Question 1

How do you play 8/5 Bonus Poker?

Accepted Answer

Bet one to five coins and press Deal. You get five cards, choose which to keep, and press Draw to replace the rest. The hand you end up with is paid according to the table printed above the cards — a pair of jacks or better is the smallest hand that pays anything.

Question 2

Is this free? Do I need an account?

Accepted Answer

Free, no account. The credits are play money and cost nothing, and you can top up whenever you like. Nothing is for sale here.

Question 3

What does 8/5 Bonus Poker pay?

Accepted Answer

Per coin: Royal flush 250, Straight flush 50, Four aces 80, Four 2s, 3s or 4s 40, Four 5s through kings 25, Full house 8, Flush 5, Straight 4, Three of a kind 3, Two pair 2, Jacks or better 1. Everything scales with the number of coins you bet except the royal flush, which jumps to 4000 coins at five.

Question 4

Why should I always bet five coins?

Accepted Answer

Because the royal pays 250 a coin at one to four coins and 800 a coin at five. That single jump is worth about 1.5 percentage points of return — considerably more than any strategy mistake you are likely to make. If five coins is more than you want to risk per hand, the right answer is a smaller coin size, not fewer coins.

Question 5

What return does this machine give?

Accepted Answer

99.17% at five coins with perfect play. That is the long-run figure and it is what the paytable is worth, not a promise about your session — 54% of hands lose outright, so the game feels far streakier than that number suggests.

Question 6

What does the name mean?

Accepted Answer

The two numbers are the full house and the flush: this machine pays 8 and 5. Those two rows are the only thing that usually changes between machines that otherwise look identical, and each coin taken off either one costs roughly 1.1 percentage points of return. Checking them before you play is the whole skill of choosing a machine.

Question 7

Does this game have a strategy trainer?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it is exact rather than a chart. For every hand it works out the expected value of all 32 ways of holding your cards by enumerating every possible draw — 2.6 million hands per hint — so it can tell you not just which hold is best but exactly what any other hold costs, in coins.

Question 8

Why is that better than a strategy chart?

Accepted Answer

Because a chart is written for one specific paytable, and strategy follows the paytable. A chart for 9/6 Jacks or Better gives wrong advice on Double Double Bonus, where two pair pays even money and the whole shape of the game changes. Computing from the active table cannot drift.

Question 9

What is the single most important hold to get right?

Accepted Answer

Four to a royal, over a pat flush or a pat straight. It looks wrong — you are throwing away a made hand — and it is correct, because the royal pays 800 for one. The exception is a pat straight flush, which you keep.

Question 10

Should I keep a low pair or four to a flush?

Accepted Answer

The flush draw. Four to a flush is worth more than a low pair on every paytable here. A low pair does beat four to an outside straight, though, which is the pair of decisions people most often get backwards.

Question 11

What is two pair worth on this machine?

Accepted Answer

Two for one — double your bet. That is the standard payout and it means two pair is a hand worth keeping intact.

Question 12

How often does a royal flush come up?

Accepted Answer

About once every 40,000 hands with perfect play. That is worth knowing before you start, because a player who does not know it will conclude after a few thousand hands that the machine is fixed. At a brisk 600 hands an hour, 40,000 hands is over sixty hours of play.

Question 13

How often do I actually win?

Accepted Answer

A little under half the time. About 21% of hands are a paying pair, 13% two pair, 7% trips, and the rest of the paying hands are rarer — 54% of hands pay nothing at all. Video poker is much streakier than its return suggests, and that gap is the most common reason people think a machine is rigged.

Question 14

Is the deal rigged? Does it react to what I hold?

Accepted Answer

It cannot. Each hand is ten cards from one shuffle, fixed by the session’s deal number before you see anything: the first five are dealt to you and the next five are already waiting behind them to replace whatever you discard. That is how a real machine works. The "Is this rigged?" panel shows you the deal number and the next hand.

Question 15

Does holding a card change what I draw?

Accepted Answer

No. The replacements come off the back of the same ten cards in order, so discarding a different card gives you the same replacement cards in the same order — just fewer or more of them. Nothing about your decision is an input to the shuffle.

Question 16

What is the difference between the machines here?

Accepted Answer

Only the paytable. Jacks or Better 9/6 returns 99.54%; Jacks or Better 8/5 returns 97.3%; Bonus Poker 8/5 returns 99.17%; Double Double Bonus 9/6 returns 98.98%. Same deck, same draw, same engine — a video poker "variant" is a table of numbers, which is exactly why the strategy is computed rather than looked up.

Question 17

Can I lose my whole balance?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it costs nothing. Credits are play money shared with the other casino games here. When you run out, press Add chips — instant, free and unlimited.

Question 18

What are the keyboard shortcuts?

Accepted Answer

1 to 5 hold and unhold each card, and space deals, draws, and moves to the next hand. Every button works with the keyboard on its own.

Question 19

Can I play on a phone?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The paytable, the hand and the buttons all reflow, and the cards stay large enough to tap. Nothing is installed.

Question 20

Is video poker better than slots?

Accepted Answer

Substantially, and it is the one comparison worth making. A good video poker paytable returns well over 99% with correct play, against roughly 88-92% for a typical slot machine — and unlike a slot, the paytable is printed on the screen so you can tell before you play. The catch is the "with correct play" part, which is what the trainer here is for.

Question 21

Are my credits and statistics saved?

Accepted Answer

In this browser. The balance is shared with the other casino games on the site, so credits won here can go to the blackjack table. There is no account holding any of it.