Poker
Video Poker Optimal Strategy Calculator
Compare every legal video-poker hold and draw for a dealt hand and entered Double Double Bonus-style paytable, or calculate RTP from a supplied outcome distribution.
Your result
90.00%
RTP from the supplied distribution
- Expected net
- −$0.10
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User-supplied final-hand distribution and paytable; does not solve optimal hold/discard decisions.
Video poker paytables and expected return
Video poker expected return is the sum of each final-hand probability times its gross payout multiplier. A paytable alone is insufficient: the distribution depends on the cards dealt and the hold/discard policy.
The draw evaluator distinguishes Double Double Bonus-style four-of-a-kind categories by rank and kicker. Enter gross multipliers for: royal flush; straight flush; four aces with 2/3/4; four 2/3/4 with A/2/3/4; four aces with other kicker; four 2/3/4 with other kicker; four 5–K; full house; flush; straight; three of a kind; two pair; jacks or better.
All other hands have zero return. The default draw paytable is an illustrative configuration, not a certified current machine schedule. Royal payouts can depend on credit count; normalize the actual schedule per unit of total stake. Distribution-mode defaults are a separate arithmetic example.
Optimal strategy requires comparing legal draws
For a five-card dealt hand, there are 32 subsets of cards to retain. An exact strategy evaluator considers every legal draw for each subset, applies the exact paytable and compares expected returns. A generic category ranking or fixed RTP does not perform that calculation.
Choose optimal-hold mode and enter five unique cards, such as As Ks Qs Js Ts. The evaluator removes those cards from the draw deck, checks every possible unordered replacement for all 32 retained subsets, and reports the highest expected gross return plus the best alternatives. It calculates in a worker so the page remains responsive.
This is exact single-hand strategy for a fresh 52-card, single-draw deck and the entered category paytable. It does not compute long-run optimal-game RTP, wild-card games or multi-draw variants. The poker odds calculator handles known community-card hands instead.