In a Reno airport lounge, just twenty minutes before boarding, a man plays a few $40 bets on a machine. He receives two pairs and without hesitation keeps all four cards. This is a classic error that is precisely what video poker strategy guides were created for, as video poker makes your decisions much more rewarding compared to the spinning wheels of slot machines.
The thing that so many players don’t realize is that while video poker looks like a slot machine, shares the same space as slot machines, and sounds similar to the latter, a game of video poker is actually a game of poker. Five cards dealt, one decision to be made, with solid mathematical reasoning protecting every choice made.
How to Play Video Poker
Money in, bet size picked, hit deal. Five cards land on the screen. From there you’re choosing what stays and what goes. Hit draw, and the machine swaps out anything you didn’t keep. Whatever five-card hand you’re left with gets paid according to the paytable posted on that specific machine.
Check that paytable before anything else.Right there in front of your eyes, most often on the top part of the screen, it tells you precisely how much the value of jacks is versus a full house or a royal flush. The thing is, even two identical-looking machines can be paying totally different amounts. A ten-second glance at the paytable can help you understand the machine’s payout structure.
Video Poker Tips Worth Knowing Before You Sit Down
Learn the hand rankings ahead of time. Not while the clock’s running and cards are already on the screen. You don’t need to study anything complicated here. A straight beat is three of a kind. A flush beats a straight. That’s most of what you need to understand the basic hand hierarchy.
Jacks or Better: What to Hold and What to Toss
Jacks or Better is one of the most common video poker variants. The name comes from its minimum paying hand: a pair of jacks or better.
A made hand that already pays, such as a straight or flush, is generally treated differently from individual cards that do not form a paying hand.Video poker decisions can be analyzed mathematically by comparing the possible outcomes of different card combinations.
What Video Poker Odds Actually Mean
Here’s where video poker differs from many other casino games. 9/6 Jacks or Better is a popular variant that yields an average theoretical payout of around 99.5%, depending on certain circumstances, one of which is the player’s best strategy choice.
However, the number is a mathematical expectation for the long run and not a certainty. Variability can occur since the cards used are unpredictable.
Common Video Poker Variants
Not all video poker is created equal, and the difference has nothing to do with theme or graphics. It is mainly determined by the game’s rules and paytable.
In Full-Pay Deuces Wild, the deuces act as wild cards, which can be used to represent other cards to form hands. Double Bonus Poker alters the payment system on the four-of-a-kind hands from the normal Jacks or Better. Jacks or Better is another widely recognized video poker variant.
A short-pay version of a game can offer different payouts for hands such as flushes and full houses.
Common Video Poker Mistakes
Breaking apart a hand that’s already winning to pursue a different combination can change the mathematical outcome of a hand. Betting fewer coins can also affect the payout structure on some machines. Sitting down to play at a machine without looking at the paytable makes it hard to comprehend how various hands are paid out.
FAQ
Which game is superior: video poker or slots?
Even though video poker and slot machines have some aspects in common, there are differences in terms of how they operate and how they pay out winnings. The average rate of return of a video poker machine cannot be determined easily because it will depend on the particular game being played.
What is the simplest type of video poker?
Players commonly claim Jacks or Better to be the easiest to understand. In this variant, the players are using poker hands they are already familiar with to play.
Should you always play maximum coins in video poker?
Payout possibilities can vary depending on the number of played coins.Some machines offer a different royal flush payout at the maximum coin level.
What does full-pay mean in video poker?
“Full-pay” describes a machine offering a particular standard payout table for that game type. A 9/6 Jacks or Better machine, for example, has different payouts for certain hands than an 8/5 version.
Is video poker a game of skill or luck?
It involves both random outcomes and player decisions. The cards dealt are random, while the choice of which cards to keep or discard can affect the mathematical outcome.