Aces and Faces

Game Format and Basic Rules

Aces and Faces is played with a standard 52-card deck on the five-card draw format. The player places a bet and receives five cards face up. They then choose which cards to hold and which to discard, and the discarded cards are replaced by new ones from the deck. The final five-card hand is evaluated against the pay table. There is no dealer hand to beat — the payout is determined solely by the strength of the player's hand according to the fixed pay schedule.

The Pay Table Structure

The distinctive feature of Aces and Faces is how it assigns value to four-of-a-kind hands. Standard video poker variants like Jacks or Better pay the same amount for any four-of-a-kind combination. Aces and Faces splits this into three tiers: four Aces pay the highest amount, four face cards (Jacks, Queens, or Kings) pay a mid-tier amount, and four of any other rank (2s through 10s) pay a lower amount. The remaining hand rankings — royal flush, straight flush, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, and a pair of Jacks or better — are present and pay according to the standard schedule for this variant.

Optimal Strategy Adjustments

Because four Aces and four face cards are disproportionately rewarded in the pay table, the optimal strategy for Aces and Faces diverges from Jacks or Better in specific situations. Players should be more willing to break strong hands — including high pairs or two pairs — when doing so gives a genuine chance at completing four Aces or four face cards. For example, holding three Aces over a full house can be correct in this variant when it would not be in standard Jacks or Better. Dedicated Aces and Faces strategy charts account for these adjustments and should be referenced for optimal play.

RTP and Expected Value

The 99.26% RTP of Aces and Faces under optimal strategy places it in the top tier of video poker games. This figure assumes perfect strategic decisions on every hand. Suboptimal play will reduce the effective RTP. The game's volatility is moderate to high — the majority of payouts come from common low-ranking hands (pairs, two pairs), but the significant payouts from four-of-a-kind combinations, particularly four Aces, can result in large individual wins that drive the overall return.

Comparing to Other Video Poker Variants

Players familiar with Jacks or Better will find Aces and Faces immediately accessible since the core format and most of the pay table are identical. The key difference is the tiered four-of-a-kind structure, which adds a layer of strategic nuance and creates a more varied session experience. Players who enjoy pursuing specific high-value hand targets — in this case, Aces and face card quads — will find the variant particularly engaging compared to the uniform pay structure of standard Jacks or Better.