This video poker glossary is a reference for the language used on machines, paytables, strategy charts, player-tracking systems, and math pages. Some terms come from poker, some from slot operations, and some from casino accounting. Mixing them up can change a real-money decision: coin-in is not loss, RTP is not a session promise, max coins is not the same as high denomination, and a paytable is not identified by the game name alone.
Keep this page open while using the Video Poker Guide, Paytables, or Strategy Basics.
A–F: core game and paytable language
Action — Total wagering activity. In casino analysis, action is usually closer to coin-in than to the amount of cash a player first inserted.
Bet per hand — The actual amount wagered on one deal. It equals denomination multiplied by credits wagered, unless the machine uses another displayed bet structure.
Bonus Poker — A family of video poker games that changes four-of-a-kind payouts while retaining familiar Jacks or Better-style hand rankings. Different Bonus Poker variants have different paytables and strategies.
Cashable credits — Credits that represent redeemable value. They are different from promotional or restricted credits that may have special rules.
Coin — Traditional video poker language for one wagering unit. On a modern machine, “coin” usually means a credit rather than a physical coin.
Coin-in — Total value wagered through the machine. If you bet $1.25 on 800 hands, coin-in is $1,000 even if you inserted only $200 of cash and recycled wins many times.
Coin-out — Value paid back by the machine through winning outcomes or credits, as defined by the device/accounting system. It is not automatically the same as cash physically removed from the machine.
Credit — A machine unit whose dollar value depends on denomination. Five credits at $0.25 denomination equal a $1.25 wager; five credits at $1 denomination equal $5.
Deuces Wild — A video poker family in which twos act as wild cards. Because wild cards change hand frequencies, the paytable and strategy differ substantially from Jacks or Better.
Denomination — Dollar value of one credit, such as $0.25, $0.50, $1, or $5. Denomination and number of credits together determine the real wager.
Discard — A dealt card the player chooses not to hold. Discards are replaced during the draw.
Draw — The replacement-card stage after the player selects which dealt cards to hold. The final hand after the draw determines the payout.
Expected loss — The long-run average cost of action under a stated return assumption. It is calculated from coin-in and house edge, not from the amount initially inserted.
Expected return / expected value (EV) — The probability-weighted average value of a game or decision. For a hold decision, EV combines every possible draw and its payout.
Final hand — The five-card hand after the draw. The paytable normally settles this hand, not the initial deal.
Flush — Five cards of the same suit. Its payout varies by game and is one of the lines that often distinguishes strong and weak Jacks or Better paytables.
Four of a kind — Four cards of the same rank. Some variants pay all quads equally; others use different awards by rank or kicker.
Full house — Three cards of one rank plus two of another. In Jacks or Better, the full-house and flush lines are commonly used to describe the paytable, such as 9/6 or 8/5.
Full-pay — Informal term for a strong or benchmark paytable of a variant. It does not mean the machine literally returns 100%, and it should always be tied to a specific game. “Full-pay Jacks or Better” commonly refers to 9/6 Jacks or Better, not to every machine labeled Jacks or Better.
G–M: hand decisions and machine settings
Game family — The rule set that defines winning hands, wild cards, paytable structure, and strategy. Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus, and Deuces Wild are different families or variants even though the cabinet can look identical.
Hand frequency — How often a particular final hand occurs under a specified strategy. Hand frequency is part of RTP calculation and helps explain variance.
Hand pay — A winning amount that requires manual casino payment or verification rather than ordinary machine crediting, subject to the property’s system and jurisdictional rules.
High pair — In Jacks or Better, a pair of jacks, queens, kings, or aces. It is normally the lowest paying hand in that family.
Hold — A card selected to remain for the draw. Video poker strategy is fundamentally a ranking of possible holds by expected value.
Hold percentage — A casino accounting performance measure, generally actual win divided by coin-in over a period. It should not be confused with the player’s “hold” decision or with theoretical house edge.
Inside straight — A four-card straight draw with a missing rank in the interior, such as 4-5-7-8 needing a 6. It has fewer completing cards than an open-ended straight draw and is often a weak hold unless other features change the value.
