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Bonus Poker, like many video poker games, resembles Jacks or Better. As in Jacks or Better, the lowest paying hand is a pair of jacks, but in Bonus Poker there are bonuses for different four of a kind hands.
The best and most common pay tables are listed below as well as an overview of how to play.
How to Play Bonus Poker
If you’ve ever played a video poker game you’ll have no trouble getting started with Bonus Poker. Even if this is your first time playing, follow these simple steps and you’ll be playing and trying to land a royal flush in no time.
First, find a machine offering a good pay table (like one of those listed below).
Then put your money into the machine and hit the maximum bet button. (Not all machines have a maximum bet button, but they will have a button that activates the hand and deals the cards that will be clearly marked.)
You’ll receive a five card hand, usually displayed along the bottom of the screen below the pay table.
Click the cards you want to keep and hit the button to draw replacement cards for the ones you discarded.
The machine then calculates if you have a winning hand combination in comparison to the pay table and either pays your winnings into your balance on the machine or you lose your bet.
Always bet the maximum number of coins. This is always five coins. Most video poker machines pay a bonus amount when you hit the highest hand, often a natural royal flush, but only if you’ve wagered the maximum.
If you don’t play the maximum number of coins, you actually increase the edge the casino has in the game. There is really no excuse for this because if you don’t want to bet as much as is required for a maximum wager, you can usually find a machine with a lower coin value, or you can adjust the coin value on the machine that you are playing at.
If you’re comfortable betting $5 a hand you should play on a $1 machine, if you’re comfortable betting around $1 you should play on a quarter machine (your total wager will be $1.25 per hand) and if you’re comfortable wagering a quarter you should play on a nickel machine.
Common Bonus Poker Pay Tables
I’ve included the most common pay tables for Bonus Poker games that are playable. Always try to find the machines that offer the highest possible payout percentages, which are the top three below.
Don’t play any machine that has a pay table that is worse than those listed on this page. Of course, in order to approach the expected return listed for each of these pay charts you have to play the best possible strategy over the long term. Over the short term, you can win or lose, and it’s still just a small bump in the road for the long term.
The first chart is the one you’re most likely to find. It’s also the one you should look for.
The next two are also playable when you can find them.
I don’t really like to recommend the last two listed below, but if you don’t have any other choice you can play them.
If that’s all that’s available though, see if the casino offers 9 / 6 Jacks or Better or NSUD Deuces Wild.
| 8 / 5 Bonus Poker | |
| .992 Return | |
| Royal flush | 800 |
| Straight flush | 50 |
| Four of a kind aces | 80 |
| Four of a kind, two through fours | 40 |
| Four of a kind, fives through kings | 25 |
| Full house | 8 |
| Flush | 5 |
| Straight | 4 |
| Three of a kind | 3 |
| Two pair | 2 |
| Jacks or better | 1 |
| 8 / 5 Bonus Poker | |
| .994 Return | |
| Royal flush | 800 |
| Straight flush | 100 |
| Four of a kind aces | 200 |
| Four of a kind, two through fours | 40 |
| Four of a kind, fives through kings | 25 |
| Full house | 12 |
| Flush | 8 |
| Straight | 5 |
| Three of a kind | 3 |
| Two pair | 1 |
| Jacks or better | 1 |
| 8 / 5 Bonus Poker | |
| .991 Return | |
| Royal flush | 800 |
| Straight flush | 50 |
| Four of a kind aces | 75 |
| Four of a kind, two through fours | 40 |
| Four of a kind, fives through kings | 25 |
| Full house | 8 |
| Flush | 5 |
| Straight | 4 |
| Three of a kind | 3 |
| Two pair | 2 |
| Jacks or better | 1 |
| 7 / 5 Bonus Poker | |
| .981 Return | |
| Royal flush | 800 |
| Straight flush | 55 |
| Four of a kind aces | 80 |
| Four of a kind, two through fours | 40 |
| Four of a kind, fives through kings | 25 |
| Full house | 7 |
| Flush | 5 |
| Straight | 4 |
| Three of a kind | 3 |
| Two pair | 2 |
| Jacks or better | 1 |
| 7 / 5 Bonus Poker | |
| .98 Return | |
| Royal flush | 800 |
| Straight flush | 50 |
| Four of a kind aces | 80 |
| Four of a kind, two through fours | 40 |
| Four of a kind, fives through kings | 25 |
| Full house | 7 |
| Flush | 5 |
| Straight | 4 |
| Three of a kind | 3 |
| Two pair | 2 |
| Jacks or better | 1 |
Bonus Poker Strategy
Here’s a strategy for playing Bonus Poker. This is a simplified strategy that will still get you almost the entire return, but if you want to make the 100% correct decision on every single hand, you’ll need to find a book with detailed strategy.
