The probabilities of certain hands appearing on first draw stay the same.  You can find these probabilities in a chart of Poker Hands.  What changes your strategy is the game or variation of video poker you’re playing, and the payback percentage of the individual machine you choose.  First of all,  read and compare the paybacks on the machines and don’t settle for a machine that pays less than 99%.   Look for the payout chart posted on the front of the glass,  or the screen of the video poker machine.  Read the column of numbers – credits paid – for different winning Hands.  Typically,  a Royal Flush will be listed as paying 250,  a Straight Flush 50,  and so on.  But the payouts you must pay attention to are for a Full House and a Flush.  If it says it pays 9 for the Full House and 6 for the Flush, this is a 9/6 machine and is the optimal machine to play.  If it says it pays less,  go find a different machine.  If you’re playing with strategy in mind,  there is no reason to even play this one.

Then,  what game do you like?  For  Jacks or Better  you play with a different plan than for  Deuces Wild,  for example,  since the two games value hands differently.  What is a winning hand in one game may not be in the other.

When you have a payable hand,  that is,  one that wins something on the game chart,  you generally shouldn’t break it.  In  Jacks or Better,  the overall strategy can be summed up as KEEPING THAT PORTION of a payable hand you already have.  If you have a  pair  – any pair,  even it’s lower than Jacks – keep them and discard the rest of your hand.  Although a lower-than-Jacks pair doesn’t pay,  you could easily draw a card to make 3 of a kind,  which does pay.  If you have  1,  2,  or 3 different high cards,  keep them.  Any one of them could become a payable pair.  If you have  3 or even 2 cards of a Royal Flush,  keep them.  If you’ve got  4 of a kind or 2 pair,  keep all 4 cards and draw 1.  If you have  4 cards of a Straight or Flush,  keep those and draw 1.  And it goes without saying that if you have a  Straight,  a Flush,  a Straight Flush,  or a Full House  you have already won so don’t even think of drawing any.  And if you happen to have a  Royal Flush,  don’t discard anything – just tell the machine how much you appreciate it.