Video Poker Las Vegas Strip
Most bars on the Vegas Strip offer 6/5 Bonus Poker where a full house pays six for a full house and five for a flush. Returns on the 6/5 Bonus Poker game are 96.87 percent.
- Reviews on Best Video Poker in Las Vegas, NV - Bellagio Hotel, Vue Bar, Bighorn Casino, Stage Door Casino, The Ridge Bar & Grill, Circa Resort & Casino, Village Pub & Poker, The D Casino Hotel, O'Sheas, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
- Palms Casino Resort. This joint isn’t technically located on Las Vegas Boulevard, but.
It’s a well-known fact downtown beats the pants off the Las Vegas Strip when it comes to player-friendly casino odds. It’s true for video poker, too. (On average, slots downtown are about 10% “looser” than slots on The Strip.)
According to a popular video poker expert who goes by “Coach Kitty,” downtown boasts some of the best machines and odds in all of Las Vegas.
She’d know. Coach Kitty estimates she plays an average of 850 hands an hour, or about 14 hands a minute. That’s 14 decisions a minute, and we can barely decide what to have for lunch.
We prodded Coach Kitty to reveal some of her favorite video poker bars and machines, and she was up to the challenge.
There are a number of factors that make certain video poker bars “better” or “worse” (many serious players value casino freebies like food “comps” nearly as much as the money they make from their video poker wins), we asked our expert to name her favorite video poker spots with an emphasis on the most appealing odds of winning.
Vue Bar at The D
Among the benefits of this second floor watering hole at The D is the quality of the drinks, says our expert. We have independently verified this assertion.
Vue Bar happens to serve up some very good video poker odds as well.
Our video poker coach says, “You not only have the best chance of getting the best quality drinks, there’s also a good full-pay game with a progressive, in quarters.”
To be specific, the best game is Bonus Poker in quarters.
The ultimate goal of many video poker players, of course, is to try and find games that give as close to 100% payback, or “full-pay,” as possible.
Casino Bars at Four Queens
Happily, Coach Kitty names the casino bars at Four Queens as having great video poker. We say “happily” because we play there often and had no idea why. (Hint: It was mostly the liberal comps and long liquor pours.)
Coach Kitty says, “At both the casino bars at Four Queens, they have almost full pay Double Double Bonus video poker in 50 cents.”
Remember, the denomination is multiplied by five, so that’s $2.50 a hand. For the most part, the higher the denomination, the better the payback.
The two bars are Kings Bar (near the casino’s west entrance, pictured below) and Palace Bar (near Wana Taco).
Among the other attributes of these bars, our expert says the bartenders are among the friendliest in town.
Boar’s Head Bar at Main Street Station
Our expert not only loves the video poker at Boar’s Head Bar, but also the beer.
“It’s a very nice bar, especially because they have microbrews from the nearby Triple 7 [Restaurant and Brewery] on tap. The bartenders are very nice there, too.”
Ultimately, though, it’s the gamble that makes Boar’s Head one of the best places to play video poker in Las Vegas.
Coach Kitty says, “They have 9-6 Jacks or Better, which is really the best game with the lowest variance, in quarters, 50 cents and $1.”
The “9-6” refers to the payout for full house and flush. It’s kind of a shorthand for video poker players to tell if a game gives them more bang for the buck.
Best Video Poker Bar Las Vegas Strip
Now You Know the Best Video Poker Bars Downtown
Now you know some insider secrets about downtown’s best video poker bars!
Video poker is unique in casinos because, unlike a shot machine, skill plays a big part in how your session goes. The more you know about the game you’re playing, the better your chances of winning.
Each video poker game has nuances in strategy, so bone up on the game you’d like to try with an app.
The WinPoker app ($9.99 in the Apple store) is popular among aspiring video poker players looking to get an edge.
If you find the right game, and the right bartender, video poker can be fun and lucrative, and offers some of the best odds for players in the casino.
You’re Not Going to Believe This, But…
Here’s an update to our story!
Following our chat with Coach Kitty, we started playing at her recommended video poker bars, and just a few weeks later, our very first royal flush! That’s a $1,000 win.
That’s right. We got our first royal flush after nearly two decades of playing video poker, and we got it at the video poker bar at Four Queens. Thanks, Coach Kitty!
While winning in casinos has a lot to do with luck, the more you know about the games, the luckier you’ll be!
For the life of me, I just don’t understand how so many gamblers can lower themselves to play against inferior video poker pay tables.
