Joker Poker Rules
Other Texas Hold'em Poker Rules. If a joker is used, it becomes the lowest card not present in the hand. The joker is assumed to be in use unless the contrary is posted. For example 6-5-4-2-joker would count as a pair of sixes in normal poker with the joker wild, but in ace-to-five low poker the joker could be used as an ace, and in deuce-to-seven low poker it could be used as a seven to complete a low hand.
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Joker Wild (also known as Joker Poker) is the simplest wild card version of Video Poker. Joker Wild is basically the same as Jacks or Better, but the addition of a Joker card that can be substituted for any card in the deck makes it easier to make stronger hands. Because of this, the game has much different payouts than a normal Jacks or Better game. This article will discuss the rules of Joker Poker, various pay tables that are used, and a few strategy tips.
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Joker Wild Rules
Joker Wild is a very simple video poker game. To get started you have to insert your player card if you're at a live casino, or click the virtual chips on the bottom right of the screen if you're at an online casino.
Next, you have to select how many coins you'd like to bet per hand. 'Coins' are just a multiplier against the machine's bet, so if you're at a $1 machine playing five coins per hand, you're actually betting $5 per hand. We always recommend betting five coins because there is a big bonus for making a royal flush while betting five coins.
The next step is to click 'Deal.' You'll receive five cards. You now have the option of discarding some or all of the cards for new ones to improve your hand. To hang on to a good card click 'Hold' under the card. Then, click 'Draw' to receive your new cards. If your final hand is a pair of Kings or better you'll receive a payout.
Pay Tables
Joker Poker machines use various pay tables depending on the casino you're playing at. We'll review of few of the more common pay tables and discuss the payout percentages of each.
Full Pay Joker Poker
Full pay Joker Poker is one of the few casino games that actually has a payout percentage over 100% when played with perfect strategy. The exact payout percentage is 100.64% for the below payout table with expert strategy:
| Hand: | 1 Coin: | 2 Coins: | 3 Coins: | 4 Coins: | 5 Coins: |
| Natural Royal Flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Five of a Kind | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1000 |
| Wild Royal Flush | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four of a Kind | 20 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 |
| Full House | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 | 35 |
| Flush | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Straight | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Three of a Kind | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Two Pair | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Pair (Kings or Better) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
The reason Joker Wild only pays out for Kings or better is because the addition of the Joker card makes it much easier for players to make better hands. If Joker Wild used the normal Jacks or Better pay table players would be at a big advantage. Learn about all Joker Wild pay tables.
Unfortunately, the pay table above is rarely offered at online casinos. Most online casinos choose to use a lower pay table to increase the house edge. The best pay table we've found for Joker Poker is at the Bovada Casino. We recommend them for the best possible odds.
Not so Ugly Joker Poker
Not so Ugly is a more common version of Joker Poker that offers slightly worse odds. The only difference between full pay Joker Wild and not so ugly Joker Wild is the four of a kind payout. In full pay the machine pays out 20x for four of a kind, but in not so ugly the machine pays out 18x for four of a kind. The payout percentage for not so ugly Joker Poker falls to 98.94% with perfect strategy.
Ugly Joker Poker
A third pay table that is often used for Joker Wild is the 'ugly' pay table. This pay table has the worst odds with a maximum payout percentage of only 95.46%. The straight flush, full house, and flush payouts are all lower.
- Straight flush pays out 40x instead of 50x.
- Full house pays out 5x instead of 7x.
- Flush pays out 4x instead of 5x.
We suggest avoiding this pay table as it offers extremely poor payouts for video poker. Another thing to look into is sequential royal flush machines, as Joker Poker often offers sequential payouts on top.
Joker Wild Strategy
To achieve the payout percentages listed above, you have to play with absolutely perfect strategy. That means making the right move every single time you play a hand of Joker Wild. Joker Wild strategy is a topic of its own (we have a full article here » Joker Wild Strategy), so for now we'll give you a few quick tips to get started.
- Find games with solid payouts for the middle range hands. Almost every pay table will pay out big for the premium hands like Royal Flushes and small for the low hands like two pair, but the differences come in the middle hands like Flushes and Four of a Kind. You need to find games with fair payouts for the mid range hands to get decent odds.
- If the game you're playing pays out for Kings or better, make sure to hang on to a King or Ace when you have complete garbage. It's better to try to pair the King or Ace than to draw five new cards.
- Four to a natural royal flush is an extremely strong hand. In fact, you should discard made straights or made flushes in pursuit of the big payoff.
Online Joker Wild
If you're interested in playing Joker Wild at an online casino, we recommend checking out Bovada Casino. They offer Joker Wild games with decent pay tables, and that's about as good as you're going to find at an online casino. If you're set on playing full pay Joker Wild we recommend going to Las Vegas.
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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 |
Jokers Wild Poker Rules
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
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
How To Use Joker In Poker
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