Poker Jacks Or Better Meaning

  1. Online Jacks Or Better Poker
A video poker machine at Seven Feathers Casino.

Jacks or Better slot machine game is easy to understand as long as you have a knowledge of the poker game. Overall, this machine is a good-looking and a well-thought-out video poker game. To try it out for fun or real money, you can go to Slotozilla.com.

Video poker is a casino game based on five-card drawpoker. It is played on a computerized console similar in size to a slot machine.

  • 5Full pay games
  • 6Low pay video poker games

History[edit]

Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television-like monitor with a solid statecentral processing unit. The earliest models appeared at the same time as the first personal computers were produced, in the mid-1970s, although they were primitive by today's standards.

Video poker became more firmly established when SIRCOMA, which stood for Si Redd's Coin Machines (and which evolved over time to become International Game Technology), introduced Draw Poker in 1979. Throughout the 1980s video poker became increasingly popular in casinos, as people found the devices less intimidating than playing table games. Today video poker enjoys a prominent place on the gaming floors of many casinos. The game is especially popular with Las Vegas locals, who tend to patronize locals casinos off the Las Vegas Strip. These local casinos often offer lower denomination machines or better odds.

A few people that are skilled in calculating odds have made money playing video poker.[1]

The game[edit]

After inserting money (or a bar-coded paper ticket with credit) into the machine, play begins by placing a bet of one or more credits and pressing the 'deal' button. The player is then given 5 cards (like five-card draw) and has the opportunity to discard one or more of them in exchange for new ones drawn from the same virtual deck. After the draw, the machine pays out if the hand or hands played match one of the winning combinations, which are posted in the pay table. Unlike the table version, the player may discard all 5 of their original cards if they so choose.[2]

Pay tables allocate the payouts for hands and are based on how rare they are, the game variation, and the decision of the game operator. A typical pay table starts with a minimum hand of a pair of jacks, which pays even money. All the other hand combinations in video poker are the same as in table poker, including such hands as two pair, three of a kind, straight (a sequence of 5 cards of consecutive value), flush (any 5 cards of the same suit), full house (a pair and a three of a kind), four of a kind (four cards of the same value), straight flush (5 consecutive cards of the same suit) and royal flush (a Ten, a Jack, a Queen, a King and an Ace of the same suit).[3]

Some machines offer progressive jackpots or other unique bonuses, spurring players to both play more coins and to play more frequently.

Regulation[edit]

Video poker machines in casinos in the United States are regulated by state or Indian gaming agencies. These agencies typically require that the machines deal random card sequences using a virtual deck of cards. This is based on a Nevada Gaming Commission regulation later adopted by other states with a gaming authority. Video poker machines are tested to ensure compliance with this requirement before they are offered to the public.

Variations[edit]

There are many variations of video poker. They include Deuces Wild, where a two serves as a wild card; Joker's Wild, where a joker serves as a wild card; Anything's Wild, where the player selects any card (by rank) to act as the wild card before the hand is dealt; pay schedule modification, where four aces with a five or smaller kicker pays an enhanced amount (these games usually have some adjective in the title such as 'bonus', 'double', or 'triple'); and multi-play poker, where the player starts with a base hand, and each additional played hand draws from a different set of cards with the base hand. (Multi-play games are offered in 'Triple Play', 'Five Play', 'Ten Play', 'Fifty Play' and 'One Hundred Play' versions.)

In games which do not have a wild card, a player on average will receive the rare four-of-a-kind hand approximately once every 500 hands, while a player may play tens of thousands of hands before a royal flush, which usually has the highest payout.

Video poker games online are now available in the US in 3 different states: New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada. Players in all three states are able to enjoy fully regulated online video poker games provided that they are physically present in the respective state, of legal age to gamble, and can validate their identity.

Full pay games[edit]

When modern video poker games first appeared, the highest-paying common variant of a particular game was called 'full-pay'. Game variants that returned a lower payback percentage were termed 'Short-Pay'. Though the term full-pay is still in use, today, there are many game variants that return more. Payback percentage expresses the long-term expected value of the player's wager as a percentage if the game is played perfectly. A payback percentage of 99 percent, for example, indicates that for each $100 wagered, in the long run, the player would expect to lose $1 if they played every hand in the optimal way. Full-pay Jacks or Better, for example, offers a payback percentage of 99.54%. Some payback percentages on full-pay games are often close to or even in excess of 100 percent.