Read the list from top to bottom, finding the highest place on the list where the hand you are holding falls. Then hold the cards indicated.
Most of the verbiage is self-explanatory, but if you don’t know what a gap is—that’s okay.
A gap tells you how many cards are between two close cards.
For example if you have a queen and a jack there is no gap, if you have a queen and a ten there is a gap of one, and if you have a queen and a nine there is a gap of two.
- Royal flush, straight flush or four of a kind
- Four cards to a royal flush
- Full house, flush or straight
- Three of a kind
- Four to a straight flush
- Two pair
- Any pair of jacks or higher
- Any three to a royal flush
- Any four to a flush
- King, queen, jack, ten
- Any pair lower than jacks
- Four cards to an open end straight
- Three to a straight flush with at least one card jack or higher and no more than a one card gap
- Ace, king, queen, jack
- Two suited cards, both jack or higher
- Open end straight flush draw of three cards with no gaps
- Four cards to an inside straight with three cards of jack or higher
- King, queen and jack
- Queen and jack
- Three cards to a straight flush with at least one card jack or higher and two gaps
- King and queen or king and jack
- Jack and ten suited
- Ace and king or ace and queen or ace and jack
- Any ace
- Three cards to an open end straight flush draw with no cards jack or higher and one gap
- King and ten or queen and ten suited
- Any king or queen or jack
- Three cards to a straight flush with no cards jack or higher and two gaps
- Draw five new cards
How to Learn Bonus Poker Strategy
Bonus Poker strategy might look daunting at first, but it won’t take long to learn how to play perfectly. You can always print out the strategy and take it with you. Or you can pick up one of the basic strategy cards for the game.
Here’s a great way to learn how to play perfect Bonus Poker strategy. Print out the strategy chart listed above. Don’t try to memorize it or waste any time reading it over and over.
Then sign up for a free account at one of the online casinos recommended on this web site and find the Bonus Poker video poker game. Start playing and check for the correct strategy on every single hand.
Don’t get in a hurry and start skipping your strategy chart until you are 100% sure what the correct play is. As you continue playing, you’ll quickly learn well over 90% of the correct plays.
It’s important that you don’t make any mistakes, so always check your chart if you have any questions about the proper play at all. Every mistake you make increases the edge the casino holds over you.
You’ll be surprised at how soon you can play with only checking your strategy chart occasionally.
Why Play Bonus Poker?
If you’re studying video poker games, you probably know (if you can find them) that some Jacks or Better games and Deuces Wild games offer higher paying machines.
You may also know that the proper strategy for Jacks or Better is easier to learn than the one for Bonus Poker.
But what you may not know is that it’s becoming harder to find the top paying Deuces Wild and Jacks or Better machines. Many casinos that don’t offer the best machines do offer the top Bonus Poker machines, making them the best choice in many casinos.
It can be hard to remember the correct strategy for all three of the most popular games, so if I am going out to enjoy a few games of video poker I take the strategy for each of them with me.
I never worry about getting in a real hurry while playing video poker like some players because I view it as a form of entertainment.
In the long run I’ll probably lose at video poker, but with comps and player’s club perks it won’t cost me much. So if I play 100 fewer hands an hour than someone else, I can actually enjoy my video poker play longer. Once you set a leisurely pace of play, you won’t feel the difference between a couple hundred hands per hour and five hundred hands per hour.
I mentioned playing video poker as a form of entertainment. It’s none of my business how you view your gambling, but the players I’m around that seem to be the happiest are the ones that understand that the casino does have an edge over them while they are playing video poker.
So their goal is to play on whatever their bankroll is for as long as they possibly can. Of course they’re always looking for a big win. And believe me, the first time you hit a royal flush it is something you won’t soon forget!
These players win sometimes and lose sometimes, but they don’t base their happiness on winning or losing.
