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Two Ways Royal Is A Better Video Poker Option

Two Ways Royal Is A Better Video Poker Option

Added: October 18, 2017

If you at a Playtech powered online casino like Omni Casino or Mansion Casino you will find a game called Two Ways Royal under the video poker category. The video poker variant is based on Jacks or Better and is different in one respect. There are two ways in which a royal flush hand can be made. The Hi Royal Flush is the common royal flush hand consisting of a suited 10, J, Q, K and A. The Lo Royal Flush consists of a suited 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. This article explains the advantage of Two Ways Royal over Jacks or Better.

But first there are two general online video poker requirements. You have to play using optimum strategy in order to achieve the stated average returns. This is true of Playtech Two Ways Royal as well. The good thing is that the optimum strategy for Two Ways Royal is similar to Jacks or Better strategy. The only additional instruction is that what applies for Hi Royal Flush applies for Lo Royal Flush as well. The second requirement is that you always wager five coins. In Playtech Two Ways Royal the payout for the two royal flush hands is 250 to 1 for one to four coins and 800 to 1 for five coins. The subsequent analysis assumes both optimum strategy and five coins.

We start with the average return of 99.5% for Jacks or Better. Then we track the changes in the payout table of Two Ways Royal and see how they impact the average return. A suited 2 to 6 pays 800 to 1 as Lo Royal Flush in Two Ways Royal. It pays only 50 to 1 as straight flush in Jacks or Better. This leads to an increase in the average return to the player by 1.8%. Without any other change, the average return would increase to 101.3% and Two Ways Royal would become unviable.

Therefore in Two Ways Royal some compensatory changes are made in the payout table. The payout for the Full House is reduced from 9 to 1 to 6 to 1; the payout for the Flush is reduced from 6 to 1 to 5 to 1 and the payout for the Four of a Kind is increased from 25 to 1 to 40 to 1. After factoring in these three changes the final average return to the player becomes 99.8%. It is a marginal increase, which may not impact the casual video poker player. But if video poker is your stable game you should go for Two Ways Royal instead of Jacks or Better.