And that’s exactly what they’re doing too. That’s because every coin you wager on a game of video poker and every hand you play must contend with the exact probabilities and payouts offered by the machine’s particular pay table.
In other words, even if you play a perfect basic strategy that follows all of the optimal discard / draw decisions to a tee, a bad pay table instantly and irrevocably reduces your overall odds of success.
If you’re just starting out on your personal video poker journey, and don’t know much about how pay tables work, take a moment to acquaint yourself with the basics of the game first. Once you’ve learned the ropes, return here for an advanced course on putting that pay table knowledge to work for you going forward.
In a nutshell, the pay table – or the escalating ladder of payouts awarded for each hand based on their difficulty to make – holds every video poker enthusiast’s destiny in its proverbial hands.
A Look Into Video Poker Pay Tables
When you play on a 9/6 full pay Jacks or Better machine, for example, the 9-coin reward for a full house and 6-coin reward for a flush combine with the other payouts to create a 99.54 percent payback percentage. Switch over to an inferior 9/5 pay table, however, and the exact same Jacks or Better gameplay suddenly offers a much lower 98.45 percent payback rate.
That may not seem like too big of a deal, but consider this… for every $100 you bet over your lifetime as a Jacks or Better player, the full pay game will return $99.54 – sending just $0.46 to the house on average. Meanwhile, those suckers on the 9/5 machines will watch $1.55 of every $100 wagered be scooped up by the house.
And that’s not even the worst of it either. Substandard pay tables commonly offered by modern casinos on their Jacks or Better machines can slice your payback percentage down to double-zero roulette status:
Jacks or Better Pay Table Comparison
| TABLE | PAYBACK |
|---|---|
| 9/6 | 99.54 percent |
| 9/5 | 98.45 percent |
| 8/6 | 98.39 percent |
| 8/5 | 97.30 percent |
| 7/5 | 96.15 percent |
| 6/5 | 95.00 percent |
And this larceny of your bottom line isn’t limited to Jacks or Better by any means. As you can see in the various tables below, all of the popular video poker variants begin with a full pay table up top, followed by a series of progressively worse options:
Video Poker Las Vegas Strip
Deuces Wild Pay Table Comparison
| TABLE | PAYBACK |
|---|---|
| 25/15/9/5/3/2 | 100.76 percent |
| 25/15/11/4/4/3 | 99.96 percent |
| 25/16/10/4/4/3 | 99.73 percent |
| 25/15/9/4/4/3 | 98.91 percent |
| 20/12/10/4/4/3 | 97.58 percent |
| 20/12/9/4/4/3 | 97.06 percent |
| 25/16/13/4/3/2 | 96.77 percent |
| 20/10/8/4/4/3 | 95.96 percent |
| 25/15/10/4/3/2 | 94.82 percent |
Double Bonus Poker Pay Table Comparison
| TABLE | PAYBACK |
|---|---|
| 10/7 | 100.17 percent |
| 9/7/5 | 99.11 percent |
| 9/6/5 | 97.81 percent |
| 9/6/4 | 96.38 percent |
| 8/5 | 94.19 percent |
| 7/5 | 93.11 percent |
Double Double Bonus Poker Pay Table Comparison
| TABLE | PAYBACK |
|---|---|
| 10/6 | 100.07 percent |
| 9/6/4 | 98.98 percent |
| 9/5 | 97.87 percent |
| 8/5 | 96.79 percent |
| 7/5 | 95.71 percent |
| 6/5 | 94.66 percent |
And naturally, the casinos don’t advertise their video poker pay table selection in any noticeable way. In fact, they count on uninformed players – whether they’re simply unaware of the concept, don’t care about long-term probabilities, or too drunk to even notice – to transform video poker from a player-friendly gambler into a money-making powerhouse for the casino house edge.
Consider this for a moment… whenever a 9/6 full pay Jacks or Better player decides to bet anything other than the maximum of 5 coins, their payback rate drops all the way down to 98.30 percent. Failing to bet the max represents the cardinal sin for video poker enthusiasts, as it precludes players from triggering the juiced up Royal Flush jackpot of 4,000 coins.
Unfortunately for the more than 42 million tourists who visited Sin City last year – the bulk of whom stayed on the “fabulous” (read: overhyped) Las Vegas Strip – those modern mega-resort casinos almost exclusively offer inferior pay tables. The owners of the 30 casinos lining Las Vegas Boulevard know that most tourists will never leave the area, confining the sum of their gambling action to The Strip as a captive audience of sorts.
Video Poker In Las Vegas
Thus, casinos on The Strip spread non-full pay video poker machines without remorse, relentlessly skinning their unsuspecting players for every nickel and dime they can get.
