SupaJax Poker Video Poker Guide

SupaJax Poker video poker adds an interesting twist to the video poker equation for players who have seen it all in the game. This online-only version of video poker includes an extra card, the “SupaJax,” to the 52-card deck. If you can add this card to a hand of four jacks, you’re looking at a top payout caused by a progressive jackpot.

One of the most exciting developments for video poker players in the last decade or so has been the rise of online gambling sites. These sites often include all of the major variations of video poker that you might expect in your favorite casino. But these sites often include variations that are unique to the online realm, giving players a new way to look at the game.

Many of these online-only versions of the game do more than just tweak the pay table a little bit. In many cases, they add extra features that usually create big payback opportunities that wouldn’t be there in the standard format of the game. SupaJax Poker video poker is one of these online-only games that has gained popularity at the websites that include it.

The SupaJax Difference

SupajaxSupaJax Poker video poker employs a special progressive jackpot that is accessed when you manage a hand of five jacks. Well, to be accurate, it is actually four jacks and the so-called “SupaJax” card. This is a 53rd card that is added to the standard 52 in the deck.

This card doesn’t create much impact in the game otherwise, as other extra cards do to other video poker games. It isn’t wild, and it can’t be used as a normal jack in other hands you might be making. For those reasons, it might not seem that impactful to you.

But when you consider how high a progressive jackpot might rise if no one else playing at a particular site hits it, the SupaJax card can be quite valuable indeed. If you can land one of these hands, you can win a lot more than you otherwise might playing a normal version of the game. And that kind of possibility is what people might be drawn to SupaJax Poker video poker.

The Good and the Bad

Having that potential payback waiting at the end of the line of a game of SupaJax Poker video poker is what draws people to it. But you have to consider that your chances of coming up with that exact hand are somewhat slim. And, as a result, you have to be aware of what the rest of the pay table looks like.

For the most part, SupaJax Poker video poker resembles a standard Jacks or Better pay table that you might see in any casino around the world. But there are areas where it comes up short of basic Jacks or Better, specifically in low payouts for a hull house or a flush. Those discounts will put a strain on your bankroll if you can’t hit a progressive jackpot along the way.

In the following article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the game known as SupaJax Poker video poker. We’ll explain basic play, take a look at how the special SupaJax card affects the game, and what the pay table looks like. In addition, we’ll talk about payback percentage for the game while also talking about how to play it with perfect strategy.

The Lure of Online Video Poker

When you walk into a casino or visit a gambling website, you’ve probably been conditioned to expect a situation where, while you might enjoy yourself and have a chance to win big, the odds are stacked against you. And it’s not just the house edge that ensures that the house, in the end, usually wins. There are various little disadvantages which can work against your overall experience being a positive one.

In the case of video poker games like SupaJax Poker video poker, however, you might be surprised to know how friendly they can be to gamblers. There is still a house edge, but it isn’t as high as in other games. And there are other benefits which make video poker one of the best experiences you can have.

This applies to online games like SupaJax Poker video poker just as it does to casino video poker games. In fact, some of the advantages are unique to online play. Take a look at what awaits you when you play online video poker:

  • You’ll be playing all by yourself. That means your play won’t be scrutinized or criticized by other players, and you won’t have to worry about the pressure of being ready to play at a certain pace. Video poker online is a smooth, hassle-free experience.
  • You can choose a video poker game that suits you perfectly. There are literally hundreds of different ways to play video poker, and that number has risen with the growth of online-only versions of the game such as SupaJax Poker video poker. As a result, you can always find a game that fits your preferred levels of complexity, risk, and possible reward.
  • You can play video poker well even as a beginner. With some casino games, you’ll struggle to understand everything going on around you if you haven’t played before, which can lead to bad decisions and poor play. Luckily, video poker can be learned in just a matter of hands, even if you don’t have much of a poker background.
  • You can control your own destiny in video poker. When you play a slot machine, which is another kind of one-person gambling experience, your results are all based on pure luck. With video poker, you get the chance to impact play with your strategic decisions.
  • You will be able to know all the important characteristics of your video poker game. Since the pay table is right in front of you, and probability will tell you how often winning hands might arrive, everything you need to play the game well is at your disposal. This makes video poker one of the most transparent of all casino-style games.
  • You can expect your payback in video poker to be pretty solid. In terms of average payback, video poker is the clear winner over slot machines. And many video poker games rank high both in jackpot potential and overall payback.
  • You can play video poker online and not miss out on anything. Some casino games don’t translate all that well to an online experience. With video poker, the sights, sounds and game play are pretty much the same at the top online gambling sites as they are at the casino.