Casinos do not usually advertise payback percentages, leaving it up to the player to identify which video poker machines offer the best schedules.

The payoff schedules for most video poker machines are configured with a pay schedule that pays proportionally more for certain hands (such as a royal flush) when the maximum number of credits (typically 5 coins) is bet. Therefore, players who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are playing with a smaller theoretical return.

Jacks or Better[edit]

'Jacks or Better,' sometimes simply called 'Draw Poker,' is the most common variation of video poker. Payoffs begin at a pair of jacks. Full pay Jacks or Better is also known as 9/6 Jacks or Better since the payoff for a full house is 9 times the bet, and the payoff for a flush is 6 times the bet.[4] Sometimes, 10/6 and 9/7 versions of Jacks or Better can be found as promotions.[5]

HandPrizeCombinationsProbabilityReturn
Royal Flush80041,126,0220.0000251.9807%
Straight Flush50181,573,6080.0001090.5465%
Four of a kind253,924,430,6470.0023635.9064%
Full House919,122,956,8830.01151210.3610%
Flush618,296,232,1800.0110156.6087%
Straight418,653,130,4820.0112294.4918%
Three of a kind3123,666,922,5270.07444922.3346%
Two Pair2214,745,513,6790.12927925.8558%
Jacks or Better1356,447,740,9140.21458521.4585%
All Other0906,022,916,1580.5454350.0000%
Totals-1,661,102,543,1001.00000099.5439%

Bally's All American[edit]

Bally TechnologiesAll American video poker is based on Jacks or Better with an increased payout for flushes, straights and straight flushes, but reduced payout for full houses and two pairs (8-8-8-3-1 versus 9-6-4-3-2). The full pay version (quads return 50 bets), once common but now rare, is one of the highest return versions of video poker offered, but the play strategy is very complex and mastered by few. IGT's version of the game is called USA Poker.

Tens or Better[edit]

'Tens or Better' is a variation of 6/5 Jacks or Better. The minimum paying hand is a pair of tens, rather than a pair of Jacks. Strategy is similar between the two games, in spite of the very different full house and flush payouts.

Joker's Wild[edit]

'Joker's Wild', as the name implies, adds a joker to the mix. The joker is fully wild and substitutes to make stronger hands. The inclusion of the wild joker also adds another winning hand in 5-of-a-kind. The game's name inspired a game show of the same name. The full pay version of Joker Two Pair or better (6-7-8), once common but now rare, is one of the highest return versions of video poker offered, but the play strategy is very complex and mastered by few.

Deuces Wild[edit]

'Deuces Wild' is a variation of video poker in which all twos are wild. (Wild cards substitute for any other card in the deck in order to make a better poker hand). In Deuces Wild, the payout for a four of a kind makes up approximately ⅓ of the payback percentage of the game, and a four of a kind occurs on average approximately every fifteen hands. Deuces Wild can be found with pay schedules that offer a theoretical return as high as 100.8 percent, when played with perfect strategy. This full-pay version is found only in Nevada. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:

Hand1 credit2 credits3 credits4 credits5 credits
Natural Royal Flush30060090012004000
Four Deuces2004006008001000
Wild Royal Flush255075100125
Five of a Kind1530456075
Straight Flush918273645
Four of a Kind510152025
Full House3691215
Flush246810
Straight246810
Three of a Kind12345
Theoretical Return99.7%99.7%99.7%99.7%100.8%

Variations are available that pay different amounts for the quad 'deuces', such as Double Deuces (2000), Loose Deuces (2500), Triple Deuces (3000), and Royal Deuces (4000). Full pay Loose Deuces (25-17-10), once common but now rare, is one of the highest return versions of video poker offered.

