hi and welcome to our instructional
video
that is designed to make you a smarter
gambler my name is Steve Bourie
and I'm the author of the American casino
guide which is the number one
bestselling book in the US
on the subject of casino gambling and
travel and the
only book that comes with more than one
thousand dollars in casino coupons
If you want to know more about the book
be sure to visit our website at
americancasinoguide.com and if you
have an iPhone or iPad
be sure to download our free app just go
to the app store and search for
American casino guide. In this video
Linda Boyd who is the author the video
poker edge gives
details on the top 10 reasons why jacks
or better
is the best video poker game to play. And
now
here's linda boyd. One of the best games
that you're gonna find in the casino
is video poker and one of the best games
that you'll find
of the video poker games is a game
called Jacks or Better
And there are ten excellent reasons why
you would choose
the game called Jacks or Better. The
first
the ten good reasons is game
availability it does you no good to learn
how to play a video poker game
then you arrive at the casino and you
can't find the game that you selected to
play
so availability is critical
virtually every single casino that
offers video poker
will offer some version of Jacks or Better
my favorite version because it has the
highest
expected return (called e.r.) is a game
called
9/6 jacks or better. You can find it
because everything pays the same for
winning hands with two
exceptions. The first exception in Jacks or
better
is the full hous. 9/6
pays 9 times each coin bet for a full
house
and six times each coin bet for  a flush
so you want to play that as opposed to
one that pays
8 for a full house and five for a flush
called 8/5. Keep in mind there are other
versions available in the casino
but you may not want to play them due to
the expected return
So availability is the first good reason
to select Jacks or Better
Reason number two is something called
variance and the variance is also called
the risk factor in the game so the risk
factor
relates to how long your bankroll with
the money you brought
the casino will last. Jacks or Better has a
low variance
something that's a good thing for players
If you're playing 9/6
Jacks or Better variance is
approximately 19.51
compared to say double double bonus
9/6 double double bonus has a variance
of 41.98 and and that's
twice the risk to your bankroll. If you want
to hang on to your bankroll
variance or volatility is extremely
important and that is number two. The
third good reason for choosing
Jacks or Better is promotional equity.
Promotional equity
relates to how many entries you'll get into
a drawing. The more
tickets you have the more entry tickets
that you have the better your odds are
of winning the coveted prize so you want
increased
equity or an increased number of drawing
tickets
Since the variance is low as described
in reason number two
you'll be able to play longer on the
given bankroll
casinos determine how many entry tickets
by something called
coin in which is the amount of money
you run through the gaming device. You
will run through
approximately twice as much money on a
given bankroll
say a hundred dollars with jacks or
better than you will
on a high-risk game like double double
bonus. Thus,
you increase the number of tickets you have
and I call that
your promo equity. The fourth good reason
to select Jacks or Better play is
increased comps.
We all want to have increased comps which is
giving you free food or free show tickets
or anything the casino maybe offering
you will get double on a given bankroll
than you will for high-risk game
like double-double bonus that I've been
using in the other examples
So if you take say a hundred dollars
with you to play in the casino
you might get twenty dollars in comps if
you choose Jacks or Better
whereas you would only have ten dollars in
comps
the odds are if you chose high-risk game
like double-double
bonus. The more coin in, the higher your
comps
will be. Reason number five
that you would select Jacks or better is
more cash.
There are two kinds of cash that you can
collect
the first is called bounce-back cash
that comes to you in the mail and it's to
entice you
to come to the casino you'll get more
bounce back cash
by increasing the amount of coin in that
you have
on a given bankroll and also second
kinda cash
is of course the slot club points
you cash in your slot club points if you
have double the number of points
by choosing a low risk game like Jacks
or Better
you will get double the amount of cash back when you go to collect your slot Club
points.
Reason number six is something
relatively new we find in casinos today
they now give cards indicating levels
They'll have low roller, medium level
and a high roller sometime they'll have even
more
levels. For you the player it's best to
have the highest level possible
because there's more perks Associated with
the higher
levels. By increasing the coin in you run
through a machine
you will increase the likelihood
of rising to a higher level slot club
card
thus, you'll increase your perks and
benefits
Reason number seven is longer sessions
nothing worse than going to a casino
with a group friends
and you're there until the group decides
to leave all of a sudden
you have run out of bankroll. By playing a
low volatility game
that pays more for frequent hands
like two pair Jacks or Better is the
example
you'll be able to last longer the same
thing is true
if you choose to go on vacation and you
want to get in at least three
to four hours of slot play or video poker
play
you're gonna last longer with a game like Jacks
or Better
than something that runs through your
bankroll real quickly like double double
bonus
or any video poker game that only
returns
even money for two pair, a frequent hand.
Keep in mind Jacks or Better returns
double your wager
for two pair, a frequent hand. Reason number eight
is Jacks or Better has an easy strategy
because it's very intuitive. By that
I mean most people are inclined when dealt two pair
to hold both pairs and that's exactly
what you should do
with any version Jacks or Better. However,
some games
you do not hold two pair for example if
you're playing
double double bonus and you're dealt two pair
one pair aces the correct strategy
is the whole the pair aces so it's more
complicated to learn the strategy for
games
like 10/7 double bonus or even
9/6 for any version of double double bonus
once you've learned the basic or key plays
for Jacks or
better you'll be able to play any kind
of format involving the games of jacks
or better. The number nine recent that jacks or better is a good choice for players
is it's a core game when you look at
the place that have
a selection of games that you can play
Let me explain that sometimes you can
play
a multi-hand game like three play or five
play and so on
just to make the game a bit more
exciting. Jacks or Better
is one of the core games you can select
from. The same is true for games like
multi-strike, spin poker, quick quads
and there's a number of formats you can
select from
Reason number ten that you would want to
choose Jacks or Better as your game of
choice
is it's frequently found in a
progressive version
sometimes you want to play 9/6 Jacks or
Better
of course it's the best version but it
simply isn't
available in the casino so the next best
would be an 8/5 progressive Many games
are simply
not found in progressive form very often
For example deuces wild games are
infrequently found in
progressives and when you do find them
they're bad
versions. Not so with jacks or better
so if you can't find the 9/6 jacks or
better
you're very likely to find an 8/5
progressive version
a good thing for you, the player. So there you have it
ten good reasons for choosing to play
Jacks or Better
as your video poker game choice if I had to
name
the most significant of these ten
reasons
it would be the variance or the risk
factor
because derived from the variance or 
risk factor
are several other advantages like the
comp's
and increased number of promo tickets,
increased
amount of cash that you earn,  higher
levels and that sort of thing
So Jacks or Better is a wonderful game
for players
and its easy to learn with the most
important and sigificant
factor that makes it such a great game
being
the variance. Low variance, good game.
If you wanna learn more about me are my
work I have a book
it's called the video poker edge it's published by Square One
out of New York I also write for three
publications
Arizona player,  southern gaming, and
Midwest gaming and travel
I have an article in this year's
American casino guide
as well. Don't forget that you can see
more of our educational gaming videos on
our YouTube channel
just go to youtube.com/americancasinoguide
