Pickem Poker Explained

Last updated: April 2026

What Pickem Poker is — in one sentence

Pickem Poker is a video poker game where you receive two starting cards, choose between two offered two-card combinations to complete a four-card base, then receive one final card that determines your payout.

That's the whole game. One decision per hand. But that one decision is where everything happens — and making it correctly is what separates a ~99.95% RTP game from a much worse one.

A complete hand, step by step

Here is exactly what happens during a Pickem Poker hand, using real cards:

If instead you had chosen Option B (K♣ K♥), your hand going to the final card would be K♠ Q♠ K♣ K♥ — three Kings. A strong made hand, but three Kings pays 3-for-1. The expected value of the Royal draw was far higher.

This is Pickem Poker in miniature. The choice that feels safer (three Kings) is often worth less than the choice that feels riskier (the Royal draw). Understanding why that's true — and being able to make the right call quickly — is what strategy is for.

How it differs from other video poker games

If you've played Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, or any standard video poker game, Pickem Poker will feel structurally different from the first hand. In those games you receive five cards and decide which to keep and which to throw away. You might keep two cards, three cards, or even all five.

Pickem Poker removes that entire framework. You don't receive five cards. You don't discard anything. Instead the game presents a structured binary choice — Option A or Option B — and you pick one. No other decision exists in the hand.

This makes the game easier to learn. There are only eight meaningful structure types to understand, ranked in a priority hierarchy. Compare that to Jacks or Better, where correct play involves memorising 30+ hold categories. Pickem Poker's shorter decision tree is genuinely simpler — which is exactly why the one decision matters so much. There's nowhere else for the strategy to live.

Why the 9s and 10s payout matters

One thing that surprises new players: Pickem Poker pays 1-for-1 on pairs of 9s and 10s. Standard video poker games like Jacks or Better require at least a pair of Jacks to receive any payout on a pair. This extends the paying threshold down by two ranks.

In practice, this means more hands return something. Roughly 50–55% of completed Pickem Poker hands pay at least 1-for-1, compared to ~45–47% in Jacks or Better. Sessions feel slightly less cold as a result. It also changes how you evaluate holding a pair of 9s — in Jacks or Better it pays nothing and must improve; in Pickem Poker it already pays and can still improve.

Where the game is available

Pickem Poker is an RTG (RealTime Gaming) game. It appears in the video poker section of RTG-powered online casinos and is not widely available outside that ecosystem. If a casino doesn't use RTG software, it almost certainly doesn't have Pickem Poker. The game is uncommon on land-based casino floors but accessible online through licensed RTG operators. See the casino guide for specific operator recommendations.

What makes someone good at Pickem Poker

Two things, in this order:

Game selection: playing a full-pay 9/6 paytable at max coins. This alone captures most of the game's mathematical advantage before a single decision is made. A player with poor strategy on a full-pay table still plays a better game than a player with perfect strategy on a 6/5 table.

Decision quality: consistently choosing the correct option. The top four priorities (Royal draw, Straight Flush draw, high pair, three of a kind) cover the highest-EV decisions and the largest EV gaps. Getting these right is worth more than perfecting every edge case in the lower tiers.

Everything else — bankroll management, session discipline, casino selection — matters, but these two things determine the mathematical foundation everything else is built on.