Video Poker is a popular game that can be wagered on in casinos all over the globe, or in your house on your personal computer, through a net connection. The rules are very simple and involve the player trying to get the greatest combination of cards achievable in order to acquire cash. In this respect it is very similar as a regular game of poker, without the line of contact with any other players. Of course, tactics employed during a real-life game of poker, like tricking, will be useless here.
The game of Electronic Poker starts when the player inserts credits (either tokens, credit slips or cash) into the video poker machine and presses the play button. A 5 card hand will then be electronically ‘distributed’ on the video screen.
The Electronic Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ printed on them, and bettors should now pick which cards to hold and which to discard. For the cards the enthusiast wishes to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons should be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any number of cards they want, from all to none.
After the enthusiast has selected which cards he or she would like to keep, they should press ‘deal’, which will mean that any new cards are needed they will be given out. The round is now finished, with the Video Poker machine scanning the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands listed in the payout schedule.
Generally, the minimum winning hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money getting larger for each and every better hand. A list of common winning hands starts with jacks or better, moving on to two pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It should be known that the payout schedule can range from machine to machine, so that discerning bettors are able to select the most profitable game each and every time.
After the first round has completed, the player can either choose to remain on and try to to maximize their winnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any credits that have been won. Further, several styles of the game give the player a chance to increase their winnings, in which case another round is played. There are also differences between individual machines, with some decks of cards having wild cards and other varying characteristics to increase playability.
