All American Video Poker

All American Poker is a video poker variant very similar to Jacks or Better. The payout table has exactly the same hand rankings in both variants. These start at a pair of jacks or better and go up to a royal flush. The average payout ratio of both video poker variants is almost identical. All American Poker has an average payout ratio of 99.3% and Jacks or Better has an average payout ratio of 99.5%. Both ratios are based on players employing the optimum video poker strategy. Yet the two games are startlingly different and attract players with different temperaments.

The apparent anomaly can be explained by examining the payouts for the different hand rankings. In order to make the comparison meaningful the payouts for both variants are for the maximum wager of five coins and as offered at Microgaming online casinos. It can be seen that All American Poker offers greater payouts in some of the higher ranked poker hands. Straight flush has a payout of 1000 coins in All American Poker and 250 coins in Jacks or Better. Four of a kind has a payout 170 coins in All American Poker and 125 coins in Jacks or Better. Flush has a payout of 40 coins in All American Poker and 30 coins in Jacks or Better. Straight has a payout of 40 coins in All American Poker and 20 coins in Jacks or Better. If these higher payouts were not compensated by lower payouts in some other hands then the average payout ratio would be higher than 100% and the online casino would be cleaned out.

The compensation is provided by the two pairs hand ranking, which has a payout of 5 coins in All American Poker and 10 coins in Jacks or Better. At first this seems a pittance to the higher payouts mentioned earlier, but it is actually not so. All the four poker hand rankings mentioned in the previous paragraph put together appear in about 2.5% of the hands dealt. Whereas two pairs alone appears in about 13% of the hands dealt. Hence even a small reduction in the payout in two pairs compensates for the fairly large increases in the payouts of the other hands. In order to match the average payout ratios of All American Poker and Jacks or Better further compensation is provided in the full house hand ranking, which has a payout of 40 coins in All American Poker and 45 coins in Jacks or Better. For the sake of completion it is being stated that royal flush and jacks or better pay out the same in both variants of video poker.

In simple terms what this boils down to is this. Players at All American Poker will most of the time win slightly less than at Jacks or Better, but on few occasions will win considerably more. Overall expectations in both games are similar. Hence players who are willing to settle for smaller comparative losses in the hope of larger gains will play All American Poker. These are the risk taking players who thrive in volatile situations. The risk-averse conservative players would go for Jacks or Better. Both All American Poker and Jacks or Better are offered at Microgaming online casinos like Platinum Play Casino, All Slots Casino and Spin Palace Casino.

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