How to Adjust to Bonus Poker From Jacks or Better

March 7, 2014 by

Bonus PokerMost players who get involved with video poker start off with Jacks or Better and go from there. A lot of games are like Jacks or Better but with special payouts, and that’s the case with Bonus Poker. As a result of these differences, you have to make a handful of special adjustments to your Jacks or Better strategy. If you make these adjustments correctly, you can end up with a pretty good payout rate in this game with plenty of chances to earn some impressive payouts.

Adjustments to Make for 8/5 Bonus Poker

If you’re dealing with big made hands or draws, the play is going to be exactly the same as Jacks or Better. Most of the adjustments that you need to make come to the low end of hands. Because you’re dealt bad hands more often than you’re dealt good ones, this means that a large percentage of the hands that you are given will need to be played differently in Bonus Poker than in Jacks or Better.

If you’re dealt no pair with no major draw, then you’re normally going to have to make very careful adjustments when you’re picking between the high cards to play. For example, if you have AQJxx of different suits, then you should keep the QJ only. However, if you have KQJxx of different suits, then you should keep all three of them. Along these same lines, keeping a KQ or KJ combination is stronger than keeping a combination of AK, AQ or AJ. If you’re given a hand like AKQxx or AKJxx of three different suits, then you have to keep the lower two cards of the bunch.

Anti-Intuitive Play is the Trademark

Here’s one more key play that throws people off every single time. Suppose you have AsJhTh5s4c. Most players want to keep the AJ combination, but that’s not correct. It’s actually slightly better to keep the JhTh combination because it’s suited, and that’s in spite of the fact that a single pair of tens won’t get you a payout. It’s tricky, but it requires you to adjust if you want to do well in these situations.

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