As we noted in the previous section, some video poker experts advocate adopting a different strategy for higher level jackpots. Some players go so far as to modify their strategy for each 1% increase in the ‘positive EV’ of a progressive jackpot with each successive level shooting more aggressively for the royal flush. This can be very effective but has a downside. 2 days ago  Across the Vegas valley at Boulder Station, another guest hit it big. This time, it was poker. A lucky poker player hit a $107,547 Omaha High Bad Beat Progressive Jackpot Friday, March 5. The hand was four jacks losing to a royal. This guest also asked to remain anonymous.

1. Current Las Vegas Jackpots
2. Las Vegas Slot Jackpots
3. Best Las Vegas Video Poker Jackpots 2020
4. Las Vegas Youtube Jackpots
5. Best Video Poker Las Vegas

Video poker doesn’t have a reputation for paying out huge jackpots like slot machines do. Instead, it’s known for paying a maximum of 4,000 coins for a royal flush (w/ 5-coin bet).

However, video poker does offer large progressive jackpots in some cases. Several players have won six figures through these payouts.

Below, I’m going to discuss 5 of the biggest video poker jackpots in history. I’ll also cover tips for how you can go for similar prizes too.

1 – WSOP Champ Huck Seed Wins Over $670k

Huck Seed is a poker player who’s best known for winning the 1996 World Series of Poker Main Event. Given the $1 million payout he earned for taking down the WSOP Main Event, Seed is no stranger to winning big through Texas Holdem.

But in 2011, he earned a fortune through a different game—video poker. Seed was playing at the ARIA in Las Vegas when he collected a jackpot worth $670,665.

This is the largest video poker payout I’ve ever heard of. The $670.7k jackpot that Seed collected would be worthy of a major Texas Holdem tournament prize.

However, it certainly wasn’t cheap to play for this windfall. Seed was playing in the ARIA’s high-limit area and betting $500 per round when he collected the prize.

Seed tweeted the winning hand, which was a royal flush full of spades. He also explained that he was playing video poker for two reasons:

• Online poker was in limbo after Black Friday.
• He found a game that featured a theoretical edge due to the huge jackpot.

Due to the jackpot’s size, Seed calculated that he had a 0.65% advantage. He determined that he’d earn $3 in theoretical profits for every round played.

Seed played for six hours, logging approximately 1,000 hands each hour before getting the royal. He also estimated being down $50,000 on the machine before winning the $670k payout—earning him over $620,000 in profits.

2 – Vegas Video Poker Player Collects $400k at Cosmopolitan

The next big winner on this list isn’t a famous pro gambler like Huck Seed. In fact, they didn’t even share their name after winning.

However, this anonymous video poker player can boast about winning one of the biggest video poker payouts ever. In 2017, they won a $400,000 prize at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

The Cosmopolitan actually shared news of this win via their Twitter account. They posted the $400,000 jackpot screen along with a congratulations for the lucky winner.

The person was playing a 100-hand Triple Double Bonus machine at the time of their windfall. They were also risking $500 per round, or $5 for each hand.

No information was given on how much the gambler spent winning the progressive prize. But with a payout worth more than $400,000, they almost assuredly came out on top.

3 – Poker Pro Bart Hanson Wins $200k

Bart Hanson is another poker pro who won big in video poker. He collected a $200,000 jackpot while playing at Caesars Palace in 2018.

Hanson was betting $250 per round on a 100-line game ($2.50 per hand). He also played lots of rounds while waiting in between tournaments at the 2018 World Series of Poker. Hanson spoke in depth about his win while on break during the WSOP.

“There’s a way to do it (win a large jackpot) on some very high stakes video poker with the lowest expected loss,” said Hanson. “People would actually be surprised, it’s not that much of a loss, but you gotta play big.”

I was actually playing a game that I don’t normally play, which was Bonus Poker (99.17% RTP), which was slightly worse than Jacks or Better (99.54% RTP). And the reason why I was playing it was because I told myself, ‘I never hit the royal. Let me play Bonus, so if I hit 4 of a kind I’ll get like $20,000.’”

Hanson wasn’t exactly doing great on the session where he won $200k. However, he got lucky at the very end when he was dealt a royal flush.

“… So, I was playing Bonus and I was down to having 10 credits left. I started with eight grand. On my second-to-last spin, I hit it,” he recalled.

