Piratepots Poker UK

Deuces Wild

Deuces Wild uses a single 52-card deck, and all four Twos act as wild cards that substitute for any card in a winning hand at Piratepots. Four Deuces ranks second only to a Royal Flush, and Three of a Kind sits at the bottom of the paytable, still paying out.

Because the wilds inflate your odds of landing a winning hand, Piratepots pays out at a lower rate on this variant to balance the house edge. I found the Not-So-Ugly Deuces Wild version tucked into the same section, which pays better if you dig for it.

Jacks or Better

Jacks or Better is the version you'll most likely start with, and it's the first one you'll spot in the Piratepots poker lobby. The name comes from the lowest paying hand, a pair of Jacks, which sets the baseline for every payout above it.

The paytable is easy to read on screen, and Piratepots runs the 9/6 full-pay version, meaning a Full House pays nine times your stake and a Flush pays six. That's the table worth hunting for over the lower-paying 8/5 version.

Tens or Better

Tens or Better mirrors Jacks or Better card for card, but the lowest winning hand drops to a pair of Tens. Piratepots adjusts the paytable to match, handing out smaller but more frequent wins across a session.

You can see the trade-off in the numbers: Full House pays six times your stake here instead of nine, and Flush pays five instead of six, which is why this variant is sometimes labelled 6/5 Jacks or Better. Piratepots keeps the double-up bonus round from Jacks or Better intact, so a win there still doubles your payout.

Joker Poker

Joker Poker adds a 53rd card to the deck, a Joker that acts as a wild for any hand. Piratepots runs the Kings or Better version, which drops the winning threshold and hands you more chances to land a paying hand than standard Jacks or Better.

That extra wild card makes a Five of a Kind possible, ranking straight after a Natural Royal Flush, with a Straight Flush sitting third. I preferred the 7/5 payout table Piratepots offers over the 6/5 version. Over a long session, that extra payout puts more money back in your pocket.

Aces and Faces

Aces and Faces builds on Jacks or Better with one change: Four of a Kind hands made up of Aces or Face Cards pay more. On the 8/5 table at Piratepots, Four Aces pays 80 times your stake against 50 times for a Straight Flush, and four Face Cards return 40 times your bet.

Piratepots also runs a 7/6 version alongside the standard 7/5 table, so check the paytable before you commit to a session.

Bonus Poker

Bonus Poker keeps the Jacks or Better hand rankings but boosts payouts for Four of a Kind. A hand with four Aces pays 80 times your stake on the full-pay 8/5 table Piratepots offers, with a 7/5 version sitting alongside it if you prefer smaller, more frequent wins.

Double Bonus Poker sits in the same section of the lobby if you want to push the Four of a Kind payouts further, though the paytable elsewhere on that variant runs tighter.

Experiment With Strategies

Video poker rewards a working strategy more than instinct. I tried three approaches across different sessions at Piratepots, and switching between them helped me manage my bankroll, though no strategy beats the game's built-in house edge.

Find the Variant With the Best Paytable

The same poker variant can carry different payout percentages depending on the paytable, in the same way a slot's RTP shifts between versions. Piratepots lists the paytable on every poker screen before you place a bet, so check it before you settle into a variant.

Set Limits Before You Start

Poker is a solo game, and it's easy to lose track of time when there's no dealer pacing the round. I set a budget and a session timer before logging into Piratepots, and stepped away twice when a losing run started affecting my mood, even though my time limit hadn't run out. Piratepots' responsible gambling page includes links to GamStop and BeGambleAware if you need tools beyond a personal limit.