Jacks or Better — Classic non-wild video poker in which a pair of jacks or higher is normally the minimum paying pair. The exact paytable still determines return.
Kicker — An additional card that changes the payout of certain four-of-a-kind hands in games such as Double Double Bonus. A kicker that matters to one paytable can be irrelevant in another.
Low pair — A pair of tens or lower in Jacks or Better. It is not itself a paying final hand in standard Jacks or Better but can be a strong starting hold.
Max coins / max credits — Highest supported credit count for one hand, commonly five in traditional video poker. Max credits may unlock a disproportionately larger royal flush award. It does not mean the highest denomination available.
Multi-hand video poker — A format where one initial deal is played into several independent draw hands after the hold decision. Total wager equals bet per hand multiplied by number of hands.
Multi-game machine — A cabinet offering several games or paytables. Selecting a different game can change RTP even when denomination and cabinet do not change.
N–R: return, paytable, and probability terms
Natural hand — A hand formed without wild cards. In wild-card games, paytables may distinguish natural royals or other natural hands from wild equivalents.
Open-ended straight draw — Four consecutive ranks that can complete a straight at either end, such as 5-6-7-8. It generally has more straight-completing cards than an inside straight draw.
Optimal strategy — The hold decision with the highest expected value for every possible initial hand under one exact paytable and payout schedule. Change the paytable and some optimal decisions can change.
Penalty card — A discarded card that removes a useful draw possibility and can change a close strategy decision. Penalty-card strategy is one reason expert charts can differ from simplified charts.
Paytable — The schedule showing payouts for each final winning hand. It is the most important identifier of the game’s economics; the same game name can appear with several paytables.
Payback percentage — Another term for theoretical return percentage in a defined configuration. It should be read with the same long-run and strategy assumptions as RTP.
Progressive — A jackpot or payout that grows according to the approved progressive system until a qualifying hit or reset event. In video poker the royal flush is often the progressive hand, but other structures exist.
Progressive contribution — Amount or percentage of qualifying wagers that feeds a progressive meter. Contribution rate is not the same thing as house edge.
Progressive reset / seed — Starting jackpot value after a hit. The meter grows from this value rather than necessarily restarting at zero.
Quads — Common shorthand for four of a kind.
Return to player (RTP) — Theoretical long-run percentage returned by the game under stated paytable and strategy assumptions. A 99.5% RTP does not mean a player who inserts $100 should expect to cash out $99.50 in one session.
Royal flush — 10-J-Q-K-A of one suit. It is normally the top hand in non-wild video poker and often receives a special five-credit or progressive payout.
S–Z: strategy, variance, and casino-accounting terms
Short-pay — A weaker paytable than a stronger benchmark version of the same game. The reduction may appear in ordinary hands such as full house or flush, not only in the jackpot line.
Straight — Five consecutive ranks with mixed suits permitted. Exact payout depends on the paytable.
Straight flush — Five consecutive ranks of the same suit. It ranks below a royal flush in standard video poker.
Strategy chart — Ordered list of holds from highest to lower priority. A chart is valid only for the game/paytable it was designed for and may be simplified or penalty-card aware.
Strategy error — A hold that has lower expected value than the best available hold for that hand. The cost is the EV difference between the chosen and optimal decisions.
Theoretical win (theo) — Casino estimate of expected win from rated play, often based on coin-in and an internal theoretical hold model. It is used for analysis and marketing; it is not the player’s actual loss.
Three to a royal — Three suited cards among 10-J-Q-K-A. Its value depends on the exact cards, competing holds, paytable, and progressive level.
TITO — Ticket-in, ticket-out system. A cash-out voucher can move value between machine, kiosk, or cage subject to validation.
Variance — Mathematical measure of how widely results spread around expected value. Video poker variants with large premium-hand payouts can have much higher variance even when RTP is similar.
Volatility — Practical description of how rough or swingy results feel. It is related to variance but often used less formally.
Wild card — A card that can substitute for other ranks or suits under the game rules. Wild cards change hand rankings, frequencies, paytables, and strategy.
Five term pairs that should never be treated as synonyms
RTP and actual return
RTP is a long-run model. Actual return is what happened over a particular sample of play.
