Bonus Poker is the classic low-volatility cousin of Jacks or Better that splits Four of a Kind into three payout tiers (80 for 1 on Four Aces, 40 for 1 on Four 2s, 3s or 4s, and 25 for 1 on Four 5s through Kings) while keeping the full 2-for-1 payout on Two Pair. Try the game free in your browser with no registration and nothing to install. The game opens on full-pay 8/5 Bonus Poker (paytable bp_2, 99.17% optimal return), and you can switch across all 9 Bonus Poker schedules from the cabinet header.
Choose your game
Every game is solved exactly here: every hold is priced over the full draw, so the coach
is right whichever you pick.
Which machine are you playing? The schedule on the glass is what decides the return.
All 30 Jacks or Better paytables
Which machine are you playing? The schedule on the glass is what decides the return.
All 25 Deuces Wild paytables
Which machine are you playing? The schedule on the glass is what decides the return.
All 9 Bonus Poker paytables
Which machine are you playing? The schedule on the glass is what decides the return.
All 17 Double Bonus paytables
Which machine are you playing? The schedule on the glass is what decides the return.
All 12 Double Double Bonus paytables
Bonus Poker
Payouts for Bonus Poker, in credits, for each number of coins bet. The column for the
current bet is highlighted.
Hand
1
2
3
4
5
Royal Flush
250
500
750
1,000
4,000
Straight Flush
50
100
150
200
250
Four Aces
80
160
240
320
400
Four 2s-4s
40
80
120
160
200
Four 5s-Ks
25
50
75
100
125
Full House
8
16
24
32
40
Flush
5
10
15
20
25
Straight
4
8
12
16
20
Three of a Kind
3
6
9
12
15
Two Pair
2
4
6
8
10
Jacks or Better
1
2
3
4
5
Held1
Held2
Held3
Held4
Held5
Press Deal for five cards. Nothing here costs anything and nothing is stored.
Credits200Bet5Win
What the solver would have done
The hand you were dealt
Your hold, and the solver’s, appear here the moment you draw.
This session
Nothing on this page is stored or sent anywhere. Reload and the counters are gone, because there
is no account to keep them in.
The switch is on the machine itself, under the cards.
How to play Bonus Poker
Every hand of Bonus Poker is dealt from a standard 52-card deck without wild cards. You choose a coin count from one to five and hit Deal to place five cards on the felt. Mark the cards you want to retain with a click or with number keys 1 to 5, then hit Draw to swap the unheld cards for fresh ones out of the 47 remaining in the deck. Your completed five-card hand is paid immediately from the schedule displayed above the cards.
Just as in Jacks or Better, wagering all five credits per deal is crucial on Bonus Poker. Every hand up through Four Aces scales in direct proportion to the number of coins bet, but the Royal Flush jumps from 250 coins per coin staked (on 1 to 4 coins) to a 4,000-coin jackpot (800 for 1) at max coins. Playing 5 coins on an 8/5 Bonus Poker cabinet delivers the full 99.17% theoretical return; short-coin bets give back more than a full percentage point on the top jackpot.
The lowest hand that returns a payout is a high pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces, paying even money (1 coin per credit staked, or 5 coins at max bet). Crucially, Bonus Poker keeps Two Pair at 2 coins per coin wagered (10 coins at max bet), unlike Double Bonus and Double Double Bonus, which cut Two Pair in half to fund larger quad jackpots. Because Two Pair still pays double your bet and appears on roughly 12.3% of completed hands, your bankroll in Bonus Poker endures far gentler swings than in Double Double Bonus.
What distinguishes Bonus Poker from standard Jacks or Better is how Four of a Kind is paid. Where Jacks or Better pays 25 for 1 (125 coins at max bet) on any quad, 8/5 Bonus Poker pays 25 for 1 on Four 5s through Kings, jumps to 40 for 1 (200 coins at max bet) on Four 2s, 3s or 4s, and pays 80 for 1 (400 coins at max bet) on Four Aces, all without requiring any special fifth-card kicker.