“I was sort of in shock—nobody was around the high limit area at Caesars. The high limit slots area, there’s no one in there ever. I got it on video.”

Hanson believes that this is the largest video poker prize ever caught on film. He may be right when considering that nobody above him on this list actually posted a video of their win.

“If you search on video poker jackpots on YouTube, I haven’t seen anything bigger than $40,000 or $50,000 on film.”

4 – Player Nets Sequential Royal Flush and $180k

Some video poker machines require that players get a certain type of royal flush to win the jackpot. This setup can either involve a royal of a specific suit or a sequential royal flush.

The latter entails getting a royal in perfect order, including A-K-Q-J-10. Receiving a royal flush in any manner is already hard enough—let alone in exact order.

Nevertheless, a gambler at Boulder Station (downtown Vegas) managed to pull off this feat in 2019. They received a sequential royal flush and pocketed $180,000.

Unfortunately, no information is available on this big winner. But at least their jackpot will go down in history as one of the largest video poker payouts.

5 – Floyd Mayweather Wins $101k

With a net worth ranging somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion, Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t exactly need more money. Nevertheless, he managed to add to his wealth in 2018 with a $101,250 video poker prize.

The retired boxing champion spent approximately $20,000 while playing on machines in Las Vegas. He was risking $25 per round in hopes of winning a progressive jackpot.

Mayweather posted a video of his winning screen. He also held up $70,000 worth of printed tickets to show that he’d won even more cash outside of the $101k prize.

Again, “Money” doesn’t exactly need these winnings. So, he posted another video of himself taking the jackpot spoils to a Vegas strip club that he owns called Girl Collection.

In addition to winning big in video poker, Mayweather is also known for some colossal sports betting wins as well. For example, he once earned $1.1 million through a $1m bet on the Oregon Ducks during the 2014 college football season.

Tips for Winning Big Video Poker Jackpots

Winning a massive video poker payout certainly isn’t easy. But you can improve your chances of doing so with the following tips.

Visit Las Vegas

You aren’t going to find the largest video poker prizes in Bucktown USA. All of the giant payouts on this list happened in Las Vegas.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that you drop everything and move to Sin City. The only time this would be worthwhile is if you can find a rare situation like Seed did, where you’re theoretically earning $3 in profits for every hand.

However, you may have a Las Vegas trip lined up. Or, perhaps you plan on visiting Vegas in the near future. In either case, you can scout out worthwhile progressive jackpot and chase them.

Concentrate on High Stakes Games

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The two main routes for winning large video poker jackpots involves:

1. Playing for high stakes.
2. Playing machines that require sequential royal flushes (1 in 2.4 million odds).

The first way offers the easiest way to win a big jackpot. After all, you still have approximately 1 in 40,000 odds of getting a royal this way.

Of course, you do need a large bankroll to play machines with higher stakes. As Hanson noted, though, you can at least look forward to low expected losses in the long run. Furthermore, you may even be able to gain a theoretical advantage like Seed managed to do.

Brush Up on Video Poker Strategy

You can win a jackpot regardless of whether you know video poker strategy well or not. However, your bankroll won’t last as long while chasing jackpots if you’re a bad player.

Knowing strategy helps you make the right plays and win back more money. In turn, you’ll be able to sustain your bankroll while going after large prizes.

The best ways to gain insight into video poker include strategy charts and trainers. A chart shows the optimal moves that you should make to achieve the highest RTP for a given game.

A trainer offers tips as you practice with free video poker. It shows every correct and incorrect decision you make.

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Prepare for Volatility

Again, you have approximately 1 in 40,000 odds of receiving a royal. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect to win a jackpot right away.

But if you’re dead set on collecting a big prize someday, then you definitely need to account for the volatility. Having a large starting bankroll helps you get through the rough patches and, hopefully, win a large payout.

I suggest having enough money for at least 500 hands on your preferred game. If the qualifying jackpot bet is $5 (five $1 coins), for example, then you should start with at least $2,500.

Conclusion

Most people don’t play video poker to hunt for progressive jackpots. But as you can see, video poker can be worth playing when you’re seeking big wins.

Multiple gamblers have won six-figure prizes through video poker. Huck Seed even managed to corral a payout worth over $670,000.

Of course, Seed was also betting $500. Herein lies one major challenge of video poker in that you must play for high stakes or choose games with sequential royal flushes. If you’re up for either challenge, then you might consider video poker when trying to win a jackpot.

