Poker - Progressive Jacks Or Better Video Poker

Dear Mark,
Well, now that you've got me “Hooked on Winning” (I bought your tapes, good stuff), I have a follow-up observation and a question. I took a well-deserved day off from work yesterday and hit the two Indian casinos here in Connecticut (Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun). My goal was to restrict myself exclusively to video poker. First, you are right on the money in your observation that you have to LOOK for a 9/6 machine, at least in the 25¢ and 50¢ denominations. I found a 25¢ 9/6 machine “buried” in a bank of machines at the Mohegan Sun and had real good luck with it. I encountered my first 8/5 progressive machine at Foxwoods, but I was surprised to see it was NOT a jacks-or-better machine. Rather, it was a two pair or better machine. So instead of having a payoff with just a high pair, a player needed two pairs to get a return. Is this typical of an 8/5 progressive machine or would you say this is player adverse? Mike K.

Take copious notes here, Mike. Two words describe the above-mentioned machine at Foxwoods—RIP OFF.
It is called an 8/5-video poker machine because of the 8-for-1 payoff for a full house and 5-for-1 payoff for a flush. Getting paid for a high pair (jacks-or-better) is an absolute necessity when playing video poker.