Bonus Poker pay table
Full-pay Bonus Poker is called 8/5 after its 8-for-1 Full House and 5-for-1 Flush payouts. The table below shows every paying row on our benchmark 8/5 schedule from 1 coin up to 5 coins wagered.
Hand
1 coin
2 coins
3 coins
4 coins
5 coins
Royal Flush
250
500
750
1,000
4,000
Straight Flush
50
100
150
200
250
Four Aces
80
160
240
320
400
Four 2s-4s
40
80
120
160
200
Four 5s-Ks
25
50
75
100
125
Full House
8
16
24
32
40
Flush
5
10
15
20
25
Straight
4
8
12
16
20
Three of a Kind
3
6
9
12
15
Two Pair
2
4
6
8
10
Jacks or Better
1
2
3
4
5
Under optimal strategy at 5 coins per hand, 8/5 Bonus Poker returns 99.17% (99.1660% to four decimal places), giving the house an edge of 0.83% with a variance of roughly 20.9 (barely higher than 9/6 Jacks or Better at 19.5, and less than half the variance of Double Double Bonus). Tighter 7/5 (98.01% return) and 6/5 (96.87% return) cabinets trim the Full House row first. For the exact combinatorial counts and probabilities of each quad tier, check the 8/5 Bonus Poker hand odds and return page, or open the machine selector above to try any of the 9 Bonus Poker schedules in our catalogue.
Bonus Poker strategy in short
Because Two Pair still pays 2 for 1 and no four-of-a-kind hand depends on a kicker card, 8/5 Bonus Poker strategy is remarkably close to 9/6 Jacks or Better strategy. You never break Two Pair (not even with a pair of Aces), you never break a dealt Full House, and you never hold a kicker with a pair or Three of a Kind.
Follow these eleven ranked hold rules from top to bottom on 8/5 Bonus Poker:
Royal Flush, Straight Flush or any Four of a Kind (Aces, 2s through 4s, or 5s through Kings): stand pat on all five cards. Kickers do not affect any payout in Bonus Poker.
Four-to-a-Royal draw: lock in those four royal cards of the same suit, even if you must break up a made Flush, Straight or High Pair.
Full House, Flush, Straight or Three of a Kind: hold the made hand. On Three of a Kind (including Three Aces), keep only the three matching cards and discard both odd cards.
Four-to-a-Straight-Flush draw: keep the four suited cards in sequence, splitting a paying pair when necessary.
Two Pair (even when one pair is Aces): always keep all four paired cards and draw one fifth card toward the 8-to-1 Full House.
Paying pair (Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces): keep the two matching face cards or Aces before chasing a four-card flush or open-ended straight.
Three-to-a-Royal draw: hold the three royal cards of one suit over any four-card flush draw or small pair.
Four-to-a-Flush draw: keep the four suited cards ahead of any low pair (2s through 10s) or open-ended straight draw.
Low pair (2s through 10s): hold the pair ahead of four cards to an outside straight or any unsuited high cards. Pairs of 2s, 3s and 4s carry slightly higher value (0.8551 units) than pairs of 5s through 10s (0.8230 units) because of the 40-for-1 low-quad bonus, but both sit in the same slot in the overall hierarchy.
Four cards to an outside straight, then two suited high cards, then three cards to a Straight Flush: hold in that order depending on penalty cards.
Four unsuited high cards (Ace-King-Queen-Jack), or one or two unsuited high cards, or else draw five new cards: unlike Jacks or Better, when dealt Ace-King-Queen-Jack with no flush draw, hold all four high cards (expected value 0.5957 units); with two or three unsuited high cards, keep two (preferring Ace-King, Ace-Queen or Ace-Jack over King-Queen when an Ace is present on tiebreak hands); with no card Jack or higher and no four-card draw, discard all five cards.
The calm beauty of 8/5 Bonus Poker is how little you have to change if you already know 9/6 Jacks or Better. You keep the exact same discipline on pairs, two pair, trips and four-card draws; the 80-for-1 payout on Four Aces nudges a handful of unsuited high-card ties toward keeping an Ace (such as holding all four cards on unsuited A-K-Q-J, or holding Ace-King unsuited in spots where Jacks or Better prefers King-Queen), and costs only pennies per thousand hands even if you play strict Jacks or Better strategy.
