9/6 Jacks or Better Strategy and Pay Table
9/6 Jacks or Better is the baseline strategy game in Sharper Edge. Its name comes from the 9-for-1 full house and 6-for-1 flush, and its direct hand hierarchy makes it the clearest place to learn how exact hold decisions work.
- Perfect-play return
- 99.54%
- House edge
- 0.46%
- Sharper Edge volatility
- Lowvolatility Low, level 2 of 5
Overview
How this game plays
Most of the return arrives through frequent pairs, two pair, straights, flushes, and full houses rather than specialized kicker bonuses. Sharper Edge rates it Low volatility, so the feedback is easier to connect to the decisions that produced it.
The return shown is the configured long-run return at max bet with exact strategy, not a prediction for a single session.
Beginner-friendly
Who it suits
- New players learning a first complete video poker strategy.
- Experienced players who want a stable baseline before studying bonus or wild-card exceptions.
- Anyone practicing close pair, straight, flush, and royal-draw decisions.
9/6
Full pay table and rules
Payouts below are credits returned for wagers of one through five coins. Sharper Edge practice always uses the five-coin maximum, highlighted at right.
| Hand | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1,000 | 4,000* |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four of a Kind | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Full House | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Straight | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two Pair | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Jacks or Better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
No wild cards. Minimum paying hand: a pair of jacks or better. Standard play uses a 52-card deck, a five-card deal, one draw, and any hold from zero through five cards.
*The starred royal category returns 250-for-1 below max bet and 800-for-1 at the five-coin maximum. Return and edge shown on this page assume max bet and exact strategy.
Pay-table identity
What makes it different
The baseline. Full house pays 9-for-1, flush pays 6-for-1 — that's the “9/6”. Every other game on this site is described by how it departs from this pay table, and every strategy you'll learn builds on these holds.
Its configured perfect-play return is 99.54%, leaving a 0.46% house edge. That is the smallest decision vocabulary in this catalog, but it still rewards exact choices: made pairs are not always the best hold.
What to practice
Strategy priorities
- 1Break a high pair for four to a royal — never for three to a royal.
- 2Keep a high pair over four to a flush, but keep four to a flush over a low pair.
- 3Four to a straight flush can beat a high pair; count the straight-flush, flush, and straight completions before defaulting to the made hand.
- 4Keep a pair by itself unless the complete five-card deal creates a stronger draw.
Worked decision
Four to a straight flush beats the queens
Discard Q♥ and hold Q♠ J♠ 10♠ 9♠.
Four spades: 3.638 EV per coin · pair of queens: 1.537.
Two spades complete a straight flush, the remaining spades make a flush, and unsuited eights or kings can make a straight. The exact engine values the four-card draw more than twice as highly as keeping the pair.
EV is per coin and comes from enumerating every legal draw for this exact five-card deal.
Baseline
Compared with 9/6 Jacks or Better
This is the reference table used throughout Sharper Edge. Its metrics form the zero-delta baseline for every other game.
| Metric | 9/6 Jacks or Better | 9/6 baseline | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect-play return | 99.54% | 99.54% | • same |
| House edge | 0.46% | 0.46% | • same |
| Sharper Edge volatility | Low | Low | • same |
Keep comparing
Related pay tables
Turn the pay table into a decision habit
Practice 9/6 Jacks or Better with all 32 holds ranked by exact EV, then review the cost of every decision separately from the cards you happened to draw.