This list should give you some idea of what video poker has in store for you. If you already know how to play and want to know what makes SupaJax Poker video poker special, you can skip past the next session. But if you’re new to the game in general, this how-to guide should give you a strong foundation going forward.

How to Play Basic Video Poker Hands

Step 1: The Bankroll

Your bankroll is a necessity if you want to play video poker games like SupaJax Poker video poker online. If you’re playing for fun and for free, your bankroll will only be hypothetical and will be granted to you by the website you’re using. But if you’re playing for real, you’ll have to provide the bankroll.

Since SupaJax Poker video poker is an online-only game, you’ll have to follow the procedures for online gambling sites. This usually involved providing funding information. You can usually use credit cards, e-wallets and even, in some cases, alternative methods of payment such as cryptocurrency.

Once you’ve done this, your bankroll will be rendered in units known as credits or coins. Each of these units will be valued at the level of the denomination that you’re playing. For example, if you’re playing at a 25-cent game, a one-credit bet is worth 25 cents, a two-credit bet is worth 50 cents, and so on.

Step 2: The Bet

Your strategy in video poker actually begins with your choice of bet. And SupaJax Poker video poker emphasizes this even further because of the nature of its pay table and progressive jackpot. The right thing to do when playing the game, if you want to maximize your payback, is to bet the maximum amount every hand that you play.

In the case of SupaJax Poker video poker, that means a five-coin bet every single hand. You have the choice of betting between one and five coins (in one-coin intervals). And, if you’re only going to play casually for only a couple of hands at a time, there isn’t much harm in betting less than the max.

But doing so is actually hurting your payback. First of all, there is a discrepancy between what you get in payback for the royal flush, which is the highest-paying hand in most video poker games. Take a look:

  • One through four coins bet: Royal flush pays off 250 to 1
  • Five-coin bet: Royal flush pays off 600 to 1
That’s a big difference. If you play video poker long enough, royal flushes, while rare, are likely to show up. And you’ll regret not having access to the highest possible payout when they do arrive.

More than that, the SupaJax Poker video poker progressive jackpot is only available to you if you make the max wager. Without it, the SupaJax card is essentially useless to you. And the highest payback available to you will be the royal flush.

If you find that the five-coin wager is a bit much for you to handle, see if you can lower your denomination. It’s better strategy to play for a lower denomination with the max bet in place than to play at a higher denomination and bet less than the max. Basically, you’ll be short-changing your expected return without the max bet in place every single hand.

Step 3: The Hand

When you’re playing video poker, you’re basically playing a simulated, one-person version of the card game called Five-Card Draw. In Five-Card Draw, you get five cards dealt to you and then have the choice of which of those cards to keep and which to discard. You’ll draw new cards to replace the discarded ones in an effort to form the best poker combination that you can when all is said and done.

But you have to remember that Five-Card Draw is a multi-player game. To win the pot, you have to either have the best hand or be the last person standing. That means you either need to have a pretty substantial winning combination, or you have to be good at bluffing.

Video poker, however, is a one-person game. No need to bluff, and the standard for winning some sort of payback in a single hand is much lower. You just have to create one of the following card combinations when playing SupaJax Poker video poker:

  • Pair of jacks or better
  • Two pair
  • Three of a kind
  • Straight (five cards of consecutive rank, like 3-4-5-6-7)
  • Flush (five cards of same suit)
  • Full house (three of a kind and two pair in the same hand)
  • Four of a kind
  • Straight flush (straight with five cards of same suit)
  • Royal flush (ten, jack, queen, king and ace of the same suit)
  • Four jacks plus Supamax card

If you’ve played poker games such as Five-Card Draw before, you’ll recognize that this list reflects common poker hand rankings. The hands on the top are the easiest to make, which means that the ones below them outrank them because they are harder to achieve. In video poker, the higher-ranked the hand is, the more it will pay back.

You have to keep that idea in mind when you play SupaJax Poker video poker. There might be times when it’s smart to reach for a high-ranking hand, even if it might be hard to complete. It could be worth it for the payback potential.

The Deal

In most video poker games, you’ll be playing with a simulated 52-card deck, which will be based on the standard 52-card deck used by people everywhere. But SupaJax Poker video poker includes the SupaJax card as the 53rd card. These 53 cards are shuffled up within the game’s software by random number generator.

