Nj Online Poker Rankings
Video poker has two big advantages over slot machines.
The effective tax in New Jersey for online casino and poker revenue is 17.5%. So how much does NJ actually make from regulated online casino websites? The typical monthly take across all online casinos in New Jersey is right around $35 million a month, so let’s round it to about $400 million a year.
- You can see exactly how “loose” or “tight” a game is by just comparing paytables.
- Skill matters. If you play video poker correctly, your results will be much better than the average player.
Global Poker has been a surprise for me, scoring excellent ratings across the board during my review. Global found a loophole that allows them to operate legal real-money online poker in 49 states, which has helped them gain massive player traffic and become a top online poker site in just a few years. Players in New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware can now compete against each other thanks to a multi-state poker alliance. This mechanism facilitates the player pooling and liquidity sharing that are fundamental to the long-term success of US online poker. So far, the WSOP/888 is the only network operational in more than one state. Most NJ online poker tournaments are No Limit Hold’em as well. Pot Limit Omaha (PLO): Most NJ online poker sites run Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) games, just not as many as No Limit Hold’em. The stakes online in New Jersey run from $0.01/$0.02 to $25/$50, but the $0.50/$1 and $0.25/$0.50 tables are the most popular.
Video poker can be one of the best games in the casino, offering as good a gamble as even the best table games. I am going to take a look at every game available in New Jersey’s online casinos, to see which games are good, and which ones you should avoid.
I’ll get right to the casino VP rankings, and then I will have a lot to say about each…
| NJ Casino Video Poker Rankings, from best to worst: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Casino | # VP Games | # 99%+ | Link |
| #1 (tie) | 21 | 8 | Play at Golden Nugget | |
| #1 (tie) | 21 | 8 | Play at Caesars | |
| #2 (tie) | 6 | 4 | Play at Mohegan Sun | |
| #2 (tie) | 6 | 4 | Play at Resorts | |
| #3 (tie) | 4 | 4 | Play at Virgin | |
| #3 (tie) | 4 | 4 | Play at Tropicana | |
| #4 | 6 | 3 | Play at Borgata | |
| #5 (tie) | 1 | 0 | Play at Harrahs | |
| #5 (tie) | 1 | 0 | Play at 888 | |
Before I get into the commentary, here are the top 5 video poker games available across all of the casinos:
| Best Video Poker Games in NJ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Game | Return | Where | |
| #1 | IGT Jacks or Better (Get Strategy at Amazon.) | 99.54% | Golden Nugget Mohegan Sun Resorts Caesars Virgin Tropicana Borgata | |
| #2 | IGT Double Double Bonus, w/1000x royal (Get Strategy at Amazon.) | 99.51% | Mohegan Sun Resorts Virgin Tropicana | |
| #3 | Spin Games Deuces Wild Elite | 99.45% | Golden Nugget Caesars | |
| #4 | NYX Gaming Aces & Faces | 99.26% | Golden Nugget Caesars | |
| #5 | IGT Bonus Poker (Get Strategy at Amazon.) | 99.17% | Golden Nugget Mohegan Sun Resorts Caesars Virgin Tropicana Borgata | |
Why Golden Nugget and Caesars are #1 in VP
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Each having 21 varieties of VP, including 8 games that return over 99%, Golden Nugget and Caesars top my list of the best places in NJ to play video poker.
They have games from all three of the main VP game providers in New Jersey: IGT, NYX Gaming, and Spin Games. The game with the lowest house edge is the excellent IGT “9/6” Jacks or Better game, but they also have the best Deuces Wild game in NJ: Deuces Wild Elite. This game is more commonly known as Deuces Wild Bonus, and pays extra for premium hands like five Aces.
Golden Nugget and Caesars grab the top ranking with a combination of good variety and strong paytables.
Mohegan Sun & Resorts
These casinos tie at #2, because they both offer the best version of the most popular VP game, Double Double Bonus. (Mohegan and Resorts have exactly the same choices of games.) The paytable for that game is the “full-pay” 9/6 version of DDB, but it also pays more than usual for a Royal Flush. The Royal pays 1000 X your bet instead of the normal 800 X. This super-pay version of DDB is also available at Virgin and Tropicana, but the overall inventory has more variety at Mohegan Sun and Resorts.
The Middle of the Pack
Tropicana, Virgin, and Borgata all suffer from the same problem… Only a handful of VP games are available at each. Fortunately, the games that are on tap actually are good ones, with the IGT titles and good paytables among them. But there is nothing here that you can’t find in the places already mentioned.
Bottom of the Barrel
And I can’t get away from this topic without pointing out the two really awful VP casinos. Harrahs and the identical 888 Casino both offer only ONE game of video poker. It’s called “Jacks or Higher”, and as it sounds, it is a simple Jacks or Better clone.