Sigma Flush Attack[edit]

Sigma Flush Attack is a combination of video poker and a banking slot, in this case what is being banked is flushes.[6] After 3,4, or 5 flushes (varies by machine), the machine switches into 'flush attack mode' in which the next flush pays 100 or 125 credits instead of the more usual 30 credits of 9-6 Jacks or Better. Some of these machines are linked, which means players can simply wait for someone else to put the bank in flush attack mode, or alternately with non-linked machines a player can play after observing a previous player hit flushes but not enough to trigger the flush attack, a practice called 'vulturing'. The higher payoff of the flush attack represents one of the higher overlays of video poker. These machines, once common, are now relatively rare.

Bonus Poker[edit]

'Bonus Poker' is a video poker game based on Jacks or Better, but Bonus Poker offers a higher payout percentage for four of a kind. The full-pay version of this game returns 99.2%. (3)The game has multiple versions featuring different bonus payouts based on the ranking of the four of a kind.

Double Bonus[edit]

'Double Bonus' video poker is a variation of Jacks or Better with a bonus payout for four aces. This variation offers up to a theoretical return of 100.2 percent, when played with perfect strategy — however, this % is only on a '10/7' version video poker game (10/7 being the payouts for a full house and a flush). There are many other video poker varieties of 10/6, 9/6, etc. that have slightly lower than the most generous 10/7 version payout. Although the full-pay version has a theoretically-positive return, few play well enough to capitalize on it. Double Bonus is a complex game.(4)

It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:

Hand1 credit2 credits3 credits4 credits5 credits
Royal Flush25050075010004000
Straight Flush50100150200250
Four Aces160320480640800
Four 2, 3, or 480160240320400
Four 5-K50100150200250
Full House1020304050
Flush714212835
Straight510152025
Three of a Kind3691215
Two Pair12345
Jacks or Better12345
Theoretical Return99.1%99.1%99.1%99.1%100.2%

Double Double Bonus[edit]

'Double Double Bonus' video poker is a variation of Jacks or Better which offers bonus payoffs for different four of a kinds, as seen in the payout table below. Full pay Double Double Bonus can be found with pay schedules that offer up to a theoretical return of 100.1 percent, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:

Hand1 credit2 credits3 credits4 credits5 credits
Royal Flush25050075010004000
Straight Flush50100150200250
Four Aces w/2, 3, or 4400800120016002000
Four 2, 3, or 4 w/A-4160320480640800
Four Aces160320480640800
Four 2, 3, or 480160240320400
Four 5-K50100150200250
Full House1020304050
Flush612182430
Straight48121620
Three of a Kind3691215
Two Pair12345
Jacks or Better12345
Theoretical Return98.9%98.9%98.9%98.9%100.1%

Low pay video poker games[edit]

Often casinos choose to use pay tables which reduce the maximum payout percentage as compared to other commonly available game variants. This increases the house edge, but generally reduces net revenue for the casino as players experience less 'play time' on the machine, busting out of their buy-in at an earlier point. Casinos that reduce paytables generally have to increase promotions to compensate and attract customers.

9/5 Jacks or Better[edit]

9/5 Jacks or Better is a low pay version of the game. The payout for making a Flush is cut from 6x your bet to 5x your bet, but all other payouts remain the same. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 98.45% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.

8/6 Jacks or Better[edit]

8/6 Jacks or Better is another often used pay table for Jacks or Better games. The payout for making a Full House is cut from 9x your bet to 8x your bet, while all other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 98.39% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.

8/5 Jacks or Better[edit]

8/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full House payout from 9x your bet to 8x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet to 5x your bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 97.30% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus. A common promotion used by casinos to encourage play on this tight paytable was to add a 2% progressive meter to the royal flush.

7/5 Jacks or Better[edit]

Jacks

7/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full House payout from 9x your bet to 7x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet to 5x your bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 96.15% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.

6/5 Jacks or Better[edit]

6/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full House payout from 9x your bet to 6x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet to 5x your bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 95.00% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.

Progressive jackpot games[edit]

Other kinds of video poker only have positive theoretical returns when the progressive jackpot is high enough. Many establishments advertise with a billboard when the progressive jackpot is high enough. Otherwise sub-optimal games like 8/5 jacks or better can become positive expectation when the jackpot is large enough.


247 poker jacks or better

Terminology[edit]

As with regular poker, there are many different terms and phrases that are associated with playing video poker. Not knowing these terms may cause a disadvantage to anyone playing the game. The most important video poker terms [7] have been added to the table below.

