Required Bankroll for Video Poker

One of the keys to giving your self the best chance of success when playing video poker or any gambling game for that matter is bankroll management. This section covers a range of information that you can use to make sure you get the most out of your gambling cash and not go over your budget.

Bankroll Tips

The figures outlined below are based on the math of the games and are theoretical. There is no guarantee that if you play 40,000 hands you will hit a royal flush or that you will get the exact same payback.

Always gamble with money that you can afford to lose. You should always set your self a budget for each day you want to play and stick to that budget. Never under any circumstances should you chase your losses by increasing your bet or going over budget. If you have a bad session stop playing.

Starting Bankroll

The table below shows the average amount of hands you will get from a starting bankroll. As above you will in the real world get varying results. It is important to note that the smaller your bankroll the higher the risk of ruin - that is, the risk that a bad streak will cause you to lose your money before things average out.

Jacks or Better (9/6) Average Hands by Bankroll
Bankroll	25¢ Machine	$1 Machine	$5 Machine
$100	2666	66	13
$1000	26666	666	133
$5000	133330	3333	666

Going for a Royal Flush

A royal flush occurs on average every 40,000 hands or so. With this in mind we are going to look at what it will cost you to play 40,000 hands on one of the most popular machine variations - Jacks or Better. The table below shows you the expected cost if you play 40,000 hands with a royal flush (% + RF) and without a royal flush (% - RF).

Note: Perfect play is assumed as is playing max bet (5 Coins per hand).

Jacks or Better Cost per 40,000 Hands
PT	Coin	Wager	% + RF	Cost	% - RF	Cost
9/6	25¢	$50000	99.54	$230	97.56	$1220
9/6	$1	$200000	99.54	$920	97.56	$4880
9/6	$5	$1000000	99.54	$4600	97.56	$24400
9/5	25¢	$50000	98.44	$780	96.46	$1770
9/5	$1	$200000	98.44	$3120	96.46	$7080
9/5	$5	$1000000	98.44	$15600	96.46	$35400
8/6	25¢	$50000	98.39	$805	96.41	$1795
8/6	$1	$200000	98.39	$3220	96.41	$7180
8/6	$5	$1000000	98.39	$16100	96.41	$35900

Now that you know how much 40,000 hands will cost on average with perfect play just how long will it take you to play these hands? An experienced player can play around 600 hands per hour but the average player probably gets between 200 and 300 per hour. This means for the average player it will take around 160 hours of playing or 5 hours a day for just over a month.

Conclusions

The amount of money you gamble with is a very personal choice. Even knowing the averages and the math it should always be kept in mind that video poker is quite a high variance game. This means that you can have big swings of luck in either direction. You might hit three royal flushes in 5000 hands or you might not hit any for 100,000 hands - that's video poker for you.