Bonus Poker (Video Poker): Rules, Paytables & 8/5 Full Pay Explained

Last Updated on August 21, 2026 by Bala Kumar

Ask ten video poker regulars what their favorite bonus poker game is, and you’ll probably get ten different answers, but “8/5 Bonus Poker” comes up more than almost anything else. It’s not flashy, it doesn’t have a catchy theme, and it won’t show up on a casino’s homepage banner. What it does have is one of the best return-to-player rates you’ll find anywhere in the casino, and a reputation among sharp players for being the “quiet best game in the building.”

If you’ve played Jacks or Better and want to understand what bonus poker changes, and whether it’s actually worth switching to, this is the breakdown. We’ll cover the rules, how the paytables work, why 8/5 is the number everyone chases, and how to tell a great bonus poker machine from a mediocre one before you ever put money in.

What Makes Bonus Poker Different From Jacks or Better

At its core, the bonus poker game plays exactly like Jacks or Better. You get five cards, you choose which ones to hold, and you draw new cards to replace the rest. A pair of Jacks or better still wins your bet back. The hand rankings are identical.

The difference is entirely in the payouts for four-of-a-kind hands. In standard Jacks or Better, every four-of-a-kind pays the same amount regardless of rank. Bonus poker breaks that up, four Aces, four 2s, 3s, or 4s pay noticeably more than four 5s through Kings. That’s the entire “bonus” in bonus poker: a boosted jackpot structure that rewards you specifically for hitting big four-of-a-kind hands, especially aces.

That single change ripples through the whole strategy. In Jacks or Better, you might discard a low pair for a shot at a flush or straight without much hesitation. In bonus poker video poker, holding onto an Ace kicker or chasing four Aces becomes a much bigger part of correct play, because the payout gap between a “regular” quad and an Ace quad is so much wider than in other games.

Reading a Bonus Poker Paytable: What “8/5” Actually Means

Every video poker paytable is shorthand-labeled by two numbers — the payout for a Full House and a Flush, per coin bet. In a bonus poker game where a flush pays 8 and a straight pays 5 on a single-coin bet, that’s what makes it an “8/5” game. Those two hands (Full House and Flush) are the ones casinos adjust most often to control the machine’s overall payback, so they’ve become the industry shorthand for identifying a paytable at a glance.

Here’s why that number matters so much: a difference of just one coin on a single payout line, like a flush paying 6:1 instead of 5:1, can shift the video poker payout percentage by roughly 1.1%. That doesn’t sound like much until you realize it’s the difference between playing a game with a real edge and playing one that quietly bleeds your bankroll over thousands of hands.

Bonus Poker Paytable Comparison:

• 8/5 Bonus Poker (Full Pay) — Full House/Flush: 8/5 — RTP (optimal strategy): ~99.17% — Found at regional casinos, downtown Vegas, many online rooms
• 7/5 Bonus Poker — 7/5 — ~98.0% — Las Vegas Strip casinos
• 6/5 Bonus Poker — 6/5 — ~97.0% — Lower-limit machines, some airport/bartop units
• 35/6/5 Bonus Poker — 6/5 (higher quad payout) — Slightly above 6/5 standard — Bartop machines, occasional online titles

Bonus Poker is typically played with an 8/5 Full Pay structure, with an RTP of around 99.17%, which is genuinely one of the best numbers you’ll find in any casino game, video poker or otherwise. For context, that’s a house edge of well under 1%, and it’s why serious players specifically hunt for “8/5” on the paytable screen before sitting down.

It’s worth noting that on the Las Vegas Strip, 7/5 Bonus Poker is often the best available version, sometimes paired with a royal flush progressive jackpot, while the true full-pay 8/5 version tends to show up more reliably at regional and downtown casinos — and, increasingly, at online casinos that specifically advertise full-pay tables as a selling point.

Bonus Poker vs. Its Close Relatives

The “bonus” family of video poker games has grown a lot over the years, and it’s easy to mix them up. Quick clarification:

Bonus Poker boosts payouts on all four-of-a-kind hands, with Aces paying the most. The original version of this concept.

