Every Jacks or Better deal has one best way to play it: the hold with the highest expected value (EV) over every possible draw. This trainer counts all of those draws, up to 1,533,939 when you throw away all five cards, for the 9/6, 8/5, 7/5 or 6/5 pay table. It's practice only: no money, no bets, no prizes.
Play a hand
Choose the cards to hold, then draw.
| Hold | Play | EV |
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This session
"Return with your holds" is the table's return with perfect play minus the EV you gave up per hand so far. It shows from hand 20 on and is still a rough guide until you have played many more. The session lives in this page only and resets when you leave.
Mistakes
No mistakes yet.
How the trainer works
The EVs are exact. For every one of the 32 ways to hold a hand, the trainer counts every draw from the 47 unseen cards, adds up what each final hand pays on your pay table and divides by the number of draws.
- Expected value (EV) is the average a hold pays back per coin bet over every possible draw. An EV of 0.8237 means you get back about 82 cents per dollar bet, on average, from that hold.
- The best hold is the one with the highest EV. When two holds tie, either one counts as the best play.
- EV given up is the best hold's EV minus yours. Add it up over a session and you see what your mistakes cost in bets. A total of 1.0 is one 5-coin bet.
- The reason names both plays the way a strategy chart does, using the Wizard of Odds optimal strategy for 9/6. The verdict always comes from this hand's own numbers. When the chart's usual order disagrees, usually because a card you throw away would have helped the other draw (a penalty card), the trainer says so.
- The pay table matters. The chart was made for 9/6. On 8/5, 7/5 and 6/5 the smaller full house and flush pays change a few close decisions, and the trainer's numbers follow the table you pick.
How it stays fast: the trainer groups draws by their ranks (at most 6,188 rank patterns for a five-card draw) and counts the suits that fit each one, then lists the few draws that make a flush separately. All 32 holds of a hand take a few milliseconds in the browser. The returns with perfect play (99.5439% for 9/6, 97.2984% for 8/5, 96.1472% for 7/5 and 94.9961% for 6/5) come from our full enumeration. Played through all 2,598,960 possible deals, the trainer's own engine gives the same 9/6 and 8/5 returns and the same chance of every final hand. What each table costs per hour at your bet: the pay-table checker. Which tables ships are reported to run: video poker on cruise ships.
Practice, not gambling
Nothing here is a bet. There's no money, no account and no prize, and the deals are random practice hands. Perfect strategy doesn't beat these machines: even full-pay 9/6 returns 99.54%, so the casino keeps a small edge, and the lower tables keep more. Set a budget before you play on board and stop when it's gone.
If gambling is a problem for you or someone you know, call 1-800-GAMBLER. More on what a casino session costs: the math behind casino games.
Sources
- Wizard of Odds — Jacks or Better optimal strategy (9/6) (hand names and their order; accessed Oct 22, 2026)
- Wizard of Odds — Simple Jacks or Better strategy (accessed Oct 22, 2026)
- Slots at Sea — Jacks or Better returns by full enumeration (vp.json) (our own calculation)