Mystery Bonus

Mystery Poker is a Video Poker game which is a modified version of Jacks or Better. Every round of play one hand type is selected at random to receive a payout boost.

The only software we’ve found Mystery Poker at is RealTime Gaming.

For ease of comparison, the below table displays the best House Edge for Mystery Bonus available at each software provider;

* Available at Club World group.

Online we’ve found Mystery Bonus Video Poker only at casinos using RealTime Gaming software.  The paytables for the different softwares are displayed below;

Some notes on the tables below;

- We’ve included both the 5 coin House Edge and the House Edge when playing 1-4 coins. The House Edge for 1-4 coins are the same and as such only one figure is listed. To find the house edge/paytable for 2-4 coins just multiple the 1 coin figure by the number of coins.

Realtime Gaming

* The numbers outside the parentheses represent the standard paytable while the numbers inside the parentheses are the ‘Mystery Bonus’ values.

* The paytables for 2, 3 and 4 coins are just the paytable for 1 coin multiplied by the number of coins. The House Edge for 1-4 coins are all equal at <5.22%.

* There are usually 3 paytable variants for RealTime Gaming software. We’ve only encountered one Mystery Bonus paytables at quality groups. There are relatively few RealTime Gaming casinos that we would recommend playing with and the paytables we have found have been taken from those few groups that maintain a positive reputation.

Using the basic paytable above we can establish that the highest possible House Edge figures for this game are 3.99% using 5 coins and 5.22% using less than 5 coins. The true House Edge is going to be less than these values due to the bonus. However it is not possible to calculate what the true figure would be without knowing the frequency that each hand type qualifies for the bonus payment.

If we assume that the 9 different hand types each occur equally then 1/9 of the bonus [ (bonus payout – basic payout)/9 + basic payout) ] for each hand type can be applied as an average each round giving the below paytable;

The above paytable would only be accurate if each hand type was equally as likely. Under this assumption you can see that even with the bonus payout this game is still far poorer than standard Jacks or Better. However these figures aren’t accurate as the strategy used to derive the House Edge was optimized to the paytable above which never actually occurs.

Testing this game to see which payout makes the biggest difference to the House Edge, if the bonus was taken to occur on one hand type all the time the House Edge would be as follows;

From the above table it’s clear to see that the bonus is most beneficial when landing on the following hand types in descending order;

Jacks or Better

2 Pairs

3 of a Kind

Flush

Full House

Straight

4 of a Kind

Royal Flush

Straight Flush

Again based on the assumption that each hand received the bonus an equal proportion of the time, summing the above House Edge figures and averaging them would give a House Edge of -1.88% for 5 coins and -0.83% for less than 5 coins. In other words the player would have an advantage over the house. Given that no online casino is keen to offer such advantages to the player, it seems reasonable to conclude that the bonuses are not weighted evenly, favouring the hands that make least difference to the player and as such the best we can conclude is that the House Edge for this game is <3.99% for 5 coins and <5.22% for less than 5 coins.

Paytable Analyser

If you encounter a different paytable you can use our Paytable Analyser to find the House Edge for the game.

Strategy Calculator

To find out the correct play for individual hands use our Strategy Calculator which will tell you the correct cards to hold for the paytable you are playing.

Strategy Trainer

If you intend to play a lot of Mystery Bonus we would advise learning the optimal strategy for the game you’ll be playing. Below you’ll find a strategy trainer that will allow you to practice the game and correct you when you make mistakes;

*All figures in this article rely on use of a strategy optimized to the specific paytable in use. Use of any other strategy will increase the House Edge. You can find the optimized strategy for any paytable using the calculators on this page.