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What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas—unless you happen to win a huge cash payout while gambling. The odds that you’ll win $5.00 or $10.00 while playing the slot machines are quite good. The odds of hitting a multimillion-dollar jackpot at a Vegas casino—well, if you accomplish that, then we’ll be hitting the Vegas strip with you next time.

They may be rare, but mega-million jackpots in Vegas do happen. Most recently, in November 2014, a man turned $20.00 into $14.28 million when he hit the progressive jackpot playing a Megabucks slot machine at Rampart Casino. The Megabucks machine is linked to 157 casinos throughout Nevada.

If you’re hoping lightning strikes twice, you may want to visit the following casinos on your next trip to Las Vegas:

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5. Rampart Casino

The unidentified Vegas resident who won the cool $14.0 million at Rampart was visiting the casino with an out-of-town friend one day. The man played the Megabucks slot machine for all of five minutes before hitting the jackpot! The money, he said, would be donated to various charities and his church.

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The 50,000-square-foot Rampart Casino¹ is located in the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa. It boasts nearly 1,300 slots, video poker, and keno machines. The Summerlin Room High Limit area features games that range from $1.00 to $10.00 denominations and the 300-seat Bingo Room is conveniently located next to the Rampart Buffet. With 50 lush acres, JW Marriott Las Vegas is considered to be the first off-the-strip luxury resort in Las Vegas. The 548 guestrooms offer mountain, garden, city, or golf-course views, and are equipped with high-speed Internet access, rainfall showerheads, and jetted tubs.²

If that’s not enough, the JW Marriott has a day spa. Spa Aquae has 36 treatment rooms, an outdoor hydrotherapy circuit pool, a whirlpool, a steam room and sauna, a hot and cold plunge, and cascading waterfall showers. It also has a state-of-the-art fitness center and offers daily yoga sessions.³

4. Bally’s

Seventy-four-year-old Johanna Huendl was on her way to breakfast at Bally’s when she decided to take a seat at the Megabuck machine. She put in about $170.00 and won the jackpot. Initially she misread the machine and was overjoyed to see she would be taking home $2.0 million. But she was wrong; she won $22.62 million.⁴

Located on the Vegas strip, Bally’s Las Vegas features more than 2,800 extra-sized guestrooms (450 square feet each) and a number of penthouses ranging from 2,567 square feet to 3,425 square feet. Guests at Bally’s can also enjoy the 13,000-square-foot spa, salon, Olympic-sized pools with palm trees, private cabanas, and a whirlpool, fine dining, shows, and shopping.⁵ At 67,000 square feet, the casino at Bally’s has countless slot and video poker machines, more than 65 Las Vegas table games (casino blackjack, craps, roulette, baccarat, and pai gow), a poker room, a 24-hour Keno parlor, and a stadium-style race and sports book.

3. Palace Station

Did you know that one of the largest, progressive slot machine payouts in history happened at Palace Station? Back in 1998, a retired flight attendant fed $300.00 into a Megabucks machine and walked away with a staggering $27.5 million.

Located just a few minutes off Las Vegas Boulevard, Palace Station is known as the locals’ favorite place to stay and play! Palace Station has a 1,000-room hotel, fitness center, pool, and salon, along with bars, lounges, and fine dining.⁶

The Palace Station casino has more than 100,000 square feet of gaming space and the perfect mix of slots and table games.⁷ The casino has more than 1,600 slot/video poker machines, 45 table games (blackjack, pai gow poker, pai gow tiles, “Ultimate Texas Hold’em,” craps, roulette, and baccarat), a 307-seat bingo hall, a 20-seat keno lounge, and a 230-seat race and a sports book featuring 44 screens.

2. Wynn Las Vegas & Encore Resort

On January 26, 2000, Cynthia Jay-Brennan, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress, won $34.9 million after investing $27.00 on a Megabucks machine at the Desert Inn. Naturally, the casino set her up in one of its top suites and offered her champagne and caviar.⁸

Unfortunately, the Desert Inn suffered the fate of many of the older casinos in Las Vegas: it was imploded. Today, Wynn Las Vega and Encore Resort now sit on the land where Desert Inn once stood. If you’re superstitious, you might want to try the casino at Wynn or Encore.

