Jacks Or Better Optimal Strategy

You should use this strategy in the following way: finds the lines, which correspond with your dealing, and choose the line, which holds the best position in the listing. If there is no your dealing in the listing - you should not simply play it - exchange all cards. Numbers on the right mean the average return of such dealing in the stakes.

Let us describe an example. Supposing, you have 4 cards for the Flush and one Junior pair (for example - 7 and 7). What should you do in this case? Should you discard the junior pair in order to try to collect the Flush or to sacrifice the possible Flush and leave the junior pair? Let's see our list of the possible dealings. We see, that "4 cards for the Flush" are situated upper (the 13th position as opposed to the 15th of the junior pair), consequently, you should leave 4 cards for the Flush and sacrifice the junior pair.
Below there is the Jacks or Better optimal strategy:

Ready Royal flush (800.0000)
Ready straight flush (50.0000)
Ready quad (25.0000)
4 cards for Royal flush (18.3617)
Ready Full house (9.0000)
Ready flush (6.0000)
Trey (4.3025)
Ready straight (4.0000)
4 cards for Straight flush (3.5319)
Two pairs (2.59574)
Senior pair (1.5365)
3 cards for Royal flush (1.2868)
4 cards for Flush (1.2766)
4 cards for external Straight with 3 senior cards (0.8723)
Junior pair (0.8237)
4 cards for external Straight with 0-2 senior cards (0.6809)
3 cards for Straight flush, dispersion of 5 cards, 2 senior cards (0.6429)
3 cards for Straight flush, dispersion of 4 cards, 1+ senior card (0.6392)
3 cards for Straight flush, dispersion of 3 cards, 0+ senior cards (0.6207)
Jack and Queen of the same suit (0.6004) B
4 cards for internal Straight, 4 senior cards (0.5957)
2 senior cards of the same suit, King is the most senior (0.5821)
2 senior cards of the same suit, Ace is the most senior (0.5678)
4 cards for internal Straight, 3 senior cards (0.5319)
3 cards for Straight flush, dispersion of 5 cards, 1 senior card (0.5227)
3 cards for Straight flush, dispersion of 4 cards, 0 senior cards (0.5097)
Jack, Queen, King of different suits (0.5005)
Jack, Queen of different suits (0.4980)
Ten, Jack of the same suit (0.4968)
2 senior cards of different suits, King is the most senior (0.4862)
Ten, Queen of the same suit (0.4825)
2 senior cards of different suits, Queen is the most senior (0.4743)
Jack (0.4713)
Ten, King of the same suit (0.4682)
Queen (0.4681)
King (0.4649)
Ace (0.4640)
3 cards for Straight flush, dispersion of 5 cards, 0 senior cards (0.4431)
There is nothing, we discard everything (0.3597).

Combinations, which should never be kept
Here is the list of combinations, which you should never keep and recommendations of what you should do with them:

Ten and Ace of the same suit - keep Ace only.
3 senior cards of different suits, Ace is the most senior - Keep two junior cards of these three.
4 cards for internal Straight, 2 senior cards - Keep two senior cards.
4 cards for internal Straight, 1 senior card - Keep just one senior card.
4 cards for internal Straight, 0 senior cards - Exchange all cards.

Term of the Jacks or Better optimal strategy:

Senior card: Jack, Queen, King or Ace. These cards have more opportunity to compose a pair which will be paid.
External Straight: Uncompleted Straight, which may be composed from the both sides. E.g.: 7-8-9-10
Internal Straight: Straight with the missing card in the middle. E.g.: 6-7-9-10.
Dispersion: This is the number of ranges of the cards, which combines your "uncompleted" Straight (Straight-flush or Royal). The less is the dispersion, the better it is for the player.

For example, 5, 6 and 8 of the same suit are the 3 cards for Straight flush with the dispersion of 4, because, these cards combine 4 ranges (5, 6, 7, 8). Dispersions, closed from the one side, reduce the number of methods to form the Straight. For example, all combinations, containing the Ace are equivalent to the Hand with Dispersion 5 (A23, A24, A34, JKA, JQA, and QKA). And cards 234 and JQK, though sequential, are nevertheless, equivalent to the hand with dispersion of 4, as there are only two methods to compose the Straight with such dealings.

If you compare Blackjack optimal strategy with the Jacks or Better optimal strategy, the Video Poker one is more complex, complicated, thus quite difficult to memorize. And the obviously reason of its complicity is that the comprehensive Jacks or Better optimal strategy covers every possible combination of the cards. However, some Top Online Casinos allow to wager their casino bonus promotions in the Jacks or Better Video Poker game, so it would pay to get a good knowledge of the Jacks or Better optimal strategy to balance the house edge.