All American Poker is a video poker variant offered at many online casinos. Usually different video poker variants have different hand rankings in the payout tables. But the hand rankings in

All American Poker and Jacks or Better are identical. Both video poker variants start with a pair of jacks or better as the lowest hand ranking and move upwards in the same sequence to royal flush. Therefore new online casino players may get an impression that the games are identical. However, this is not so. This article explains the differences and what these differences can mean to the player.

One of the most important parameters in evaluating video poker variants is the average return to player. The average return is calculated for each hand ranking and these are added to give the average return for the variant. The average return for each hand ranking is the product of two parameters. One is the payout per unit wager, which is displayed in the payout table. The other is the probability of the occurrence of the hand ranking that can be mathematically calculated for a given set of hand rankings. In All American Poker and Jacks or Better the set of hand rankings is identical and therefore the probabilities for each hand ranking is the same. The payouts differ. Some hand rankings have larger payouts in All American Poker, some hand rankings have lower payouts and some hand rankings have the same payouts. It is interesting to see how this affects the average return to the player.

The payouts from the Microgaming versions of these variants have been taken in the following analysis. In All American Poker straight pays 40 coins for five coins wagered. The unit payout is 8. The probability of occurrence for straight is 1.1%. The contribution to the average return is 8.8%. In Jacks or Better straight pays 20 coins for five coins wagered. The unit payout is 4. The probability of occurrence for straight is 1.1%. The contribution to the average return is 4.4%. Therefore straight increases the average return by about 4.4% in All American Poker.

In All American Poker two pairs pays 5 coins for five coins wagered. The unit payout is 1. The probability of occurrence for two pairs is 12.9%. The contribution to the average return is 12.9%. In Jacks or Better two pairs pays 10 coins for five coins wagered. The unit payout is 2. The probability of occurrence for two pairs is 12.9%. The contribution to the average return is 25.8%. Therefore two pairs decreases the average return by about 12.9% in All American Poker.

Similar analysis can be done for all the hand rankings. The hand rankings that pay out more in All American poker are straight flush, four of a kind, flush and straight. The hand rankings that pay out less in All American Poker are full house and two pairs. The other hand rankings pay out the same in both cases. The payouts have been so selected that the increases and decreases of individual hand rankings even out and the average returns for the two variants are almost identical.

The difference in the two games is the volatility and this is determined by the straight flush hand ranking. In All American Poker straight flush pays 1,000 coins for five coins wagered, where as in Jacks or Better the payout is 250 coins. Since the probability of occurrence is only 0.011%, the difference in contribution to average return is negligible. However, though straight flush will occur very infrequently, when it does it will pay out significantly more in All American Poker. Therefore risk taking players will gravitate towards this variant.