Draw Poker Machine Strategy
One thing to keep in mind is that this strategy was created for use in full pay Deuces Wild games. Since most video poker casinos offer less than full pay games, you may have to modify this strategy to the specific machine you're playing. If you notice that the four of a kind payout is only 4x instead of 5x, you should devalue a pat four of a.
- Draw Poker Machine Strategy Template
- Draw Poker Machine Strategy Games
- Draw Poker Machine Strategy Software
- First, let’s cover the basics. Video poker has virtually the same rules as a game of five card draw poker. The only difference is that you have no opponent to beat and you can’t lose more Steve Bourie is the author of the American Casino Guide, the most comprehensive publication available for information on any U.S. Casino/resort, riverboat or Indian casino.
- Oct 18, 2020 At first glance it seems online slot machines are a 100% game of chance. And they really are, at least in the terms of a single game round. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t influence your chances by using the right betting strategy and choosing the right game to play.
- A collection of video poker strategy tips that work. Learn how to play video poker and win by getting always the best video poker odds.
Joker Poker, also known as Joker’s Wild Poker is one of the most popular video poker games and the reason for its popularity is its fun, exciting, fast moving and you can win more often. On average, the joker appears in around in ten hands, and it is a wildcard that can be nominated as any card you want increasing the chances of winning hands. The Jokers Wild Strategy is fairly easy to grasp, and our strategy card will make it even easier.
How to Play Jokers Wild Poker
A popular version of Video Poker is Jokers Poker, also known as Jokers Wild. This version uses a standard deck of 52 cards and also a Joker which can replace any card in the pack.
As you would expect, the chances of getting a winning hand are increased with the addition of a Joker, but the House Odds tend to be higher than for other versions such as Jacks or Better.
In fact, the expected payout is around 98.50%, more than 1% lower than Jacks or Better.
Joker Poker has 2 main versions: Kings or Better and Two Pairs or Better.
As the Kings or Better pays out for 2 extra hands, a Pair of Kings and a Pair of Aces, this one has better odds and should be played wherever you have a choice.
As with all versions of Video Poker, we suggest that you play with maximum coins to ensure the big payout comes when you get that Royal Flush. If you need to reduce the size of a Coin in order to play maximum, then do so.
Although having a Joker in the pack does increase your chances of getting a win, the big payout, for a Royal Flush is only for a ‘Natural Royal Flush’, which includes the 10, J, Q, K and A of the same suit, and no Joker. If the Joker does replace any of these cards, you will still get a nice payout, but considerably less than you would get without a Joker.
The presence of a Joker also gives us a new hand that you won’t get on standard 52 card Video Poker such as Jacks or Better, with 5 of a kind now possible. This is the 2nd best hand after the Natural Royal Flush and is, in fact, better than a Royal Flush that includes the Joker. Clearly, the 5 of a kind isn’t possible without a Joker in your hand.
If you are dealt a Joker, you don’t need to decide what card it will be as the computer will payout after you have discarded and then received cards based on the best possible outcome.
Before you read this strategy, make sure that you are familiar with the rules and poker hands. The video poker rules can be found here . A full breakdown of the poker hands you can get within any form of poker can be found here.
Once you have mastered this, you are ready to consider the best way to play Joker Poker.
Joker Poker Paytable
The payouts for Joker Poker do vary from casino to casino, and from software provider to software provider, so bear that in mind when deciding where to play. Make sure to keep an eye out for those that offer the best payout for a Natural Royal Flush.
The paytable below is one that is fairly standard and is for the Kings or Better version, which as mentioned should be played wherever possible instead of Two Pair or Better.
| Hand | Payout | Probability% | Return% | Odds 1 in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Royal Flush | 1,000 | 0.00260 | 2.60 | 38461.54 |
| Five of a Kind | 200 | 0.00930 | 1.86 | 10752.69 |
| Wild Royal Flush | 100 | 0.01070 | 1.07 | 9345.79 |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 0.05940 | 2.97 | 1683.50 |
| Four of a Kind | 17 | 0.84970 | 14.44 | 117.69 |
| Full House | 7 | 1.56120 | 10.93 | 64.05 |
| Flush | 5 | 1.59760 | 7.99 | 62.59 |
| Straight | 3 | 1.68750 | 5.06 | 59.26 |
| Three of a Kind | 2 | 13.31210 | 26.62 | 7.51 |
| Two Pairs | 1 | 11.05470 | 11.05 | 9.05 |
| Kings or Better | 1 | 13.99880 | 14.00 | 7.14 |
| Nothing | 0 | 55.85650 | 0.00 | 1.79 |
| Total | 100.00 | 98.602 | 1.00 |
You will note that the minimum needed for a payout in Joker Poker is a pair of Kings or better, again this does change from casino to casino but this tends to be the most popular payoff structure.