Video Poker TermExplanation
Full PayThe highest paying variant of a video poker game. Typically with high return-to-player game percentages.
Low PayRefers to video poker games which increase the house edge and reduce the return-to-player percentage.
Natural Royal FlushA unique case when the highest possible hand, a Royal Flush, is dealt to the player.
Power PokerTheoretically the most profitable poker strategy.
Multi-PlayA feature that allows participants to play with more than one hand.
HoldWhen a player chooses to keep the cards in their hand.
Auto HoldA feature available in certain video poker games. If turned on, the game automatically chooses which cards to hold.
Not So Ugly Ducks (NSUD)A game most well-known for paying 16 for a 5 of a kind and 10 for a straight flush.
Game DenominationRefers to the value of the cards or the coin size in a video poker game.
FlushA five-card hand that contains cards of the same suit.
DiscardThe cards you decide to throw away after the initial deal.
DrawThe second deal of the cards, after you have decided which cards to hold and which to discard.
HandThe five cards (or less) dealt on the screen are known as a hand.


See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Montero, David; Winton, Richard; Vives, Ruben (2017-10-09). 'In the solitary world of video poker, Stephen Paddock knew how to win. Until he didn't'. Los Angeles Times. ISSN0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
  2. ^'Video Poker Rules & Gameplay'.
  3. ^'Learn Video Poker Rules and Video Poker Hand Values'. OnlineCasinosDoc.com. Retrieved 2010-08-05.
  4. ^'Video Poker Analyzer - Wizard of Odds'. wizardofodds.com.
  5. ^Video Poker Optimum Play, Dan Paymar, Table 9: Attractiveness Quotient of Selected Games, page 175, ISBN1-886070-11-3
  6. ^Robbing the One-Armed Bandits, Charles Lund, 1999, ISBN091057510X, page 37ff
  7. ^'Video Poker Online Guide'. online-gambling.com. Retrieved 2019-09-17.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Video poker.
  • Video Poker Guides at Curlie
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Video_poker&oldid=933116876'
Jack cards of all four suits in the English pattern

A jack or knave is a playing card which, in traditional French and English decks, pictures a man in the traditional or historic aristocratic or courtier dress, generally associated with Europe of the 16th or 17th century. The usual rank of a jack, within its suit, plays as if it was an 11 (that is, between the 10 and the queen). As the lowest face (or 'court') card, the jack often represents a minimum standard — for example, many poker games require a minimum hand of a pair of jacks ('jacks or better') in order to continue play.

History[edit]

Knave of coins from the oldest known European deck (c.1390–1410).

The earliest predecessor of the knave was the thānī nā'ib (second or under-deputy) in the Mamluk card deck. This was the lowest of the three court cards and like all court cards was depicted through abstract art or calligraphy. When brought over to Italy and Spain, the thānī nā'ib was made into an infantry soldier or page ranking below the knight card. In France, where the card was called the valet, the queen was inserted between the king and knight. The knight was subsequently dropped out of non-Tarot decks leaving the valet directly under the queen. The king-queen-valet format then made its way into England.

As early as the mid-16th century the card was known in England as the knave (meaning a male servant of royalty). Although jack was in common usage to designate the knave, the term became more entrenched when, in 1864,[1] American cardmaker Samuel Hart published a deck using 'J' instead of 'Kn' to designate the lowest-ranking court card. The knave card had been called a jack as part of the terminology of the game All Fours since the 17th century, but this usage was considered common or low class. However, because the card abbreviation for knave was so close to that of the king ('Kn' versus 'K'), the two were easily confused. This confusion was even more pronounced after the markings indicating suits and rankings were moved to the corners of the card, a move which enabled players to 'fan' a hand of cards without obscuring the individual suits and ranks. The earliest deck known of this type is from 1693, but such positioning did not become widespread until reintroduced by Hart in 1864, together with the knave-to-jack change. Books of card games published in the third quarter of the 19th century still referred to the 'knave' however, a term that is still recognized in the United Kingdom. (Note the exclamation by Estella in Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations: 'He calls the knaves, jacks, this boy!')

