Is 9/6 Jacks or Better worth playing?
Yes. 9/6 is the full-pay version of Jacks or Better and one of the best common machines in a casino.
With perfect play Jacks or Better 9/6 returns 99.544%; Jacks or Better 8/5 returns 97.298%.
Practice 9/6 Jacks or BetterJacks or Better 9/6 strategy chart
Why
The "9/6" is what a full house and a flush pay per coin. Dropping them to 8 and 5 looks small, but full houses and flushes together come up about one hand in 45, so the 8/5 machine keeps several times as much of every bet. The returns below assume perfect play and a max-coin bet.
Return of each paytable
| Paytable | Return | Coins lost per 1,000 hands |
|---|---|---|
| Double Bonus Poker 10/7 | 100.173% | −8.6 |
| Bonus Poker Deluxe 9/6 | 99.642% | 17.9 |
| Jacks or Better 9/6 | 99.544% | 22.8 |
| Bonus Poker 8/5 | 99.166% | 41.7 |
| Double Double Bonus Poker 9/6 | 98.981% | 51.0 |
| Jacks or Better 8/5 | 97.298% | 135.1 |
Return with perfect play on a five-coin bet, computed over all 2,598,960 deals and every draw. "Easy chart" and "Full chart" are the returns of this site’s two strategy charts for each game. Coins lost assumes 1,000 five-coin hands with perfect play; a negative number means the player comes out ahead.