Bonus Poker Deluxe usually features a 9/6 full pay structure and an RTP of 99.64%, making it a genuinely stronger return than standard Bonus Poker, though the quad bonuses aren’t structured quite the same way.

Double Bonus Poker further increases four-of-a-kind payouts, particularly for Aces, 2s, 3s, and 4s, on a full-pay 10/7 paytable. Bigger swings, bigger jackpots, lower RTP on common hands.

Double Double Bonus Poker adds even more emphasis on specific kicker cards alongside four-of-a-kinds, and typically returns around 98.98% depending on the exact paytable.

If you’re comparing bonus poker video poker variants side by side, the general rule holds: the bigger the jackpot bonus on rare hands, the more the paytable “pays for it” by trimming returns elsewhere, and the more volatile your sessions will feel.

Basic Strategy: What Actually Changes

You don’t need to memorize a completely new strategy system to play bonus poker well — most of Jacks or Better strategy carries over. But a few decisions genuinely flip because of the boosted Ace and low-quad payouts:

Kicker decisions with Aces matter more. When you’re holding three Aces with a kicker, the value of keeping that extra card shifts because the payout gap between “four Aces” and “four Aces plus specific kicker” can be significant in some bonus poker variants — though standard 8/5 Bonus Poker itself doesn’t reward kickers the way Double Bonus games do, so don’t over-apply strategy from a different variant.

Breaking a low pair for a four-card straight or flush draw follows largely the same math as Jacks or Better, since the boosted payouts only kick in on the rarer four-of-a-kind hands.

Full House vs. draws to a better hand — because the Full House payout is one coin lower than a full-pay Jacks or Better game (8 vs 9), the threshold for when it’s correct to break a made Full House for a Royal Flush draw shifts slightly. This mostly matters in edge-case hands you’ll see rarely, but it’s part of what separates a 99.17% player from someone leaving real return on the table.

The golden rule, repeated by pretty much every serious video poker strategist, still applies: always play the best pay tables you can find. No amount of perfect strategy rescues a 6/5 paytable from being a mediocre game.

How to Spot a Good Bonus Poker Machine (Online or In Person)

Whether you’re playing on a casino floor or scrolling through an online lobby, the process is the same:

Open the paytable/help screen before you bet a single coin. Look specifically at the Full House and Flush numbers. If you see 8 and 5, you’ve found full-pay Bonus Poker.

Check the max-coin royal flush payout. Royal flush typically pays 800 coins per coin bet at max coins, but drops to as low as 250 per coin bet if you’re not betting the max, which can meaningfully cut your long-term return even if the rest of the paytable is identical.

Compare online listings before committing to a platform. Some online casinos post their exact paytables publicly; if a site won’t show you the Full House/Flush numbers before you play, that’s worth treating as a caution flag rather than an oversight.

Watch for denomination-based paytable swaps. The same-looking bonus poker game at $0.25 and $1.00 denominations can sometimes carry different paytables at the same casino, so don’t assume consistency across stakes.

Is Bonus Poker Worth Playing Over Jacks or Better?

Honestly, it depends on what you’re looking for. If you want the steadiest, lowest-variance experience with the most forgiving strategy, full-pay Jacks or Better (9/6) is still the gold standard, and its 99.5%+ RTP is hard to beat. But if you like the idea of chasing bigger four-of-a-kind payouts,  particularly on Aces, without stepping up to the wilder swings of Double Bonus or Double Double Bonus, 8/5 Bonus Poker sits in a genuinely good middle ground. You get a near-99.2% return, more exciting top-end hands, and strategy that’s close enough to Jacks or Better that the learning curve is minimal.

That combination is exactly why 8/5 Bonus Poker keeps showing up as “the best game in the building” at casinos that don’t offer full-pay Jacks or Better,  and why it’s earned a permanent spot in most serious video poker players’ rotation.

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