At the moment that you click on the “deal” button in SupaJax Poker video poker, the shuffling stops and the top five cards appear on the screen. The remaining 48 cards then go right back to shuffling until the draw takes place. In addition, at the point you hit the “deal” button, the amount that you’ve bet will be deducted from your bankroll.

It’s important to understand this process if only so you won’t go looking for patterns in terms of what cards are showing up on the screen. The random process behind the scenes ensures that there will be no way for you to predict what might be coming based on what has happened before. Trying to do so will only lead to poor decisions that end up costing you payback.

The Decision

We mentioned above how video poker gives you the chance to exert strategy, and this is the point in the hand where you get to do it. Once you see the five cards you’ve been dealt, you get to decide which of those to hold and which to discard. Held cards are part of your final hand, so you should make sure you want to keep them around.

Discarded cards, meanwhile, will be replaced on the draw. The replacement cards come from the same deck which provided you the deal. Remember that there are 48 cards left in the SupaJax Poker video poker deck after the deal.

What are the factors behind making your decision? These two should stand out:

  • What chance do you have of making specific winning combinations based on what you can hold and what remains in the deck?
  • What is the potential payback that you can receive from the winning combinations that you’re trying to achieve?

Too many novice video poker players go too far in one direction or the other when making their strategic decisions. Conservative players might try for the low-paying hands at all times because these hands are easier to achieve and they don’t want to lose their bet. Aggressive players might go for the high-paying hands at all times, trying to win the most that they can in the shortest amount of time.

If you’re a casual SupaJax Poker video poker, you can get away with either one of these approaches. But if you really want to play the game at an expert level, your decisions will take a little bit from both of these ideas. When you check out the strategy section below, you’ll see what we mean.

Sample Video Poker Decision

Let’s say that you’re settled in for an online session of SupaJax Poker video poker and the following five cards appear on the deal:

Seven of Hearts, Seven of Clubs, Eight of Clubs, Nine of Clubs, King of Clubs

You don’t have any winning combinations in this deal right off the bat. But you do have plenty of possibilities where, depending on what you hold, you can possibly draw to a winning combination. For example, you might:

  • Hold the pair of sevens. You’d be drawing three new cards in this scenario. With these new cards, you could end up with two pair, three of a kind, a full house, or four of a kind.
  • Hold the four clubs. The reason you would do this would be to go for the flush with all clubs, which would be a middle-priced payback for you. To get the flush, you’d need to draw one of the nine clubs remaining in the deck if 48 (a chance of a little less than one in five).
  • Hold the seven, eight, and nine of clubs. With two cards to draw, you’d have the chance of many different winning combinations. The richest of all would be if you could get two more suited connectors and end up with a straight flush.

As you can see, this particular hand in SupaJax Poker video poker gives you many options, which are pretty close to each other in terms of potential payback. Most other video poker deals will be much easier to figure out. In any case, once you play SupaJax Poker video poker for a while, you’ll be able to make decisions on what to hold and discard in a matter of seconds, even on tricky hands like this.

The Draw

To indicate which cards you want to hold (if any), you have to click on the icons (or touch the screen) corresponding to those cards. If you leave a card alone, it means you want to discard it. Once you have this settled, click on the “draw” icon to complete the hand.

Doing that will signal the draw to take place and any discarded cards will be replaced by others from the top of the deck of 48. If you’ve formed a winning combination, the amount that you’ve won will be credited to your bankroll. That’s when the whole process will start over again if you wish to continue playing.

What the SupaJax Card Does

As we mentioned above, there are 53 cards in the SupaJax Poker video poker deck. The odd card out from the normal deck of 52 is a card that just says the word “SupaJax” on it. Your chances of being dealt it or drawing it in any hand are the same as drawing any of the other 52 cards.

It’s important to keep in mind that the SupaJax card does not have an impact on any other hand except one containing four jacks. If you receive the SupaJax card on the deal, you can discard it, as you would any other card, it if you don’t think it will help. In fact, it’s likely that you would discard it on most occasions.

But there are times when you really have to consider holding onto it. Take a look at the following deal:

Nine of Spades, Ten of Spades, Jack of Spades, Jack of Hearts, SupaJax

In this deal, you have three suited connectors, which puts you close to a straight flush and opens the door to many winning combinations. But you also have a pair of jacks, which is a winning combination on its own. And you also have the SupaJax, which, if you have it in conjunction with four jacks, gives you a progressive payback.

We’ll talk in a bit about just how much that progressive jackpot can change matters. But for the time being, just realize that it is extremely valuable if you have a shot at it. The payback it could offer is much more than what you would get on most video poker games.