Meanwhile, when you venture away from The Strip to explore Las Vegas’ competing casino regions, the dark clouds of crappy pay tables suddenly disappear. Video poker players in the know never play on The Strip, choosing instead to put their money behind full pay tables only.
If you want to join them by backing the best video poker games possible, look no further than the list below. Here you’ll find three of the most player-friendly “Off-Strip” video poker providers in all of the city of Las Vegas – complete with a full listing of each venue’s full pay variants, coin denominations, and more.
1 – Boulder Station Hotel Casino on the Boulder Highway
Bar none, without a shadow of a doubt, the best place to grind video poker in Sin City – off the Strip or otherwise – is Boulder Station.
Known as the ultimate “local’s casino,” Boulder Station offers all of the amenities (maybe not nude pool parties or exotic animals, but you get my point) that casinos on The Strip have on hand.
But one thing that this place has that can’t be matched is five different variants offering a positive payback percentage (AKA, a player edge).
Just check out the list below to see how Boulder Station’s unparalleled selection of topline video poker pay tables stacks up:
Boulder Station’s Best Video Poker Options
| VARIANT | FULL PAYBACK | COIN DENOMINATION(S) |
|---|---|---|
| Full Pay Deuces Wild | 100.76 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
| 1-Pair Jokers Wild | 100.65 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
| Double Bonus | 100.17 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Loose Deuces Wild | 100.15 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
| Double Double Bonus | 100.07 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Triple Deuces Wild | 99.92 percent | 5¢ |
| Not So Ugly Ducks (Deuces Wild) | 99.73 percent | 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Super Double Bonus | 99.69 percent | 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Jacks or Better | 99.54 percent | 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
Best Video Poker Las Vegas
2 – Fiesta Henderson Hotel and Casino in Henderson
Another branch on the Station Casinos family tree, Fiesta Henderson is one of the first gambling halls you’ll see when driving in through the Hoover Dam / Lake Mead area.
And while many players pass it right up in their quest to reach The Strip, video poker sharps know better.
Best Video Poker Las Vegas Strip
Fiesta Henderson’s Best Video Poker Options
| VARIANT | FULL PAYBACK | COIN DENOMINATION(S) |
|---|---|---|
| Full Pay Deuces Wild | 100.76 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
| 1-Pair Jokers Wild | 100.65 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
| Double Bonus | 100.17 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Loose Deuces Wild | 100.15 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
| Double Double Bonus | 100.07 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Triple Deuces Wild | 99.92 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
| Not So Ugly Ducks (Deuces Wild) | 99.73 percent | 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Super Double Bonus | 99.69 percent | 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Jacks or Better | 99.54 percent | 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
3 – Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa in Summerlin
If you want to experience all of the glitz and glam of Strip casino, without paying an arm and a leg at every turn, Red Rock Resort in the suburb of Summerlin is the ticket.
This place is straight out of The Strip in terms of modern luxuries like high-end shopping, top-rated restaurants, and in-house entertainment
But unlike those hucksters in the world’s most popular tourist hotspot, Red Rock Casino Resort doesn’t need to spread inferior video poker pay tables.
Best Video Poker In Vegas
Red Rock Resort’s Best Video Poker Options
| VARIANT | FULL PAYBACK | COIN DENOMINATION(S) |
|---|---|---|
| Full Pay Deuces Wild | 100.76 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
| Double Bonus | 100.17 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Loose Deuces Wild | 100.15 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
| Super Bonus Deuces Wild | 100.13 percent | 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Double Double Bonus | 100.07 percent | 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Triple Deuces Wild | 99.92 percent | 5¢ |
| Not So Ugly Ducks (Deuces Wild) | 99.73 percent | 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Super Double Bonus | 99.69 percent | 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
| Jacks or Better | 99.54 percent | 25¢, 50¢, $1 |
Conclusion
Playing video poker well can offer sharp gamblers the thrill of a lifetime. Knowing that every bet you make comes as close to a null house edge as possible – and in the case of full pay Deuces Wild, an actual player edge – makes video poker the preferred vehicle for skill-oriented players who prefer strategy over guess-based gambling.
Las Vegas Video Poker Games
Nonetheless, when you don’t know where to find the full pay machines, a video poker parlor can become nothing short of a money pit – even for talented basic strategy players. Nobody wants to be the sucker casinos count on to line their pockets, so make sure to check out these trio of Off-Strip casinos to find the best video poker games Las Vegas has to offer.