Online Joker Poker

A close cousin of both Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild video poker, online Joker Poker made a name for itself by including the trump card used in family home games for generations now: the joker.

Rather than turn the deck’s four deuces into wild cards, and preserving the 52-card structure that almost every poker variation is based on, Joker Poker simply adds a 53^rd card to the equation.

Before brushing up on the exciting prospects to be found in this creative version of video poker, visit the Jacks or Better page. Here you’ll find an enlightening look back through the history of video poker, standard rules and game-play, traditional poker hand rankings, and other essential information.

After you’ve acquainted yourself with the ins and outs of Jacks or Better, bring it back here to learn about the differences to be found in online Joker Poker. You’ll find an introduction to the rule distinctions, a breakdown of common pay tables and what they mean for your bottom line, and the optimal strategy guidelines which savvy players rely on to make the game’s closest decisions.

Best Joker Poker Online Casinos

Online Joker Poker Rules

The transition from basic Jacks or Better to online Joker Poker isn’t all that jarring for most players, as the games both function in essentially the same fashion. Make an online casino deposit, select the wager amount, and play your cards as best you can.

However, as you might suspect, having a single wild card in the deck adds a few wrinkles to the game. First of all, the presence of a joker creates additional possibilities in terms of the hands you can form. After all, you can never make five of a kind in Jacks or Better, but it’s eminently possible in this game.

The mother of all poker hands – the royal flush – has also been slightly altered in online Joker Poker, with higher payouts for a “natural” royal flush which contains no joker. When you do happen to use a joker as part of your royal flush, the payout might be smaller, but the thrill will still be the same.

You can review the revised hand hierarchy for poker hands used in Joker Poker online on the chart below:

Natural Royal Flush

10 J Q K A, all in the same suit, with no joker.

Five of a Kind

Four of a Kind plus one Joker.

Wild Royal Flush

10 J Q K A, all in the same suit, with one or more Jokers.

Straight Flush

Any five-card straight, all in the same suit.

Four of a Kind

All other four of the same card ranks.

Full House

Three of a kind AND one pair.

Flush

Any five cards all of the same suit.

Straight

Any string of five consecutive cards.

Three of a Kind

Three of the same card rank.

Two Pair

Two sets of two cards of the same rank.

One Pair

One set of two cards of the same rank.*

*For Kings or better; Aces and better requires (A A X X X), and two pair or better requires (5 5 Q Q X)

The three highest hands on the list all cover cases in which the joker either does or doesn’t affect the outcome. After that, the rankings follow traditional poker ordering, running downward from a straight flush to a single pair.

One thing to keep in mind is the minimum hand requirement needed to earn a payout. As you’ll learn in the following section, online Joker Poker can be found in three primary versions, with each requiring a different hand as the lowest possible payout. You can learn more about how to play video poker on Wikipedia.

Online Joker Poker Pay Tables

Online Joker Poker is offered in slightly different versions depending on the casino or machine manufacturer.

The crucial difference to keep in mind is the minimum hand required to earn a payout, which begins at a pair of kings or better on the most player friendly machines. The following table is considered the “full pay” version of Joker Poker:

Notice that the increased payout for landing a natural royal flush has been removed, and instead, an incremental payout has been included. This means that the expected return rate for two pair or better versions of online Joker Poker remain the same no matter how many coins you choose to bet.While the absence of a larger payout for the game’s highest hand may leave some players searching for a different machine, the expected return of 99.92 percent on this game is actually one of the most reasonable in the house. Confronting players with a tiny house edge of only 0.08 percent, two pairs or better Joker Poker online is actually a more favorable option than kings or better when wagering less than the maximum.

Another version of online Joker Poker, this one requiring one pair of aces or better, can also be found. However, a quick scan of the expected value amounts shows this game to be a “sucker” bet by comparison to the pay tables above. With an expected return of just 98.41 percent when betting the maximum, aces or better Joker Poker should be avoided whenever possible, as more player-friendly video poker options will always be available after a bit of hunting.

Sticking to the familiar video poker layout, online Joker Poker offers incremental increases for all payouts when players bet between one and four coins. Accordingly, the expected return for bets of between one and four coins is identical, at 99.78 percent.

However, by placing the maximum bet of five coins, players are entitled to a significantly higher payout when they land a natural royal flush, earning 4,000 credits rather than the 2,000 which would be paid off using the incremental structure.

This additional “juice” on natural royal flushes actually transforms online Joker Poker into a positive expectation game for players who are max betting, provided they are sticking to optimal strategy (more on this to come in the next section). By wagering five coins and playing properly, you can flip the house edge on its head and enjoy an even money proposition.

Online Joker Poker casinos using the kings or better threshold are the player’s best bet, but some casinos have developed pay tables with stricter requirements. The following pay table describes online Joker Poker games in which players must make two pairs or better in order to qualify for a payout:

Finally, the grid below features five common alternatives to the three full pay versions listed above. The Kings or Better (KoB) and Two Pairs or Better (TPoB) pay tables offer decent expected returns, but whenever possible, try to limit your action to the full pay versions for each game.

One item to take stock of concerns the drop off between full pay kings or better Joker Poker online and the alternative versions listed in the preceding grid. Rather than an expected return of more than 100 percent, obtainable by max betting on a kings or better machine while playing properly, these lesser versions can reduce the expected return to between 98.59 and 96.87 percent.

A few percentage points might not seem like much, but when it comes to statistical probability, this drop off is extremely drastic, turning a reasonable game into a money pit on par with roulette and certain hybrid table games.

Online Joker Poker Strategy

Before moving on to the optimal strategy chart used to help players make tough decisions, it’s important to realize that the most powerful strategic tool in your video poker arsenal is the game selection.

You’ve just studied the pay tables for different versions of online Joker Poker, learning that the full pay version of kings or better actually offers a negative house edge (meaning the player holds a slight advantage). With this information fresh in your mind, ask yourself one question: why would you ever play the same game when it offers reduced odds?

Of course, locating a full pay kings or better online Joker Poker casino can sometimes be a chore, and your local options may be lacking. In this case, always take a few minutes to scout out the casino floor, checking to see which pay table versions are available. Nevertheless, make sure to browse our wide catalog of recommended online casinos to find where to play online Joker Poker. After that rudimentary research has been completed, take your business to the best paying machine. By maintaining discipline, and avoiding the sunk costs of alternative pay tables whenever possible, you can easily improve your odds of enjoying a winning session before ever pressing the “DEAL” button.

As far as optimal strategy charts go, online Joker Poker can be divided into two possible scenarios: hands in which you hold a joker, and hands without one. For the sake of brevity, the optimal strategy charts below assume that a kings or better structure is being used.

When you happen to hold no jokers among your first five cards, making use of the following list will help you decide which cards to hold and which to discard. To use the list, simply assess your five card hand, determine which positions on the list you currently hold, and keep the highest ranked hand.

On occasions when you do hold a joker in your first five cards, the following decision-making chart should be applied:

Long video poker strategy charts like this may be daunting right now, but in reality applying these rules will quickly become second nature. Spend a few sessions secretly consulting the chart to guide your play, and before you know it, you won’t even need to glance down before deciding how to play the toughest decisions created by online Joker Poker.