Video poker pay-table checker
Type the full house and flush pays you see on a Jacks or Better machine. See its exact return, what an hour costs at your bet, and what each casino point costs on your cruise line.
On Jacks or Better, the full house and flush pays tell you the machine. 9/6 returns 99.5439% with perfect strategy, 8/5 returns 97.2984%, 7/5 returns 96.1472% and 6/5 returns 94.9961%. At $1.25 a hand and 600 hands an hour, that's about $3.42 an hour of expected loss on 9/6 and $37.53 on 6/5.
Check a machine
Use the pays in the 1-coin column of the machine's pay table. Every figure updates as you type.
Jacks or Better 8/5: the return with perfect strategy, from every possible deal.
Club Royale earns 1 point per $15 played on video poker. Royal Caribbean casino · how Club Royale works
Returns: Slots at Sea's exact enumeration (optimal strategy, all 2,598,960 deals, 5-coin bet), which matches the Wizard of Odds Jacks or Better tables. Earn rates and tiers: each line's official rules, cited in our casino accounts guide.
How the math works
The pay table fixes the return. A computer can play every possible deal with the best hold and average the payouts, so the return is exact, not a guess. The rest is multiplication.
- Bet per hand = denomination × coins. 25¢ × 5 coins = $1.25.
- Coin-in = bet × hands per hour × hours. Every hand counts, including the ones you play with winnings.
- Expected loss = coin-in × house edge, where the house edge is 100% minus the return. It's the long-run average. In one session you can win or lose far more.
- Points = coin-in ÷ the line's dollars per point. Points depend on what you bet, not on whether you win.
- Expected loss per point = dollars per point × house edge. On 8/5 at $15 a point, that's $15 × 2.7016% = about 41¢.
The returns assume perfect strategy at the 5-coin bet. Mistakes cost extra. Games other than Jacks or Better, and Jacks or Better tables we haven't worked out, show "not in our table" instead of an estimate. More on why the same game can cost ten times as much in the math behind casino games, and on how expected loss drives offers in the economics of casino cruises. Which pay tables ships are reported to run: video poker on cruise ships. What the play for your next tier costs: is the next tier worth it?
Sources
- Slots at Sea — Jacks or Better returns by full enumeration (vp.json) (our own calculation)
- Wizard of Odds — Jacks or Better pay tables (accessed Oct 21, 2026)
- Slots at Sea — Opening and keeping casino accounts (earn rates and tiers, with each line's official sources)