If you're playing a non-wild version of video poker, then you know that everything is about playing the right strategies to maximize your payout. There are a lot of different ways to go about doing this, but there are three effective ways to deviate from common strategies to make sure that you're always playing your best. We're going to look at three ways to boost your payouts in a game like Jacks or Better with fairly normal payouts, but keep in mind that these are general principles that may not apply in every specific situation.

The first method we have here is to know when to break up your made hands. If you have a straight flush draw or four to a royal flush, then you should break up a made straight or a made flush. This is especially true if there are high cards in your drawing hand since they could be used to make high pairs. This is a situation that doesn't come up all that often, but when it does come up, you're losing a lot of money if you always keep the made hand. That's why it's such an important, albeit easy, way to improve your payout rate.

Another method that's similar is to learn when to break up a flush draw. For example, you might have AsQsTs4s4d. Skilled players know that it's better to go with the flush draw here than it is to keep the low pair of fours. However, a lot of people stop there, split the pair and hope for the best. If you have three cards to a royal flush, then you should actually play that instead of the regular flush draw. So here you would maximize your winnings by playing with AQT instead of AQT4.

Our final tip is to learn the exception to the low pair rule. The low pair rule says that low pairs are better than any open-ended straight draw. However, there is one exception to this rule, and that's when you hold KQJTT. If you have this particular hand with no flush draw, then it's better to go with the KQJT hand than keeping the pair of tens. This is the only single exception to this rule, but you get a good bit more value when it comes up, and it's easy to remember. That's why you should keep it in mind.