For that reason, you should always consider holding a SupaJax card if there are other jacks in your hand already. Even if it takes a long-shot draw to get it, even the slightest chance at the progressive jackpot in SupaJax Poker video poker can be worth taking.

SupaJax Poker Video Poker Pay Tables

It’s crucial to understand the pay table of any video poker game that you’re playing. On the basic level, it tells you what you’ll get paid back for each winning hand that you might achieve, depending on what you bet. But knowing the pay table’s specifics will also point the way to strategy, payback potential and volatility levels for the game that you’re playing.

In the case of SupaJax Poker video poker, you don’t really have a lot of pay tables from which to choose, as you might with some of the popular variations of video poker found in casinos. As a matter of fact, we could only find the following pay table when we searched out the game at different gambling websites online:

Coins/Hand 1 Coin 2 Coins 3 Coins 4 Coins 5 Coins
Superjax and four jacks 0 0 0 0 Progressive
Royal flush 250 500 750 1,000 4,000
Straight flush 50 100 150 200 250
Four of a kind 25 50 75 100 125
Full house 7 14 21 28 35
Flush 5 10 15 20 25
Straight 4 8 12 16 20
Three of a kind 3 6 9 12 15
Two pairs 2 4 6 8 10
Jacks or better 1 2 3 4 5

It’s important to understand how to read pay tables before playing the game. Simply connect the rows for the winning hands to the columns for bets. For example, if you were to make a full house on a max bet of five coins, following the “full house” row over to the “5 coins” column reveals that you’ll win 35 coins in this scenario.

You’ll also see that the hand on the top of the pay table, which is achievable only with the SupaJax card, only pays off at a five-coin wager. At one through four coins, there is no payback for this hand. If you were to achieve it, you’d get credit for four of a kind with the jacks, but there wouldn’t be a bonus for having the SupaJax as well.

As for a progressive payoff, it will rise as long as no one hits it. Once someone hits it while playing SupaJax Poker video poker on the site you’re using, it will reset to its lowest level. We’ll talk about those levels when we get to discussing payback percentage below.

Judging a Pay Table

If you’re new to video poker and looking at the SupaJax Poker video poker, you might not be able to tell if there’s anything about it that stands out. That’s why it’s always good to get some context to help you understand it better. And the best way to get context in this case is to compare it to another brand of video poker.

In the world of video poker, there is no game more popular than Jacks or Better. SupaJax Poker video poker actually bases its payback, in most areas, on the structure of a Jacks or Better pay table. Take a look at the highest-paying version of Jacks or Better:

Jacks or Better Pay Table

Coins/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 of a kind 25 50 75 100 125
Full house 9 18 27 36 45
Flush 6 12 18 24 30
Straight 4 8 12 16 20
Three of kind 3 6 9 12 15
Two pairs 2 4 6 8 10
Jacks or better 1 2 3 4 5

You can see there are a lot of similarities between Jacks or Better’s pay table and the one we showed you for SupaJax Poker video poker. At first glance, the big difference is the four jacks and SupaJax hand in the SupaJax Poker game. It’s a hand that doesn’t exist in Jacks or Better, since that game only uses 52 cards.

In addition, basic Jacks or Better possesses no progressive element. That might make you think that SupaJax Poker video poker is the superior game. But a closer look at the pay tables show that Jacks or Better comes out on top in a few areas.

A five-coin royal flush in Jacks or Better pays 1,000 coins more than what you would get in SupaJax Poker video poker. But the big difference comes in a pair of mid-priced hands. Take a look:

  • Full House: 9 to 1 in Jacks or Better, 7 to 1 in SupaJax Poker video poker
  • Flush: 6 to 1 in Jacks or Better, 5 to 1 in SupaJax Poker video poker

The full house and flush are two hands which, while somewhat difficult to achieve, will appear now and then if you play video poker regularly. Having less payback in place for these hands in SupaJax Poker video poker will cause your bankroll to droop a bit. You’ll need a progressive jackpot, at some point, to help atone for this deficit.

Yet getting four jacks and a SupaJax card will be the rarest of all feats when playing SupaJax Poker video poker. As a result, you have to go into the game knowing that your payback will be a bit below-average for most of the time you’re playing the game. Only the progressive hit will help you stay competitive with Jacks or Better in terms of payback.

SupaJax Poker Video Poker Payback Percentage

Payback percentage is the metric to which you should be paying attention if you’re serious about playing video poker as a regular pastime. It basically tells you how much money you should expect to remain from your starting bankroll after you’ve played the game for a while. The base level is 100%. Anything below is your expected loss, and anything above is your expected gain.

