9/6 (1000 RF, 125 SF, 30 4K, 2 Trips) Jacks or Better Strategy Card
A free printable strategy card for the 1000-125-30-9-6-4-2-2-1 paytable. Followed exactly it returns 94.7745% of everything you bet, against 94.7760% for perfect play — a gap of 0.0015 percentage points, or one five-coin bet every 66,376 hands. That number is measured over all 2,598,960 deals, not estimated.
A strategy card is only right for the paytable it was built for. Read the full house and flush payouts off the machine before you use one: 9 and 6 is a different game from 8 and 5, and a multi-denomination machine can change paytable when you change the denomination.
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| Card | Lines | Return | Gap | One bet every | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full card — every line | 42 | 94.7745% | 0.0015 | 66,376 hands | Letter · A4 |
| Short card — bigger type, fewer lines | 22 | 94.6861% | 0.0899 | 1,112 hands | Letter · A4 |
The paytable this card assumes
| Hand | Pays (per coin, five coins bet) |
|---|---|
| Royal flush | 1000 |
| Straight flush | 125 |
| Four of a kind | 30 |
| Full house | 9 |
| Flush | 6 |
| Straight | 4 |
| Three of a kind | 2 |
| Two pair | 2 |
| Jacks or better | 1 |
The hold order, in full
This is what is printed on the front of the full card. Read down; hold the first line your five dealt cards can make. Where one line fits your hand two ways, take the one with more high cards, and if that ties, the lower cards.
| # | Hold | Cards |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | 5 |
| 2 | Straight flush | 5 |
| 3 | Four of a kind | 4 |
| 4 | 4 to a royal flush | 4 |
| 5 | Full house | 5 |
| 6 | 4 to a straight flush | 4 |
| 7 | Flush | 5 |
| 8 | Straight | 5 |
| 9 | 4 to a straight flush | 4 |
| 10 | Three of a kind | 3 |
| 11 | Two pair | 4 |
| 12 | 3 to a royal flush | 3 |
| 13 | High pair | 2 |
| 14 | 4 to a flush | 4 |
| 15 | 4 to a straight | 4 |
| 16 | 3 to a straight flush | 3 |
| 17 | 4 to a straight | 4 |
| 18 | 3 to a straight flush | 3 |
| 19 | 4 to a straight | 4 |
| 20 | 3 to a straight flush | 3 |
| 21 | Low pair | 2 |
| 22 | 4 to a straight | 4 |
| 23 | 3 to a straight flush | 3 |
| 24 | 2 to a royal: Q-J | 2 |
| 25 | 4 to a straight | 4 |
| 26 | 2 to a royal flush | 2 |
| 27 | 3 to a straight flush | 3 |
| 28 | 2 to a royal flush | 2 |
| 29 | 4 to a straight | 4 |
| 30 | K-Q-J unsuited | 3 |
| 31 | 2 to a royal: J-T | 2 |
| 32 | Q-J unsuited | 2 |
| 33 | 2 to a royal: Q-T | 2 |
| 34 | 3 to a straight flush | 3 |
| 35 | 4 to a straight | 4 |
| 36 | 2 unsuited high cards | 2 |
| 37 | One high card | 1 |
| 38 | 2 to a royal: K-T | 2 |
| 39 | A-K unsuited | 2 |
| 40 | 2 to a royal: A-T | 2 |
| 41 | One high card | 1 |
| 42 | Nothing above | — |
Never hold these
Each one is worth less than throwing all five cards away on this paytable. They are absent from the card because they were priced and lost, not because they were forgotten.
- 3 to a flush
- 4 to a straight inside, no high cards
Other paytables this card is right for
These 1 paytables play close enough to 9/6 (1000 RF, 125 SF, 30 4K, 2 Trips) that the same card serves them. The cost of using it on each is measured the same way as the card's own return.
| Paytable | Payouts | With this card | Perfect play | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9/6 (1000 RF, 100 SF, 30 4K, 2 Trips) | 1000-100-30-9-6-4-2-2-1 | 94.4283% | 94.4355% | 0.0072 |
Using this card on a machine it is not for
Sometimes the machine in front of you is not the one you printed for. This is the 9/6 (1000 RF, 125 SF, 30 4K, 2 Trips) full card measured on every other paytable we hold, worst first — the gap between what it returns there and what perfect play returns there. The five worst are the ones to avoid; each of them has its own card on this site.