Below shows a typical Joker Poker game, you will see you can choose the value of the coin, in the above case, it is a 1 unit coin meaning a total of 5 units for the total bet as 5 coins are being used. Playing 4 coins gives a maximum payout for a Natural Royal Flush as 3,000 coins, moving up to 5 coins makes this 5,000 coins so it is worth doing just in case you win the big one!
Joker Poker Strategy
For the strategy, see the 2 tables shown below, the top one is for no Joker in your initial 5 cards, the bottom one is if you are fortunate enough to get dealt a Joker in the 5 cards.
Simply start at the top and work your way down, when you come to an option that represents the cards you have, hold those cards and replace the rest.
It’s that simple!
No Joker
| Cards | Action |
|---|---|
| Natural Royal Flush/Royal Flush | Keep them all and celebrate! |
| 4 to a Natural Royal Flush | Keep the 4, discard 1 |
| Four of a Kind, Full House or Flush | Keep the hand, discard 1 card if Four of a Kind |
| 4 to a Straight Flush | Discard other card |
| Three of a Kind or Straight | Discard other 2 cards if Three of a Kind, keep Straight |
| 3 to a Royal Flush with K or Q High | Discard other 2 cards |
| Two Pairs | Discard the other card |
| 3 to a Royal Flush with A High | Discard other 2 cards |
| AA or KK | Discard other 3 cards |
| 4 to a Flush | Discard other card |
| 3 to a Straight Flush with no gap | Discard other 2 cards |
| Pair of Queens or lower | Discard other 3 cards |
| T, J, Q, K | Discard other card |
| 3 to a Straight Flush with gaps | Discard other 2 cards |
| Suited AK | Discard other 3 cards |
| Suited 10K, JK or QK | Discard other 3 cards |
| 4 to a Straight with no gaps | Discard other card |
| Suited 10A, JA or QA | Discard other 3 cards |
| Single Ace or King | Discard other 4 cards |
| Suited 10J, JQ or 10Q | Discard other 3 cards |
| Anything else | Discard all 5 cards |
With Joker
| Cards | Action |
|---|---|
| Any hand of Four of a Kind or better | Hold all or discard odd one if Four of a Kind |
| 4 to a Wild Royal Flush | Discard other card |
| Full House | Hold all |
| 4 to a Straight Flush with no gap | Discard other card |
| Flush | Hold all |
| 4 to a Straight Flush | Discard other card |
| Three of a Kind or Straight | Discard other 2 for Three of a Kind, keep Straight |
| 4 to a Flush with A and/or K | Discard other card |
| 3 to a Straight/Royal Flush with no gaps | Discard other 2 cards |
| 3 to a Straight Flush with gap/s | Discard other 2 cards |
| Joker with 10JK, 10QK or JQK | Discard other card |
| 4 to a Straight with no gaps | Discard other card |
| 4 to a Flush with no A or K | Discard other card |
| Joker with 3 consecutive cards | Discard other card |
| Joker with A | Discard other 3 cards |
| Joker with K | Discard other 3 cards |
| Anything else | Keep Joker, discard other 4 cards |
Remember that the above is a guide that will give you the best possible chance of winning a session when followed correctly. Some players like to trust their instincts from time to time and vary their play slightly, feel free to do this as well if it feels right.
Terminology
High Card – King or Ace. A Pair of these returns your stake, so it is worth holding. Note that due to the payouts High Card for Kings or Better differs from High Cards on some other forms of Video Poker
Draw Poker Machine Strategy Template
Outside Straight – 4 Cards that are consecutive and where a card at either end can provide you with a Straight – EG. 5,6,7,8
Inside Straight – 4 Cards where there is one number missing that would complete a Straight. EG 5,6,8,9
Joker Poker Tips
- You have 2 different versions of Jokers Wild. Kings or Better and Two Pairs or Better. Kings or Better has the best odds so you should play that one.
- Play Maximum Coins – The payout for five coins played is far greater than five times the payout for playing only one coin and is the way to play to maximize your winnings.
- Play at Machines that Offer a Full Pay Schedule – The full house pay schedule for jokers wild is a 7 / 5 machine -7 Coins are paid for the full house and 5 for the flush.
Related Articles:
Jacks or Better Strategy
Deuces Wild Strategy
Featured Gambling Guides
The casino and gambling machine industries market a lot of video poker variations that are basically bonus features layered on top of an existing game. Extra Draw Frenzy Poker is one of these variations. You have a base game, but if you get 3 of a kind, you also get to play between 3 and 7 bonus hands.
This page examines the intricacies of how this game is played, what the pay tables and payouts look like, and what the correct strategy is. We conclude with some observations about what online options for playing for free or real money are.