Three solved hands on 8/5 Bonus Poker
Each hand below is checked against our packed optimal-strategy table for 8/5 Bonus Poker (paytable bp_2), with expected values given in coins per 1-coin unit staked:
Dealt A♠ A♦ 8♥ 8♣ K♠: hold A♠ A♦ 8♥ 8♣
(Two Pair with Aces, hold both pairs, expected value 2.5106 units). Because Two Pair pays 2 units on 8/5 Bonus Poker, holding Aces and Eights locks in at least a 2-unit return with 4 outs in 47 (the two remaining Aces and two remaining Eights) to hit an 8-unit Full House. Breaking Two Pair to hold only the Aces drops expected value down to 1.6621 units.
Dealt A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥ 9♦: hold A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥
(four-card Royal Flush draw, return 18.3830 units). Drawing one card to Ace-King-Queen-Jack of hearts gives you 1 out in 47 for the 800-unit Royal Flush, 9 outs for a 5-unit Flush, 3 off-suit Tens for a 4-unit Straight and 12 high-pair outs for 1 unit.
Dealt 3♠ 3♦ Q♥ K♣ 9♥: hold 3♠ 3♦
(low pair of Threes over two unsuited face cards, expected value 0.8551 units). The 40-for-1 payout on Four 2s, 3s or 4s lifts a pair of Threes to 0.8551 units on 8/5 Bonus Poker, well ahead of holding Queen-King offsuit (0.4748 units) or drawing five fresh replacements.
Practise and learn more
For live hand-by-hand coaching on 8/5 Bonus Poker or a deeper look at the underlying figures, use these resources:
Free video poker: all 93 paytables
: loads our complete 93-paytable simulator covering all 9 Bonus Poker schedules and the rest of the solved library.
Free Jacks or Better video poker: opens the baseline 9/6 machine (returning 99.54%), featuring 9-to-1 Full Houses, 6-to-1 Flushes and 25-to-1 on every quad.
Free Deuces Wild video poker: starts on the 100.76% Full Pay schedule in which every Two in the deck is wild and Three of a Kind is the lowest paying hand.
How is Bonus Poker different from Jacks or Better?
Full-pay 8/5 Bonus Poker lowers the Full House payout from 9 to 8 and the Flush payout from 6 to 5, then returns that value by paying 80 for 1 on Four Aces and 40 for 1 on Four 2s, 3s or 4s (instead of a flat 25 for 1 on all quads). Every other rule and payout row, including 2 for 1 on Two Pair, stays the same.
Do kickers matter on Four Aces in Bonus Poker?
No. Standard Bonus Poker pays 80 for 1 (400 coins on a 5-coin bet) on Four Aces regardless of what the fifth card is, and 40 for 1 (200 coins on a 5-coin bet) on Four 2s, 3s or 4s with any fifth card. Kicker bonuses only appear in Double Double Bonus and Triple Double Bonus variants.
Should I split Two Pair when holding Aces in Bonus Poker?
Never on 8/5 Bonus Poker. Because Two Pair pays 2 for 1 (double your bet) and Four Aces pays 80 for 1 rather than 160 for 1, holding both pairs (expected value 2.5106 units) easily beats holding only the pair of Aces (1.6621 units).
Why do many casino players prefer 8/5 Bonus Poker over Double Double Bonus?
At 99.17% optimal return and a variance around 20.9, 8/5 Bonus Poker has a slightly higher return than 9/6 Double Double Bonus (98.98%) with roughly half the bankroll volatility. Keeping the 2-for-1 Two Pair payout prevents the long dry spells that happen in 1-for-1 Two Pair games.
Can I lose real money on this Bonus Poker machine?
No. The Bonus Poker game on this page uses free browser credits only, with no deposits, no withdrawals and no sign-up. Any real-money casino links appear only in marked advertisement panels below the cabinet.
