Video Poker Terms Every Player Should Know
What this guide covers
Video poker has its own vocabulary, borrowed partly from table poker and partly from slot machine mechanics, and mixing the two up is an easy way to misread a pay table or a strategy chart. This guide defines the terms you'll actually run into, grouped by what part of the game they describe. For a broader introduction to the game itself, see the video poker guide; once these terms are familiar, the video poker strategy guide and video poker odds and RTP explained put them to practical use.
Basic gameplay terms
Coin-in / coin denomination: The value of a single betting unit on a given machine, and the total amount wagered per hand when multiplied by coins bet. A $0.25 denomination with a five-coin bet means $1.25 is at risk on that hand.
Hold: The action of locking in a card from your dealt hand so it isn't replaced on the draw. Held cards are typically marked with a highlighted border or a "HELD" label on screen.
Draw: The single card exchange that replaces every card you didn't hold with a new one from the same virtual deck. Video poker allows exactly one draw per hand, unlike table poker's multiple rounds.
Max coin / max bet: Betting the maximum coins a machine allows, typically five. This matters specifically because the Royal Flush payout jumps disproportionately at max coin — often to around 800-for-1 versus roughly 250-for-1 per coin below it — making max coin play essential to realizing a game's full advertised return.
Multi-hand / multi-play: A format where a single dealt hand is used as the basis for several simultaneous hands at once (common configurations include 3-hand, 10-hand, or even 100-hand video poker). You hold once, and that hold is applied identically across every hand in play, each drawing its own separate replacement cards.
Progressive video poker: A version of the game where the Royal Flush (or occasionally another top hand) pays a jackpot that grows with every bet placed across the game, rather than a fixed payout, until it's won and resets.
Autohold: A feature that highlights the statistically optimal cards to keep before you draw, based on the specific pay table in play. It's a helpful learning aid, but it doesn't explain its own reasoning the way a strategy chart does.
Pay table terms
Pay table: The on-screen grid listing every paying hand and what it's worth at each bet level. It's the actual rulebook of the specific machine you're playing, and it's the first thing worth checking before wagering real money.
Full pay / short pay: Shorthand for how generous a given machine's pay table is relative to the best commonly available version of that game. A "full pay" machine offers the most player-favorable payout schedule typically found for that variant; a "short pay" machine trims one or more payouts down, quietly lowering the overall return even though the game still carries the same name.
Video poker paytable shorthand (the "9/6" style notation): A quick way of naming a Jacks or Better pay table by its Full House and Flush payouts at max coin — "9/6" means a Full House pays 9-for-1 and a Flush pays 6-for-1. This single pair of numbers is enough to identify whether a Jacks or Better machine is full pay (9/6, roughly 99.54% RTP with perfect play) or a weaker variant (8/5 or 6/5, both meaningfully lower).
Qualifying hand: The minimum hand strength required before any payout is made at all. In base Jacks or Better, that's a pair of Jacks or better; pairs of 2s through 10s pay nothing. Wild-card variants like Deuces Wild generally set a higher qualifying bar, often three of a kind. The full hierarchy is covered in video poker hand rankings explained.
Wild card: A card that can substitute for any other card needed to complete a winning hand. Standard Jacks or Better uses no wilds at all; Joker Poker adds one wild joker to the deck, and Deuces Wild designates all four 2s as wild.
Strategy terms
RTP (return to player): The percentage of every dollar wagered that a game returns to players over the long run, assuming optimal play where a decision is involved. A full-pay 9/6 Jacks or Better machine can reach roughly 99.54% RTP with perfect strategy — among the best odds available anywhere in a casino.
House edge: The mirror image of RTP — the percentage the game keeps over the long run. A 99.54% RTP corresponds to a 0.46% house edge.
Variance: How much an individual session's results tend to swing away from the long-run average RTP. Video poker's variance is generally moderate, driven mainly by how often the top-tier hands land relative to how much they pay when they do.
Expected value (EV): The average outcome of a specific decision if it were repeated many times, accounting for both the probability and the size of every possible result. Correct video poker strategy is, at its core, choosing the hold that produces the highest expected value for that specific hand and pay table.
Kicker: An unpaired card held alongside a made hand that doesn't contribute to its category but can still matter to the odds of improving further — for example, an Ace held alongside a low pair, kept specifically because it could turn into Aces and Eights (two pair) on the draw.
Penalty card: A card that, if held or discarded incorrectly, quietly costs you expected value even if it doesn't change the outcome of that particular hand. A common example is holding a suited kicker alongside a pair when the optimal play is to discard it — the specific hand might resolve the same way either way, but over many repetitions the wrong choice costs real money.