| Machine | Payouts | This card gives up | Its own card |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/6 (250 RF) | 250-50-25-9-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.6897 | 9/6 (500 RF) |
| 9/6 (250 RF, 55 SF) | 250-55-25-9-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.6735 | 9/6 (500 RF) |
| 9/6 (500 RF) | 500-50-25-9-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.4553 | 9/6 (500 RF) |
| 40-20-9-6-5 | 800-40-20-9-6-5-3-2-1 | 0.3956 | 40-20-9-6-5 |
| 8/5 (35 4K) | 800-50-35-8-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.3136 | 9/5 |
| 8/5 (30 4K) | 800-50-30-8-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.2998 | 9/5 |
| 9/5 | 800-50-25-9-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.2966 | 9/5 |
| 6/5 (35 4K) | 800-50-35-6-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.2925 | 9/5 |
| 8/5 | 800-50-25-8-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.2861 | 9/5 |
| 9/5 (55 SF) | 800-55-25-9-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.2814 | 9/5 |
| 7/5 | 800-50-25-7-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.2757 | 9/6 |
| 8/5 (55 SF) | 800-55-25-8-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.2709 | 9/5 |
| 6/5 | 800-50-25-6-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.2655 | 9/6 |
| 7/5 (20 4K) | 800-50-20-7-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.2624 | 9/6 |
| 9/6 (500 RF, 100 SF, 30 4K, 2 Trips) | 500-100-30-9-6-4-2-2-1 | 0.2567 | 9/6 (500 RF, 100 SF, 30 4K, 2 Trips) |
| 9/6 (47.8 SF) | 800-47.8-25-9-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.2382 | 9/6 |
| 8/6 (29 4K) | 800-50-29-8-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.2322 | 9/6 |
| 9/6 | 800-50-25-9-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.2317 | 9/6 |
| 8/6 (26 4K) | 800-50-26-8-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.2241 | 9/6 |
| 8/6 | 800-50-25-8-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.2214 | 9/6 |
| 8/6 (55 SF) | 800-55-25-8-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.2068 | 9/6 |
| 9/6 (900 RF) | 900-50-25-9-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.1899 | 9/6 |
| 6/5 (1000 RF) | 1000-50-25-6-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.1889 | 9/6 |
| 7/5 (1000 RF, 20 4K) | 1000-50-20-7-5-4-3-2-1 | 0.1869 | 9/6 |
| 9/6 (940 RF) | 940-50-25-9-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.1763 | 9/6 |
| 9/6 (1 2P) | 800-50-25-9-6-4-3-1-1 | 0.1754 | 9/6 (1 2P) |
| 9/6 (976 RF) | 976-50-25-9-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.1667 | 9/6 |
| 9/6 (90 SF) | 800-90-25-9-6-4-3-2-1 | 0.1302 | 9/6 |
The short card
The same derivation with a line budget: 22 lines instead of 42, set large enough to read in bad light, at a cost of 0.0899 points instead of 0.0015. Whether that trade is worth it is yours to make, which is why both numbers are printed on both cards.
| # | Hold | Cards |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal flush | 5 |
| 2 | Straight flush | 5 |
| 3 | Four of a kind | 4 |
| 4 | 4 to a royal flush | 4 |
| 5 | Full house | 5 |
| 6 | Flush | 5 |
| 7 | 4 to a straight flush | 4 |
| 8 | Straight | 5 |
| 9 | Three of a kind | 3 |
| 10 | Two pair | 4 |
| 11 | 3 to a royal flush | 3 |
| 12 | High pair | 2 |
| 13 | 4 to a flush | 4 |
| 14 | Low pair | 2 |
| 15 | 3 to a straight flush | 3 |
| 16 | 4 to a straight | 4 |
| 17 | 2 to a royal flush | 2 |
| 18 | 4 to a straight | 4 |
| 19 | K-Q-J unsuited | 3 |
| 20 | 2 unsuited high cards | 2 |
| 21 | One high card | 1 |
| 22 | Nothing above | — |
More
- All 16 strategy cards
- Hand analyzer — any five cards, the exact optimal hold
- 9/6 (1000 RF, 125 SF, 30 4K, 2 Trips) hand probabilities and expected value