Sit two video poker games side by side from the same studio, same artwork, same name, and they can still pay differently. The reason is printed above the cards in a block of small numbers that most people treat as decoration. That block is the paytable, and it is the only honest thing a casino game ever shows you about its mathematics.
The paytable is the contract
Every variant, from Jacks or Better to Deuces Wild to Bonus Poker, lists what each hand pays per coin. The game cannot deviate from it. If a full house is listed at eight and a flush at five, that is what you receive, every time. The return percentage of the machine follows directly from the grid combined with how often each hand occurs under correct play. Change one cell and the return changes with it. In Bonus Poker, for example, the version paying eight for a full house and five for a flush returns a little over ninety-nine per cent with sound strategy, while the version paying seven and five returns closer to ninety-eight. Same cards, same artwork, a full percentage point apart.
Where to look first
Each variant has its own tell-tale cells. In Jacks or Better it is the full house and flush. In Deuces Wild it is the payout for four of a kind and for a wild royal; a four-of-a-kind cell showing five rather than four is the difference between a machine that is very close to even and one with a meaningful edge. Learn the two or three cells that matter for the variant you prefer and glance at them before the first hand. It takes five seconds.
The fifth coin and the royal
Nearly every paytable scales linearly from one to four coins and then jumps at five, where the royal flush pays a bonus rather than a multiple. Playing one to four coins throws that bonus away and reduces the return by close to two per cent on its own. If five coins at the chosen denomination stretches the budget, lower the denomination. Five coins at £0.10 is a better proposition than one coin at £0.50.
Why this matters more than in slots
A slot hides its return in code; you have to trust the help screen. Video poker shows the return on the face of the machine to anyone who can read the grid, and the lobby at Rollerbet lets you open the paytable without placing a bet. For adults only, and for players willing to spend a moment reading, it is the one game in the lobby where the choice of machine is entirely in your hands.