Jokers Wild Video Poker Pay Tables

Jokers Wild video poker is one of those games people love because of the wildcard aspect. If you can find the right machine, you'll also be playing with one of the highest expectations in casino gambling. There is one version of Jokers Wild with an expectation over 100%. Of course, that's for optimum play, which most players won't be able to master. But there's nothing better than walking up to a machine where you know the theoretical advantage is yours.

Below are several Jokers Wild paytables. Note that Jokers Wild Video Poker is also often  referred to as Joker Poker.

Jokers Wild Full Pay Video Poker Paytable

If you find this pay table in a casino, play this machine and play nothing else. The theoretical expectation on this game is 100.64%

Therefore, Full Pay Jokers Wild rivals and even beats Full Pay Jacks or Better video poker.

Unfortunately, you won't find this version of Jokers Wild very often. Still, there are other versions with competitive payout rates.

Jokers Wild Not So Ugly Pay Table

This version of Joker Poker has a payout rate at 98.94%. This is still respectable, but you can usually find better video poker payouts somewhere in the casino. Notice that the only difference in Not So Ugly and Full Pay Jokers Wild is the payout on the 4 of a Kind. In this version, it is 18x the original wager. In full pay Jokers Wild, the payout is 20x your original bet. So look for the difference in the two when you are searching for a Full Pay Jokers Wild machine.

Jokers Wild 5 of a Kind Big Payout Pay Table

This version has big payouts at the top of the board. You get higher payouts than the Not-So-Ugly version on a five-of-a-kind, a straight flush, a full house and a straight. In fact, the difference on the five-of-a-kind is 200x and 800x, while the difference on the straight flush is 20x and 100x.

Naturally, you would think this latest paytable has more to offer. Actually, this machine pays out at 98.59%, or 0.35% less than the earlier Jokers Wild video poker machine.

That's because the payout on a four-of-a-kind is 16x instead of 18x. Also, a pair of Kings or a pair of Aces is a straight losing hand, instead of a break-even hand. These two seemingly minor changes are enough to cancel out the other advantages.

Some players enjoy having a shot at two instead of one 800x jackpot. That's fine if you would prefer to play this game, because it does offer better high end prize money, but just remember that you are giving away money playing this machine long term.

Ugly Jokers Wild Pay Table

Finally, I wanted to include a typical pay chart for an "ugly" Jokers Wild game. There are several versions of this, though this particular one is the worst example I've seen. If you see this paytable, turn around and walk away. You can find better payouts on the slot machines.

This Ugly Jokers Wild machine pays out at 95.46%. The straight flush, full house and straight all pay out significantly less than on the full pay and not-so-ugly versions of Jokers Wild. Because these are the middle tier payouts which happen so much more often, it creates a significant dropoff in expectations and payout rates.

Notice that the top payouts remain the same as on Full Payout Jokers Wild. The four-of-a-kind also mimics the Full pay table, which might fool the unsuspecting player. The designers even made sure to include the money-back on Kings or Better. But when you drop down into the meat of the paytable, you begin to find a huge gap in the payouts.

Watch out for the Jokers Wild paytables with drops in the middle payouts, such as 4 of a kinds, full houses, flushes and straights. It's better to memorize these, but if you at least remember the full pay Jokers Wild pay table, then you can use it as a reference point for these lesser expectation machines.

Copyright 2006, Video Poker Daddy. All Rights Reserved.