flush draw. On the hold list, a made straight or flush ranks above four to a straight flush. Only four to a royal flush outranks it.
- Keeping a kicker with a pair. A fifth card has no pay value here, and keeping it means drawing one card fewer toward three of a kind, two pair or a full house. Hold the pair alone.
- Putting a low pair ahead of four to a flush. A high pair ranks above four to a flush, but a low pair ranks below it. The pair’s rank is what matters.
- Chasing an inside straight with no high card. Four to an inside straight with no high card is a hand the strategy never plays: discard everything instead.
None of these is about luck. They’re about which hold the maths ranks higher, and the hold list is that ranking.
Jacks or Better on Power.Win
Power.Win’s public lobby feed lists one Jacks or Better game, Jacks or Better Draw Poker, and it’s the only title in the feed’s poker game type. Its pay table sits inside the game, so check the full house and flush rows there.
The public lobby feed lists 1,563 games, and its poker game type returns that single title. Power.Win’s docs say the casino holds thousands of games, so the feed is a public listing, not a count of the whole lobby. It’s a third-party game, so it isn’t a PWR Original and isn’t provably fair.
Its fairness claim is the certification third-party games carry, not seeds you can check yourself, a difference what RNG certification proves explains. Power.Win’s provably fair titles are the PWR Originals, such as Crash, Plinko, Mines, Dice, Roulette and Blackjack.
Open Jacks or Better Draw Poker in the casino lobby, find its pay table, and check the full house and flush rows first. If they read 9 and 6 and the other rows match the full-pay 9/6 pay table, the Wizard of Odds figure for that table is 99.54% with perfect play.
If either reads lower, use the 8/5, 7/5 and 6/5 rows in the comparison to see what it costs per $100.
Power.Win isn’t available to players in the United States: section 5.2 of its Terms and Conditions lists the United States of America among the countries whose players aren’t eligible to deposit or play real-money games. Read this page as an explanation of how this works, not as an invitation to sign up.
Checked in the public lobby feed on 7 October 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the two numbers in 9/6 stand for?
They’re the full house and flush pays per coin bet: 9 for the full house and 6 for the flush. On a Jacks or Better table, 9/6 returns 99.54% with perfect play. Lower numbers, such as 8/5, return 97.30%.
How does video poker compare with slots on return?
A 9/6 Jacks or Better game returns 99.54% with perfect play, and the pay table lets you check that yourself. A slot’s return is usually set by the game and published as a single figure. In video poker, your holds move it.
What return does perfect Jacks or Better play give?
On a 9/6 table at five coins, perfect play returns 99.54%. The Wizard of Odds’ intermediate strategy returns 99.52% and its simple one 99.46%. Every point you lose to mistakes is one more cent per dollar wagered handed to the game.
Is it ever fine to play fewer than five coins?
On 9/6 it costs 1.36 points of return, because the royal flush pays 250 per coin below five coins instead of 800. Using the full-pay holds, that takes 99.54% to about 98.18% (derived). If the game offers no coin choice, read its single pay column.
Sources (Citations)
- Wizard of Odds, Jacks or Better return tables: 9/6, 8/6, 8/5, 7/5 and 6/5 returns, hand probabilities and the 4.42 standard deviation (wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/tables/jacks-or-better/), checked 7 October 2026
- Wizard of Odds, Jacks or Better simple strategy (9/6): the hold list, the 99.46% return and the 0.08-point loss, one total bet every 1,178 hands (wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/strategy/jacks-or-better/9-6/simple/), checked 7 October 2026
- Wizard of Odds, Jacks or Better optimal strategy (9/6): the 99.54% optimal return, the 99.52% intermediate and 99.46% simple strategy returns, and the optimal-play exceptions (wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/strategy/jacks-or-better/9-6/optimal/), checked 7 October 2026
- Wizard of Odds, Ask the Wizard, Jacks or Better: 8/5 return of 97.30% and the 1.36% loss from playing less than maximum coins; the 98.18% and 1.82% figures are derived from it, not stated there (wizardofodds.com/ask-the-wizard/video-poker/jacks-or-better/), checked 7 October 2026
- Power.Win, public game feed: lists 1,563 games, one title in its poker game type, checked 7 October 2026. Power.Win docs, About: casino classics include video poker
- Power.Win docs, PWR Originals (docs.power.win/documentation/games/pwr-originals), checked 7 October 2026
- Power.Win blog, RTP, House Edge, and Variance (blog.power.win/blog/rtp-house-edge-variance-casino-math/)
Take the Lead, Gamble Responsibly
A 99.54% return still means the game keeps 0.46% of everything you wager. Decide what you’re willing to spend before the first hand, treat it as the cost of the entertainment, and never use a game to try to recover losses.
Set your limits on Power.Win’s responsible gambling page before you play, not after a bad run. Deposit limits, wagering limits and self-exclusion are all there, and the page points to the support services to contact if gambling stops feeling like a choice.