Joker Poker or Joker Wild Poker is the most popular form of video-poker game currently extant and its popularity is still growing. That's because the player has so many more options and alternatives with the addition of the wild-card joker. Couple that with the fact that expert play on some machines can yield upwards of 102% and you can see why this game continues to gain in popularity. That's the good news.

The bad news is that Joker Poker is a highly volatile game—with drastic and long losing streaks punctuated by sudden, explosive wins. Bradley Davis in his excellent source book, Mastering Joker Wild Video Poker (Applied Technology Press, 1990), gives the players attempting this version of video-poker short-term expectation figures—to enlighten them as to just what the average experience is on these volatile machines. Davis' figures are nothing if not startling.

According to Davis, the best short-run expectation is on the 20-8-7-6 Two-Pairs-or-Better Joker-Poker machines with the Natural Royal Flush paying 5,000 coins. You will win 45% of the time and lose 55% of the time. These machines will pay back, in the long run, up to that 102% figure. The worst machines in terms of their short-term paybacks are the 6-4-3-3 Jacks-or-Better Joker-Poker machines with their 12% win and 88% loss rate and the 15-6-4-3 Two-Pairs-or-Better Joker-Poker machines with their 16% win and 84% loss rate. In the long run these machines are no bargains either with their respective 92% and 90.5% total paybacks.

It bears repeating…in fact, it bears becoming a litany of sorts for the video-poker player: only play the best versions of the Joker Poker machines. Even on these you will, more often than not, go home a loser but in the long run you have an excellent chance to come out ahead. When the explosive winning sessions occur (and believe me, they do), you want to be within shooting distance of those long-run wins. You can do this by keeping your losses to a minimum by playing the best strategies on the best machines. And like all video poker, the actual name of the machine is not as important as the payout scale.

For convenience's sake I have listed part of the payout scale in the title of the machine—giving you the figures for the Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush and Straight.
The approaches to Joker Poker (and any wild-card game) are somewhat more complex because you must divide your strategies into two categories. Category "A" will be initial hands that do not contain a joker. Category "B" will be initial hands that do contain a joker. One hard and fast law holds for Joker Poker and that is—never discard a joker!

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