Brush Up On Your Jacks Or Better Video Poker Terminology

Jacks or Better is a popular single player video poker game. It is fun to play and is a great way to learn how to play poker and what the terminologies used in basic poker games refer to.

The Bare Minimum Hand Values

The lowest hand you can have without needing to discard everything is a High Card. This refers to a suited A, J, K or Q card.

From here you can potentially get a pair going, there are low and high pairs, and this is the most basic combination of winning cards, two card with matching values, i.e. two 7’s or two Q’s.  Three of a kind is one step further, where a hand features 3 matching cards.

Shifting Into Higher Gear

When it comes to the higher value hands, it means that poker terminologies become a bit more complex so get your pens and paper out! The Straight is a hand consisting of 5 cards that are all consecutively numbered.

A straight can be an Inside Straight if you are missing a card in the middle of the straight, for instance your cards are number 4,5,7,8 and you are missing the 6. You can also get an Outside Straight where you have a hand with the 5,6,7,8 and you are missing either a 4 or a 9.

The other side of a Straight hand is the Flush. This is where you have five cards that all share the same suite, i.e. they are all hearts or all clubs.

These two requirements are combined in the Straight Flush, this is 5 cards in consecutive order and all cards share the same suit.

The Jackpot Hand Values

The best hand in Jacks or Better poker is, just like in all poker games, The Royal Flush. This hand consists of a 10, J, Q, K and A of the same suit.

Another high value hand is the Full House. This hand consists of three of a kind as well as a single pair.

The Next Step

This list of terminologies for Jacks or Better covers the basics, but in other poker variants you can get a lot more terminologies that refer to various stages of wagering, the number of community cards dealt to the table and more.

This list should get you brushed up on the basics of poker terminology, but there is a whole world of poker out there to explore.