A 99.5% game can produce a session return of 40%, 160%, or anything else permitted by the outcomes. The theoretical percentage becomes informative over very large volumes, not as a settlement promise for one bankroll.
House edge and casino hold
For a fixed-strategy game, house edge is the theoretical percentage disadvantage built into the modeled play.
Casino hold is an actual accounting result over a period:
Actual Hold % = Actual Casino Win / Coin-InShort-term hold can sit far above or below the theoretical edge because actual jackpots and hand distributions are volatile.
Coin-in and cash inserted
A player can insert $100 and create $1,000 of coin-in by repeatedly wagering recycled credits.
Coin-In = Bet Per Hand × Hands PlayedCash inserted tells you funding. Coin-in tells you wagering volume.
Coin-in and loss
Coin-in is not money lost. A player who wagers $1,000 of coin-in may finish ahead, behind, or near even depending on the results.
Expected loss uses coin-in only after the theoretical house edge is applied:
Expected Loss = Coin-In × House EdgeDenomination and total bet
Denomination is the value of one credit. Total bet is denomination multiplied by credits and, on multi-hand games, by the number of hands.
A quarter-denomination machine can still produce a large wager if many credits, hands, or features are active.
Reading a common five-credit paytable without guessing
Consider a traditional Jacks or Better display labeled 9/6.
That shorthand normally refers to two five-credit-independent payout ratios on the schedule: full house pays 9 credits for each credit wagered and flush pays 6. It is useful shorthand, but it does not replace reading the rest of the paytable.
If the screen also shows a royal line such as:
1 credit -> 250
2 credits -> 500
3 credits -> 750
4 credits -> 1,000
5 credits -> 4,000then the fifth credit has special royal-flush value. This is why “max coins” is a paytable term, not a moral rule that everyone should always bet the largest amount. A player who cannot comfortably afford the five-credit wager should compare a lower denomination or another game rather than assume that increasing the real-dollar bet is harmless.
The full expected return still depends on optimal or stated strategy. A good paytable played badly does not deliver its published optimal-strategy RTP.
Strategy vocabulary becomes useful when two holds compete
Suppose the deal is:
J♠ J♦ 10♥ Q♥ K♥
Possible language used in an analyzer might include:
- high pair: J♠ J♦;
- three to a royal: 10♥ Q♥ K♥;
- hold: whichever cards you choose to keep;
- discard: the remaining cards;
- EV: average return of each candidate hold over all possible draws;
- strategy ranking: the order showing which hold is best.
On one normal paytable the pair may outrank the royal draw. On a sufficiently high progressive royal, the three-card royal can gain value and a close decision can change. The vocabulary is useful because it tells you why the strategy changed rather than simply giving a button to press.
Casino-side terms explain why hours played are not the whole rating
A player may say, “I sat here for three hours.” Casino systems are more interested in measurable action.
If a player wagers $1.25 for 600 hands:
Coin-In = $1.25 × 600 = $750If the casino’s internal theoretical model for that rated configuration were, for example, 2%, theoretical win would be:
Theo = $750 × 0.02 = $15That is an illustration, not a universal comp formula. Properties can use different theoretical values, eligibility rules, multipliers, exclusions, and marketing policies. The point is that theo is derived from modeled action, while actual win/loss is the session result.
This distinction also explains why a player can lose $500 in a short session but receive fewer marketing benefits than someone who cycled much more coin-in with a smaller actual loss. Casino rating systems are generally built to estimate long-run value, not reimburse the worst individual outcome.
The fastest way to use this glossary at a machine
When you face an unfamiliar game, identify the terms in this order:
- game family — Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild, or another variant;
- denomination — real value of each credit;
- credits wagered — including whether max credits change the royal;
- paytable — every payout line, not just the top jackpot;
- strategy — chart or analyzer matched to that exact schedule;
- RTP and variance — long-run value and swing profile;
- progressive conditions, if present — qualifying wager, current meter, and affected hand.
Those seven terms are enough to prevent most beginner-level misunderstandings before play begins.
For deeper explanations rather than definitions, use Video Poker Terms Explained. Then move to Video Poker Paytables, House Edge, Expected Value of a Hold, and the Video Poker Analyzer Guide.