Video poker in casinos and online is prevalent, both with beginners and skilled poker players. There are a few different reasons for this. For beginners, it is useful, as you don’t have the stress of approaching the tables and gambling against others.
For skilled poker players, many will tell you that the payouts can be even better than the tables. The rules are similar to table poker in that the central hands are the same. However, there are usually extra hands and all five of the cards can be exchanged.
- Payouts are decided by a set paytable that is visible on the screen.
- Video poker has a payout for ‘Pair of jacks or better’, which is simply two jacks, queens, kings or aces.
Video poker expounded!
As already mentioned, a hand in video poker is the same as table poker, but it also includes a ‘Pair of jacks or better’. This is the lowest hand and in turn, pays out the least; but gives you an opportunity if you don’t have any other cards as potential winners. So, how do you tell that you’re on the right track?
Well, to garner a win, you’ll have to arrange the hands in your paytable in ascending order, two pair being the least and the famous flash being the highest symbol.
There are many variants of the game, mostly with substitute cards, these make it easier to win the hand. Games such as Deuces Wild allow the player to use the card number 2 as a ‘wild card’, which can be substituted for any card.
Similarly, there are Jokers Wild and Anything Wild. Others, such as Bonus games and Multiplay allow the player to have the cards in their hand plus a new hand dealt from another deck, these can sometimes be Triple-Play or as high as 100-Play. All of these increase the players’ chances of winning.
The screen show time!
On playing you will see a screen with five cards and the paytable with credits for each winning hand. You can cash out money deposited as credits whenever you feel like.
There are nine buttons. On the left-hand side, Cash Out and Bet One Credit, with a Hold or Cancel for each alternating card, a Deal or Draw, and Bet Max.
Bet on one or more credits, the Max Bet being 5, then choose cards to hold for the biggest winner. Press Draw/Deal, this is the final hack as compared to the paytable, and credit won.
Hacks from experts!
Many skilled video poker players share strategies online and have even written books. Once you have gotten the hang of the game, you can begin to use more effective systems. Here is a straightforward tip to get you started. It has been suggested, by skilled players, to always to play the maximum credits, as this gives better payouts.
An example of this is if you have the famous Flush with one confidence the payout will be 150 credits, the payout if you played the maximum five credits on the same winning hand is over 4,000 credits.
Time to roll the dice!
Well, that’s it. We doubt you have any reservations about ‘going all in’ now. But, just in case you were worried, all of the games are regulated by gambling bodies to ensure correct play. You can play by trial and error, with the draw of the cards or treat it as a skilled game and do some more research on tactics.
Whichever you decide it is a fun game you can play comfortably from the comfort of your armchair. There is nothing more to be said except, the best of luck.