Video Poker

Most video poker games, and casino games in general, fall below 100% expected payback. The house edge is in place, because it allows casinos and gambling websites to stay in business. Ideally, you can find a game that will be as close to 100% payback as possible, since it might allow you to eke out a profit when you consider rewards you can earn from gambling websites and/or casinos.

In the case of SupaJax Poker video poker, payback percentage is a moving target, because of the progressive jackpot. The higher the jackpot, the higher the payback percentage will be. At its lowest level, the payback for the game sits at 93.74%, which means the following to some hypothetical bankrolls:

  • $1,000 = $937.40 remaining ($63.60 loss)
  • $10,000 = $9,374 remaining ($636 loss)
  • $100,000 = $93,740 remaining ($6,360 loss)

As you can see, your bankroll will sag a bit after playing SupaJax Poker video poker at its lowest payback level. But you have to remember that the progressive jackpot will often be well above that level. Once it gets to a certain point, the payback percentage for the game actually rises above 100%, meaning that you can expect a profit.

That is only for the person on the site who manages to get that progressive jackpot, however. For that reason, SupaJax Poker video poker is not the ideal game for those who think they are going to grind out winnings over the long haul.

But it’s a great game if you want the chance at a massive payout on a single hand. If you can get that progressive jackpot and do it at the right time, you might get as much as 20 times more in one hand than you could playing other forms of video poker. That might be enough for you to overlook the negatives, especially if you’re the jackpot-seeking type.

Strategy for SupaJax Poker Video Poker

The progressive jackpot part of SupaJax Poker video poker adds a little something extra to gameplay. So too does the SupaJax card that allows you to have a crack at that jackpot. But those two elements also make the game a little bit trickier in terms of strategy than other Jacks or Better-style video poker variations.

First of all, you have to know the right time to hold onto the SupaJax card. How many jacks should you have in your hand before it makes sense to hold onto them and the SupaJax card and go for broke? Remember that the SupaJax card will knock you out of any chances to get other winning combinations that require five cards, such as the straight, flush, straight flush, or royal flush.

In addition, the way you play a certain deal might have something to do with where the progressive jackpot stands. The higher it goes, the more sense it makes to try for the four jacks and SupaJax card hand. Keeping all of that straight can be difficult as you go through a session of SupaJax Poker video poker.

Video Poker Strategy for SuperJax Poker

On top of that, you also have to know basic video poker strategy. By that, we mean that you have to choose the right sequence of holds and discards for every deal that you get, based on the mathematical probabilities and payback totals. Getting these decisions wrong can cause your expected payback to drop.

How can you juggle all of this while playing a round of SupaJax Poker video poker? The best way is to get some help. First of all, use a video poker calculator to help you determine how the progressive jackpot amount will affect your strategy.

At that point, you’re probably best off learning the strategy for Jacks or Better, since SupaJax Poker video poker is so closely associated with it. Make sure to take into account the lowered payback for some hands. Then, use one of these two methods of learning strategy.

Video Poker Training Software

With training software, you can practice playing SupaJax Poker video poker without anything at stake. But the best part is that you will be directed to the correct plays for each deal you get if you don’t know what they should be. After you practice for a while, you’ll have all of the correct plays in place for when you play SupaJax Poker video poker for real money.

Strategy Charts

You can get all the information you need from a strategy chart by memorizing it. It will include a ranked list of all the card combinations that could come to you on the deal, thereby letting you know which cards in your own specific deals should be held. Although you could simply use the chart as you play online, we still suggest memorizing it so that you can move through hands faster and give yourself more chances at the big progressive jackpot.

Pros and Cons of SupaJax Poker Video Poker

Pros

  • The progressive jackpot gives you a chance at payback for a single hand much higher than other video poker games can offer.
  • Once the progressive reaches a certain level, you can actually eliminate the house edge.
  • Having the SupaJax card gives you a new strategic challenge, which can be useful if you’re bored with playing the same old way.
Cons

  • Overall payback is somewhat low when the progressive jackpot resets.
  • A lot of your potential payback will be riding on a hand that is extremely hard to make.
  • Your bankroll will sag in between those occasions when you hit a high-paying hand.

Conclusion

SupaJax Poker video poker gives online video poker players a little something extra that the basic Jacks or Better-style game can’t touch. The progressive element sends the possibilities for huge payback skyrocketing. Just be ready for some slumps when you fail to hit the SupaJax special hand that will earn that jackpot.