I've never played a lot of Joker Poker, simply because most of the games around here pay a lot less than they should. But, the 'classic' game with one Joker and a pay schedule that returns 100.6% is pretty good to play, if you can find one. In Atlantic City, Double Joker Poker is among the best games available and now there are games with four and five Jokers added to the deck. As it is with so many other Video Poker games, you need to know what the pay schedule is in order to determine whether or not the game's worth playing. Here is a list of different games showing the best pay schedule available:

These games are primarily found in Atlantic City and may be worth playing if the casino offers a good slot club. Beware of an "8/5" version (the single-coin pay for the 4K/Full House) which I've seen; it has a long term payback of only 98.2%.

Those of you who play 'full-pay' Deuces Wild games (100.7+% return) may look at this pay schedule and begin drooling; if those payouts were on a Deuces game, it would return over 116%! But don't be fooled, just because each has 4 wild cards; there are significant differences between the two. Remember that a Deuces Wild game has a 52-card deck, whereas a 4-Joker game is played with a 56-card deck. That immediately reduces the opportunity for a 'natural' (non-wild card) Royal in the Joker game. In Deuces, one may expect a natural Royal once every 45,282 hands, but in 4-Joker games, it's once every 57,850 hands. A good example of why this is true is holding J,Q,K suited. In the Deuces game, getting the Royal is a 1 in 1081 shot; it's a 1 in 1275 chance in the 4-Joker game. The two games have about a 0.8% difference in long term return and about half of that comes from the Royal. Another significant difference is in the four 2s versus the 4 Jokers. If you're holding 2 deuces alone , there's a 1 in 360 chances that you'll get "the ducks". If you're holding 2 Jokers, it's a 1 in 425 shot that you'll get 4 Jokers. But, they pay the same. So you can see that, while all those extra cards seem like they make the game easier to beat, they really don't.

Look at that payout for 5 Jokers! Yes, it's nice, but it's also a 1 in 171,000 shot. And a non-wild card Royal in this game will occur, on average, once every 76,600 hands, so keep your day job if you play this version. But overall, it's not a bad game since all those Jokers keep giving you what I call "stayin' alive" hands like 4Ks, etc. In fact, if you had a choice between full-pay 5 Joker and 9/6 Jacks (both have about the same long term return), your $$$ would tend to last a bit longer at 5-Joker. Of course, both games are long term losers, so you'd need a nice cash-back slot club to make either choice viable.

To give credit where credit is due, this article was inspired by the machine below. I noticed it at Players Island Casino in St. Louis and, not being aware of the long term return on it, played a while. You can see that was a mistake.

* Theoretical return is the long term return a player that uses the proper strategy can expect to receive.

Now of course, you're wondering how to play these games. For all the Double-Joker variations, our friend "Jazbo" has strategy cards which you can purchase at very reasonable prices. He's at http://www.jazbo.com/ Also, if you own Video Poker Strategy Master, that will generate a strategy table for all the Double-Joker games as well. I've written many times about VPSM and recommend it without reservation. It's available from our favorite online retailer, Conjelco, at http://www.conjelco.com/ Both of these sites are, by the way, on the "GameMaster's Personal Links" page which you can access from the front page.

So, have fun and I'll see you here next time.

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