Pat Hand
A hand where all five initially dealt cards are a winning hand, such as a dealt Straight or a Flush. It is necessary to keep all five cards as no other card can improve your winning hand.
Payback
The long term expected return of a video poker game being played. Usually expressed as a percent, but sometimes expressed as the Expected Value (EV) of the game. You can expect to make money on a game only if it's long term payback is over 100% (EV greater than one).
Pay Off
The number of coins or credits paid for a particular winning hand. Often expresses on a "per coin" basis. For example, a Full House in standard full pay Jacks or Better with five coins bet pays 45 coins, but this is usually expressed as 9 for 1.
Payout (Payoff) Schedule
Each video poker machine's complete payoff schedule is posted on the glass front or on the screen. This is usually in the form of a table that shows the number of coins paid for each possible final hand for each possible number of coins bet.
Payout (Payoff) Table
The numbers are the number of credits that you get if you draw that hand. For example, if you are playing five coins in a quarter machine with this Payout Table, you win 4000 quarters or $1,000.00 if you get a Royal Flush. Usually you get more credits for your money by playing the Maximum Credits.
Payout (Payoff)
The actual dropping of coins by a machine. The actual payout occurs only when cashing out. In the case of a coinless machine, it is the printing of a cash voucher. In the case of a jackpot, it is usually a hand pay.
Perfect Play
Making every play for the absolute highest Expected Value. Perfect Play is the only way to achieve the maximum payouts on a video poker machine over a period of time by playing each hand mathematically correct and betting maximum.
Pick'em Video Poker
You are dealt 2 single cards and 2 decks of 3 cards...only 4 cards are visible. Your job is to pick one of the 2 stacked piles and your strategy relies on comparing the visible cards to what maybe contained in the 2 sets of hidden cards.
Progressive Jackpot
This is a Jackpot, usually for a Royal Flush that grows as players play. Several machines are linked together so that each bet at any of them increases the jackpot. When a player gets the Jackpot the Progressive Jackpot is reset to a starting value, typically $1,000 for a 25 cent machine with five coins played. Important: You can't win the Progressive Jackpot unless you bet Maximum Credits.

Q
Quads
Four of a kind like 6-6-6-6-5.

R
Rag
A card that does not fit into your hand in any useful way. Totally useless.
Random
It is required by law that a Video Poker Machine must draw cards at random from a single deck. This means that no card is more likely to be drawn than any other.
Random Number Generator
An algorithm or a program used to generate a series of random numbers. Online video poker uses random number generation.

Rank
The numerical value of a card (as opposed to its suit). Example: "King," "nine".
Royal Flush
A hand containing and Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace in the same suit, in any order. The highest hand in video poker using no wild cards.

S
Secondary Payoff
In many cases we are drawing with the hopes of making a particular big payoff, but much of the EV of the play comes from smaller payoffs when we miss the big one. For example, you might draw two cards to a Royal Flush but end up with a high pair, two pair, three of a kind, a straight or a flush, all of which we would call
Sequential Royal Flush
A Royal Flush in order, either left to right or right to left like 10h Jh Qh Kh Ah. Some Video Poker Machines have a separate large Jackpot for one of these. You will get a Sequential Royal Flush once in about 2.5 million hands.
Sevens Wild Video Poker
Sevens are the wild cards in this game and bonus payouts are for four sevens, royal flush with a seven and five of a kind.
Short Run
A limited amount of time when probability theory will be marked by streaks or fluctuations.
Spill
When you win a hand that would put you over 1,000 credits, most video poker machines don't add to your credits. Instead they start spilling quarters into the hopper to pay off that hand.
Straight
Five cards not in the same suit in an unbroken sequence like 3h 5s 6s 4h 7h.
Straight Flush
Five cards in the same suit in an unbroken sequence like 4h-5h-6h-7h-8h.
Strategy
A pattern or method for playing the hands. The strategy is determined by the video poker game type and the paytables for that particular game.
Strategy Card
A Strategy Card is a Strategy Table printed on a card. It's a good idea to have a strategy card with you while playing.
Strategy Table
A Strategy Table is a list of the hands you might be dealt in decreasing order of Average Payback. If you can play a hand in two or more different ways, then you pick the highest in the strategy table - the one with the highest Average Payback.
Suit
In a poker deck, each card that is not a wild card is in one of the four suits: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts or Spades.

T
Three of a Kind
A hand containing three cards of the same denomination like 10-10-10-4-5.
Tens or Better Video Poker
A game where tens or better cards are the minimum paying hand.

Tilt
To play wildly or recklessly. A player is said to be "on tilt" if he is not playing his best, playing too many hands, trying wild bluffs, raising with bad hands, etc.
Triple Play
Some machines allow you to play 3 hands of video poker at the same time and these are referred to as triple play machines. see also multi play
Trips
Three of a kind like 10-10-10-4-5.
Two to a, Three to a, Four to aRefers to the number of cards you have in your hand that make up at least a part of a potentially winning hand. For example, if you have Ah, Kh, Qh, Jh, 5c, you have four of the cards needed to make a royal flush, or four to a royal flush.
Two Pairs
A hand containing any two pairs of cards like JJKK2.