Millionaire Video Poker

Game Mechanics & Rules

Millionaire Video Poker implements Jacks or Better rules on a 52-card virtual deck generated by the SHA-256 provably fair system. Players receive five cards, select which to hold, and draw replacements for discarded cards. On the default Jacks or Better table, payouts begin at a pair of Jacks and scale to 250x for a Royal Flush; the other fifteen variants have their own tables. Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet that runs alongside the round; it does not reduce your main Video Poker payouts.

1. Set your bet amount, and pick a variant. Sixteen are offered and each has its own pay table - on the default Jacks or Better a Royal Flush pays 250x.
2. Five cards are dealt face-up from a fresh SHA-256-shuffled deck: 52 cards, or 53 for Joker Poker. Evaluate your hand for potential drawing combinations.
3. Select the cards you wish to hold by clicking them. Cards not held will be discarded and replaced in the draw phase.
4. Click Draw. Single-hand replacements use the original deck: 47 cards remain, or 48 for Joker Poker. Additional hands use separately derived decks.
5. Your final five-card hand is evaluated against the pay table: Jacks or Better (1x), Two Pair (2x), Three of a Kind (3x), Straight (4x), Flush (6x), Full House (8x), Four of a Kind (25x), Straight Flush (50x), Royal Flush (250x).

Optimal Strategy & Analysis

The optimal hold decision for each of the 32 possible hold combinations is determined by comparing the expected value of every holding option across all possible draw outcomes. Perfect strategy involves approximately 30 distinct decision rules, the most counter-intuitive of which include: hold a four-card flush draw over a low pair; hold a suited J-Q-K-A over a pair of Jacks; break a straight or flush to draw to a Royal Flush if you hold four to the Royal.

The highest-EV holds in Jacks or Better in descending order: made Royal Flush > Straight Flush > Four of a Kind > Full House > Four to Royal Flush > Flush > Straight > Three of a Kind > Four to Straight Flush > Two Pair > High Pair (Jacks+) > Four to Flush > Three to Royal Flush > Low Pair > Four to Straight (open-ended) > Three to Straight Flush > Three to Royal (suited JQK, JQA, JKA, QKA) > Four to Straight (inside) > Two to Royal (other) > Suited TJ, TQ, TK > Single high card (J, Q, K, A).

A Royal Flush pays 250x, the top of the Jacks or Better pay table, and it is the hand optimal play is built around.

Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet that runs alongside the round; it does not reduce your main Video Poker payouts.

Provably Fair Verification

Each Millionaire Video Poker hand uses a SHA-256 provably fair deck shuffle. A 52-card deck (53 for Joker Poker) is shuffled using the Fisher-Yates algorithm seeded by the hash of server_seed + ':' + client_seed + ':' + nonce. The first five cards from the shuffled deck are dealt as the initial hand. In single-hand play, if the player holds N cards and draws (5-N) replacements, the next (5-N) cards from the original pre-shuffled deck are used as draw cards. Additional hands use separately derived decks. No reshuffling occurs between deal and draw - the entire deck is determined before the initial deal.

In single-hand play, because both the initial deal and draw cards come from the same pre-determined deck, the full hand outcome is cryptographically fixed before the player makes any hold decision. The player's holds do not alter the draw cards - they select which position in the pre-determined deck each card occupies. This design ensures verifiability: given the seeds and nonce, any observer can reconstruct the complete deck and verify both the initial hand and all possible draw outcomes.

The side bet checks your five initial cards plus the next deck card, using the same seed proof. Its result is revealed after Draw. The shuffle is committed before the hand begins and the server seed is revealed at session end for independent audit.

Millionaire Mode Technical Details

Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet added to every round. Main-table payouts are NOT reduced. The required main wager must meet the displayed Millionaire Mode minimum.

Each round, the card sample selected for the side bet is checked. The Royal Spades are the six top spades - 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of spades. Every distinct Royal Spade in the sample counts as one hit; a repeated rank does not count twice and printed jokers never count.

Paytable per $1 side bet: 6 hits = $1,000,000; 5 hits = $5,000; 4 hits = $325; 3 hits = $20; 2 hits = $2; 0 or 1 hits pay nothing.

The $1,000,000 prize is pre-funded and paid in a single transaction on six hits. Lower tiers pay alongside the round settlement. Royal Spades pays separately whether your main bet wins or loses.