Atlantic City is one of the better markets outside Nevada for video poker. While we did not find any 100% payback games, there are still many playable pay tables out there.
Borgata offers the best Atlantic City video poker game that we found. It is 9/5 Super Double Double Bonus (99.69%). This game is like Double Double Bonus except that it also includes jacks, queens and kings as special quads. There is also a small bump on the straight flush payout. It is available in quarter, half-dollar and dollar denominations. Update: This game was removed from the Borgata floor in January 2022, according to VPFree2.
From there, 9/6 Jacks or Better is the best video poker game in Atlantic City. We found this game in denominations starting at quarter and up to $5 at Bally’s, Borgata, Caesars and Harrah’s and $1 up to $5 at Golden Nugget. Resorts has it on a $5 machine in the high limit slot room.
Borgata and Resorts players earn normal points on these games. Points are earned at half the normal rate Caesars and Harrah’s, requiring $20 to earn a point. Bally’s requires $50 coin-in per point. Golden Nugget is $200 for one point. These machines have a sticker disclosing this, which makes them easier to find.
Other quality Atlantic City video poker games
Bally’s has a bank of machines in the video poker section along the Boardwalk wall and a few other places that host its 9/6 Jacks machines. Other options include the 99% or better games 18/7/5 Joker Poker, 8/5 Bonus Poker, 9/7 Double Bonus and 9/6 Double Double Bonus. It also has the corresponding Aces and Faces versions of each of those games. These require $50 for one tier point. This disclosure is on the machines.
Caesars offers some of the same games as Bally’s outside the Aces and Faces versions at quarter, half-dollar, dollar and two-dollar. These games require $20 in coin-in per point.
We also found $1 9/7 Double Bonus and $1 up to $25 9/6 Double Double Bonus at Ocean Resort. Deuces Wild known as “Illinois Deuces” with a 15/9 pay table is also dealt from $1 up to the $25 denomination.
In the Marina District, we found $1 up to $5 9/6 Double Double Bonus at the Golden Nugget bar. Borgata offers the Super Double Bonus and Jacks or Better noted earlier in this post. I think it has the best video poker variant selection and pay tables of any Atlantic City casino. The returns for these games often go over 99% at the $1 denomination.
Harrah’s has $1, $2, $5 and $10 and higher pay tables for the games noted at Bally’s and Caesars have. There is $1 and $2 on the casino floor and $5 and $10 in Diamond Cove, Harrah’s high limit slot area. Look for the $20 coin-in for one point stickers.
Resorts offers 8/5 Bonus Poker. It is on some machines at from quarter up to $5 denominations. Tropicana has 9/6 Double Double Bonus starting at $1. It is located at 10 North Lounge.
Thank you to @TravelsofJustin for helping us with this list.
What about full pay Double Joker?
I could not find any full pay Double Joker machines. I think they have all been downgraded. The Caesars ones definitely have as I matched the machine numbers from VPFree2. I do not know if it had a royal flush progressive before, but it does now.
We likely missed some good video poker
I realize that we likely missed some good video poker games. It may be because it is on a single machine in a bank or the games were occupied during our visit. This is meant to be a good starting guide for video poker players looking for value in the Atlantic City casino market, not an exhaustive list. If you know of any games that we missed that you would like to share, please contact us or send us a Twitter DM.