They are sneaky about the paytable though. It’s a “9/6” game, but they short-pay the player when you get a four-of-a-kind, getting only 100 coins on a 5-coin bet instead of the usual 125 coin payout. They also drop the straight flush pay from 250 to 200. That drops the player return to just 98.25%, instead of the 99.54% of the real paytable offered elsewhere.
If that isn’t enough to discourage you, the game is also so badly implemented that it actually hurts my brain to play it. If you are a player at either casino, check it out just for the amusement value.
My VP wishlist for NJ
Video poker games in NJ have improved a lot since the casinos launched, but I continue to complain about this area in most of my reviews. Even with the good inventory at Golden Nugget, there are so many opportunities to expand what is available. I would love to see some of my land-based casino favorites arrive online, such as Super Times Pay, SpinPoker, or Ultimate X. Even a good single-line version of Joker Poker would be a welcome addition. (NYX’s Jester Poker is a poor substitute, and the version inside IGT’s Triple Play games has a terrible paytable.)
I’m pleased to see progress, but this is still an area where much more good stuff could be done. Hopefully we will continue to see the market push for more variety.
In the meantime, I’ll borrow a signoff from video poker expert Bob Dancer, who ends the weekly Gambling with an Edge podcast with simple advice: “Go out and hit lots of royal flushes, everybody.” Sounds good to me.
Table Of Contents
There’s a new breed of online poker players emerging in the United States, namely those thriving in the few regulated markets out there. One of them is Dan “mj23style” Sewnig, who has proven himself one of the most accomplished players among the New Jersey contingent.
The 29-year-old Sewnig, who graduated from Ramapo College with a degree in math and a concentration in education, has amassed well over a million in earnings playing online, where he’s also known as “RedsoxNets5”. He's expected to be in action this weekend in the latest partypoker US Online Network Series, which is being live reported by PokerNews.
Finding His Way to Poker
Sewnig learned poker at 11 years old when his cousin taught him the rules to Texas hold’em. In 2003 when Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker, Sewnig was in seventh grade and playing $5 SNGs with his friends.
“I'll always remember our friend's mom asked us who we thought was going to win. There were about 50 players left in the TV coverage and Ivey and Farha were the popular answers. I said, ‘I don't know, I've got a good feeling about that guy Moneymaker.’ She gave me a look at the time that I thought meant she thought I was stupid. I had no idea at the time that these shows were prerecorded and she already knew that he had gone on to win!”
“I'm a full-time professional poker player and put most of my volume into online tournaments.'
In 2014, Sewnig was on track to become a teacher, even doing some student teaching. However, the call of poker was too strong to ignore.
“I decided to test the waters of the relatively new regulated online poker sites in New Jersey. I've been playing poker professionally ever since,” said Sewnig, who lives in New Jersey with his girlfriend of two years, Amy. “I'm a full-time professional poker player and put most of my volume into online tournaments. I do play live tournament series when they run at Borgata and Parx and head out to the Vegas for the WSOP each summer.”
In the live realm, Sewnig has amassed nearly $150K in earnings including a career-best $27,276 for finishing fourth in the 2016 WPT Borgata Poker Open Event #12: $1,060 NLH 6-Max.
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Taking His Game to the Next Level
While Sewnig plays on all the New Jersey online sites, he’s become a familiar and successful player on the partypoker US Online Network.
“There's a lot of great value on partypoker,” he told PokerNews. “The site appeals to all sorts of different types of people and leads to a bunch of very fun tournaments. You truly never know what you're going to see in these MTTs and I am very grateful for that.”
One of the reasons we continue to see Sewnig crushing is because of the progress he’s made in poker over the past 18 months, which he ranks as his proudest accomplishment.
“I've put more work into studying and improving over that timespan than I have in the rest of my career combined. I've also done a much better job of dealing with adversity. Downswings are inevitable in poker and people react to them in all different types of ways.”
'I've bounced back from tough stretches way more quickly and healthily and I think that's what I'm most proud of.'
He continued: “For a long time, I'd react to them by taking way too much time off, sometimes even weeks at a time. From 2019 on, I've bounced back from tough stretches way more quickly and healthily and I think that's what I'm most proud of, more so than any individual tournament score or win.”
When asked who he thought was the best player among the New Jersey online crowd, Sewnig actually named a Borgata Poker Ambassador.
“I'd have to say Michael Gagliano. You could argue a few different people for best cash player in the state and a few different people for best tournament player, but I think he is the only name that comes up in both conversations. There are a few cash guys, such as Sean Ruane and Jake Toole, who could also fall into that category but just don't put in much tournament volume. Honorable mention to David Coleman.”
If he continues on his current trajectory, don’t be surprised to see Sewnig’s name mentioned among New Jersey’s best.
You can follow Sewnig on Twitter @RedsoxNets5.
The NJ MTT Regs 10 Commandments:
Nj Online Poker Rankings
— Daniel Sewnig (@RedsoxNets5)
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