What Are The Odds Of Hitting A Royal Flush On Video Poker?
There are many rights of passage when you live in Las Vegas, but none feel as good as hitting your first royal flush. But what are the odds of hitting a royal flush on video poker? The answer is a bit complicated.
The Payouts Depend On The Game You Play And How Much You Bet
Jacks or Better. Deuces Wild. Double Double Poker. There are several variations of video poker at bars throughout the Las Vegas valley. Some games have better odds than others. Wizard Of Odds offers great strategies to figure out how to play the closest “to the book,” and therefore improve your odds of walking away a winner.
Deuces Wild mean every 2 could be whatever card you want. The only issue is this makes hitting a Royal Flush very easy, and therefore it pays out very little. Only 25 credits or so. So, a $1 bet would win you $25. Sure it feels good but you aren’t bragging about it on Facebook.
Other games like Jacks Or Better and Double Double Bonus can pay anywhere from 250-800 times your bet. It all depends on how much you pay per hand. $1 x 5 equals a $5 max bet. If you want to get paid more on a max bet but can’t afford $5 a hand, try betting $0.25 x 5. That makes for a $1.25 max bet, and higher payouts.
Odds Of Hitting A Royal Flush On Video Poker
There are 52 cards “in the deck” and four suits. So, running all the permutations, the odds of being dealt a Royal Flush (which is to say you got all the cards out the gate) is astronomical. 1 in 649,740. You are 42x more likely to be struck by lightning. Which is strange because you don’t see as many people bragging about being struck by lightning on your Instagram stories.
If you’re going to get to a Royal Flush, you’re far more likely to get it when you swap out the cards. If you are 2, 3 or 4 cards into a Royal Flush, you’ll “hold” those cards, and ask to replace the card(s) you don’t want to keep. You get to do this once.
At that point, the odds vary wildly. An article from the Atlantic City Weekly breaks down the odds when you hold 1, 2, 3 or 4 cards. The rule of thumb has been your odds are “1 in 40,000” to hit a Royal Flush, but if you are holding 4 cards, your odds are far better than that (and if you’re holding 1 card they are far worse).
At the lowest, holding 1 card and drawing the rest will get you to 1 in over 178,000 odds. But holding 4 cards gets you to 1 in 47 (which makes not getting the Royal Flush that much more infuriating).
The odds of hitting a royal flush on video poker are not incredibly high, but you’ll feel incredibly high if you do. When you do it, give us your secret. We are still trying.