Pickem Poker Explained

Last updated: April 2026

What Pickem Poker is - in one sentence

Pickem Poker, also written Pick Em Poker or Pick'em Poker, is a niche RTG video poker game where two starting cards are combined with one of two three-card stacks, and the chosen stack completes the five-card hand.

That is the whole RTG flow: one decision, one discarded stack, one completed poker hand. The important correction is that this is not the older description where a player sees two complete two-card combinations and then waits for a separate draw card. In the RTG stack version, two cards in a stack may be hidden before the choice.

A complete RTG hand, step by step

Here is the hand flow in plain English:

Before playing for real money, verify the active paytable inside the casino game. Paytables, lobbies, and bonus terms can change, and old Pick-A-Pair references may describe a different format.

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.

RTG Pick Em Poker removes that entire framework. You do not receive five cards and choose discards. Instead, two starting cards are paired with one selected three-card stack. No hold/discard round 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 Nines or Better matters

In the RTG version covered here, the minimum paying hand is Nines or Better. That is different from Jacks or Better, where a pair must be Jacks or higher to pay. It is one of the quickest checks that you are looking at the right game family.

Use the active paytable rather than memory. Confirm Nines or Better, confirm max coins is 5, confirm the Royal Flush value at 5 coins, and review the other payout lines before wagering.

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: confirming the game is RTG Pick Em Poker, checking the active paytable, and making sure bonus terms allow video poker play.

Decision quality: making the stack choice carefully based on the information the game actually shows, without assuming you have seen every card in both stacks.

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