How to Play Extra Draw Frenzy Video Poker
Understanding Extra Draw Frenzy Poker requires a certain amount of understanding of video poker in general. Luckily, most video poker games are easy enough to play. They’re almost all based on 5 card draw poker, which almost everyone has played at some point in their youth.
You insert your money into the game, and it awards you with credits based on the amount you’ve inserted. Different games are available in different denominations. Quarters are popular, as are dollars. The game starts when you decide how many coins you want to wager.
That’s because the payout for the top hand in any video poker game is for a royal flush, which pays off at 800 to 1. But if you wager fewer than 5 coins, the game only pays 250 to 1 for that hand. That’s a big difference to your bottom line in the long run.
Once you’ve placed your bet, the game deals you a 5 card hand. You get to discard between 0 and 5 cards. Once you’re dealt replacement cards for your discards, your hand is compared to the pay table. Based on the value of the poker hand you wind up with, you’re paid off.
Some video poker games are played in a multi-line format. In those games (and Extra Draw Frenzy is one of these), you get 3, 5, 10, or even more hands to play at the same time. You have to activate those additional hands with additional bets, though—they’re not free. Here’s how the extra hands work:
You get the same starting hand with each hand. Whatever decision you make regarding which cards you’re going to discard applies to all of those hands. But the replacement cards are each dealt from a different deck, so you’re likely to wind up with different results for each hand.
All of those aspects of game play are common to most video poker games. Not all of them have a multi-hand option, but that’s becoming more common all the time.
Here’s the feature that differentiates Extra Draw Frenzy from the other games:
You have to bet an extra coin on each hand to activate the feature. When you do, any time you get a 3 of a kind, you’re deal 3 to 7 bonus hands to play.
The number of extra hands seems to be determined randomly. You only get the bonus hands if you’re dealt a natural 3 of a kind—wild card hands don’t count.
Draw Poker Machine Strategy Games
Extra Draw Poker is available with the following base games:
- Triple Double Bonus
The pay tables are the same for these games as their base game. So if you’re playing an Extra Draw Frenzy Jacks or Better game, you’ll be playing the same game as Jacks or Better, only with the additional bonus hands added to the game.
Since you’re paying an extra coin for the privilege of getting the bonus hands, the extra money you’ll sometimes win averages out to no net advantage. In other words, yes, you will occasionally win extra cash on those extra hands. But not so much that the return on the game changes more than 1/100 of a percentage point.
Pay tables for all of the base games can be found on the appropriate pages of this site. We’ve also included the payback percentage for each of those games. You can just assume that Extra Draw Frenzy Poker has the same long-term expectation as the base game.
But one thing you should keep in mind with this game is that the volatility goes up. “Volatility” is a word which describes how spiky your swings of fortune are in the short run. Since you’re betting an extra coin on each hand, you’ll be losing more than normal over time. But you’ll occasionally make up for when you get dealt a 3 of a kind and get those bonus hands.
Extra Draw Frenzy Poker Strategy
Like many video poker variations that feature a simple bonus feature layered on top of the base game, you don’t have to make any strategy adjustments to play with perfect strategy. You just use the appropriate strategy chart for the base game in use.
You’ll find those strategy charts on the appropriate game pages on our site. Just click on the names of the game in the text above (they’re linked).
Here’s how a strategy chart works in video poker, by the way:
- It presents you with a list of hands, ordered from best to worst.
- You start at the top and methodically work your way down the list until you get to a hand which matches what’s in your hand.
- Then you stop and hold those cards.
These charts represent the mathematically optimal way to play. If you want to achieve the payback percentages that we reference on these game pages, you’ll have to learn how to play with the correct strategy. Playing without using the strategy can result in a lower payback percentage averaging between 1% and 4%, depending on how good your “card sense” is.
Extra Draw Frenzy Poker is a neat game, but it’s not something that’s become commonly available at online casinos. As far as we know, there are no online versions of this game that are available for real money. But all the base games that the game uses are available at most of the casinos we list on our site.
Draw Poker Machine Strategy Software
If you want to see a demo/free money version of the game, VideoPoker.com has one available. But you can’t play it for real money. It’s neat if you want to get an idea of what the game is like before visiting a casino, but it’s probably not worth an extra trip to their website. It’s definitely not worth the price of a subscription there. (Although, depending on how serious you are as a video poker player, the other features on that site might make it worth your while.)
Summary
Extra Draw Frenzy is another example of a video poker game that isn’t really a variant at all. It’s just a bonus feature layered on top of an existing game and given a flashy name.
That being said, it’s as good as or better than most of these types of variations. In some cases these variations only seem like a good idea, but on closer examination, they wind up having a lower payback percentage. That’s not the case with Extra Draw Frenzy Poker.