Optimal return
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Free Tool
Enter any pay table and get its exact optimal return — computed in your browser by evaluating every possible outcome of all 2,598,960 dealt hands, not by simulation. It also reports variance, so you know what the ride feels like, not just where it ends.
Return and variance are exact for optimal play of the pay table above, per coin bet at max coins. Computed over all 2,598,960 deals and every hold decision.
This is a counting method, not a Monte Carlo simulation. For your pay table, the calculator scores every possible five-card hand, then uses inclusion-exclusion over precomputed payout sums to get the exact expected value of all 32 holds for each of the 134,459 suit-equivalent classes of dealt hands. It always takes the best hold — the same math behind our engine methodology. The result matches published figures for every standard table: 9/6 Jacks or Better computes to 99.5439%, full-pay Deuces Wild to 100.7620%.
| Pay table | Return | Variance |
|---|---|---|
| 9/6 Jacks or Better | 99.5439% | 19.51 |
| 9/5 Jacks or Better | 98.4498% | 19.50 |
| 8/5 Jacks or Better | 97.2984% | 19.32 |
| 8/5 Bonus Poker | 99.1660% | 20.90 |
| 10/7 Double Bonus | 100.1725% | 28.26 |
| 9/6 Double Double Bonus | 98.9808% | 41.99 |
| 9/5 Double Double Bonus | 97.8729% | 42.17 |
| Full-Pay Deuces Wild | 100.7620% | 25.84 |
| NSUD Deuces Wild | 99.7283% | 25.78 |
| Short-Pay Deuces Wild | 94.3421% | 25.42 |
Every figure above was computed by this calculator. Variance figures explain why two games with similar returns can feel completely different — see the bankroll calculator to turn variance into session math.
Found a good pay table? Learn its exact strategy in the strategy charts, then drill it in the free trainer until the right hold is automatic. Not sure which machine to pick? Start with the best games ranked.