Representations[edit]

In the English pattern,[2] the jack and the other face cards represent no one in particular,[3] in contrast to the historical French practice, in which each court card is said to represent a particular historical or mythological personage. The valets in the Paris pattern have traditionally been associated with such figures as Ogier the Dane (a knight of Charlemagne and legendary hero of the chansons de geste) for the jack of spades;[4]La Hire (French warrior) for the Jack of Hearts; Hector (mythological hero of the Iliad) for the jack of diamonds; and Lancelot or Judas Maccabeus for the jack of clubs.[5][6]

In some southern Italian decks, there are androgynous knaves that are sometimes referred to as maids. In the Sicilian Tarot deck, the knaves are unambiguously female and are also known as maids.[7] As this deck also includes queens, it is the only traditional set to survive into modern times with two ranks of female face cards. This pack may have been influenced by the obsolete Portuguese deck which also had female knaves. The modern Mexican pattern also has female knaves.[8]

Poetry[edit]

Online Jacks Or Better Poker

The figure of the jack has been used in many literary works throughout history. Among these is one by 17th-century English writer Samuel Rowlands. The Four Knaves is a series of Satirical Tracts, with Introduction and Notes by E. F. Rimbault, upon the subject of playing cards. His 'The Knave of Clubbs: Tis Merry When Knaves Meet' was first published in 1600, then again in 1609 and 1611. In accordance with a promise at the end of this book, Rowlands went on with his series of Knaves, and in 1612 wrote 'The Knave of Harts: Haile Fellowe, Well Meet', where his 'Supplication to Card-Makers' appears,[9] thought to have been written to the English manufacturers who copied to the English decks the court figures created by the French.

Example cards[edit]

The cards shown here are from a Paris pattern deck (where the rank is known as the 'valet'), and include the historical and mythological names associated with them. The English pattern of the jacks can be seen in the photo at the top of the article.

  • Jack of spades: Ogier

  • Jack of hearts: La Hire

  • Jack of diamonds: Hector

  • Jack of clubs: Lancelot

Trickster figure[edit]

The jack, traditionally the lowest face card, has often been promoted to a higher or the highest position in the traditional ranking of cards, where the ace or king generally occupied the first rank. This is seen in the earliest known European card games, such as Karnöffel, as well as in more recent ones such as Euchre. Games with such promotion include:

See also[edit]

  • 'The Jack', a song by AC/DC, in which the playing card is a metaphor for a sexually transmitted disease
  • The Knave of Hearts, a character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
  • The Jack of Diamonds, a group of artists founded in 1909 in Moscow
  • 'Jack of Diamonds', a traditional folk song
  • Jack of Diamonds, the title used by George de Sand in the 1994 anime Mobile Fighter G Gundam
  • Knave of Hearts, a 1954 film directed by René Clément
  • The Jack of Hearts (Jack Hart), a Marvel Comics superhero
  • The Jack of Hearts, a 1919 short Western film
  • 'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts', a song by Bob Dylan
  • Pub (trans. The Jack), an album by Đorđe Balašević.
  • King, Queen, Knave, a novel by Vladimir Nabokov first published in Russian under his pen name, V. Sirin
Free

References[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jacks (playing cards).
  1. ^Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society, p. 290, Rodney P. Carlisle - Sage Publications INC 2009 ISBN1-4129-6670-1
  2. ^English pattern at the International Playing-Card Society. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  3. ^Berry, John. (1998). 'Frequently asked questions'. The Playing-Card. Vol. 27-2. pp. 43-45.
  4. ^Games and Fun with Playing Cards by Joseph Leeming on Google Books
  5. ^The Four King Truth at the Urban Legends Reference Pages
  6. ^Courts on playing cards, by David Madore, with illustrations of the English and French court cards
  7. ^Tarocco Siciliano, early form at the International Playing-Card Society. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  8. ^Scotoni, Ralph. Mexican Pattern at Alta Carta. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  9. ^The Knave of Harts: Haile Fellowe, Well Meet, where his Supplication to Card-Makers by Samuel Rowlands (1600)
    Good card-makers (if there be any goodness in you), Apparrell us with more respected care,
    Put us in hats, our caps are worne thread-bare, Let us have standing collers, in the fashion;
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