Wynn Las Vegas is an iconic, curved high-rise on the Las Vegas Strip with 2,716 rooms ranging in size from 640 square feet to villas at 7,000 square feet. Together with the adjacent Encore Resort, the entire Wynn resort complex has a total of 4,750 rooms, making it the world’s sixth-largest hotel.⁹

Wynn Las Vegas has a 223,000-square-foot convention center, 76,000 square feet of retail space, a spa, a salon, a pool, and an 111,000-square-foot casino. If you like to golf, Wynn Resorts also has the only golf club on the Strip. The 18-hole, 7,193-yard, par-72 golf course was designed by world-famous architect Tom Fazio and resort owner Steve Wynn.

Encore Resort features a 2,034-room hotel that is ranked as one of the top 100 hotels in the world on the 2015 Gold List. Encore also has a 74,000-square-foot casino, 27,000 square feet of retail space, a spa and salon, five restaurants, seven bars, and a nightclub.

1. Excalibur

Back in March 2003, a 25-year-old software engineer from Las Angeles won $39.7 million after putting $100.00 in the Megabucks slot machine at Excalibur. The winner, who wished to remain anonymous, beat odds at the time of one in 16.7 million to take home the largest jackpot in Las Vegas history.¹⁰

Excalibur isn’t just a name—it’s a way of life. On the south end of the Las Vegas Strip, Excalibur is a Camelot-themed resort linked to neighbouring New York-New York and Tropicana resorts by overhead pedestrian bridges.¹¹

The hotel has 4,008 rooms, ranging from contemporary to guest suites. Amenities include shopping, four luxurious pools (including one for guests 18 years of age and older), a 13,000-square-foot spa, a fitness center, and, of course, the Canterbury Wedding Chapel.

The 100,000-square-foot gaming area consists of both table games and over 1,400 slot machines, including the ever-popular Megabucks progressive jackpot slot machine. The casino also has a poker room, keno, and pari-mutuel betting.¹²

So, what happens if lightning does happen to strike twice and you win big?

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In the United States, winnings of more than $1,200 from slots (or other forms of gambling, including poker, pari-mutuel, and sports betting) are considered taxable income and are subject to a 30% withholding tax. If you win $2,500 on the slots in Las Vegas, you’ll walk out with just $1,750. The IRS gets to keep the rest.

If you’ve been to Las Vegas and had 30% of your gambling winnings withheld by the IRS, Refund Management Services (RMS) can help you reclaim a portion or all of your taxable winnings.

Founded by a Canadian Chartered Accountant in 1998, RMS is the most reliable and experienced gaming and casino tax refund provider for non-U.S. residents. Only RMS has the One Simple Step^TM process; our Customer Service Agents take care of the rest. Your refund cheque gets mailed out to you as soon as your refund is approved. We’ve never been refused an eligible refund. Contact us today!

Sources:

1. “Where the Locals Play in Summerlin,” Rampart Casino at The Resort at Summerlin web site; https://www.theresortatsummerlin.com/gaming/index.php, last accessed May 1, 2015.

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2. JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa web site; http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lasjw-jw-marriott-las-vegas-resort-and-spa/, last accessed May 1, 2015.

3. Spa Aquae web site; http://spaaquaelv.com/, last accessed May 1, 2015.

4. “$22.6 Million Megabucks Hits at Bally’s Las Vegas,” IGT web site; http://www.igt.com/company-information/news-room/news-releases?NewsID=650269,
last accessed May 1, 2015.

5. Caesars web site; https://www.caesars.com/ballys-las-vegas, last accessed May 1, 2015.

6. Palace Station web site; https://palacestation.sclv.com/, last accessed May 1, 2015.

7. “Boarding Pass Players Club,” Palace Station web site; https://palacestation.sclv.com/Gaming.aspx, last accessed May 1, 2015.

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8. Macy, R., “Woman plays $27, wins $34.9 million,” Las Vegas Sun web site, January 27, 2000; http://lasvegassun.com/news/2000/jan/27/woman-plays-27-wins-349-million/.

9. Wynn Las Vegas web site; http://wynnlasvegas.com/, last accessed May 1, 2015.

10. Norman, R.J., “Record jackpot claimed by Calif. engineer,” Las Vegas Sun web site, March 4, 2003; http://lasvegassun.com/news/2003/mar/24/record-jackpot-claimed-by-calif-engineer/?history.

11. Excalibur web site; http://www.excalibur.com/, last accessed May 1, 2015.

12. Excalibur casino web site; http://www.excalibur.com/casino/, last accessed May 1, 2015.