How To Play Video Poker

Video Poker is one of the most popular games found in casinos. The games are found in land based casinos as well as online casinos. Players can pick up on video poker very easily because the game is so simple! At some casinos video poker is classified as a slots game, in fact, video poker differs from slots in two ways, in video poker a player’s actions determine the outcome of the game, slots not so much. Also, video poker games are different because the “expectation” can be determined by looking at the game, if you know what to look for. The goal for most players, is to hit a Royal Flush or other high paying hand, and cash out as a winner; by carefully choosing the games you play, you can increase the likelihood of this happening. One thing a player may want to learn about before starting a game of video poker is the poker hand rankings which are:

Royal Flush A, K, Q, J, and 10 all of the same suit.
Straight Flush Five cards in sequence and all of the same suit (such as Q, J, 10, 9, 8 of clubs).
Four of a kind Four cards of the same rank.
Full House Three of a kind, plus a pair.
Flush Five cards of the same suit.
Straight Five cards in sequence. (Ace can be high or low)
Three of a kind Three cards of the same rank.
Two pair Two cards of one rank and two cards of another rank.
Jacks or Better A pair of jacks, queens, kings or aces

Video poker games all pretty much have the same layout and gaming style but they also come with some kind of bonus round where players will have the option to play another side game to try and earn a double payout. Each casino will probably offer a different layout for the game though, many have themes and animations for the players to enjoy as well as user controls. Video poker like slots, offers their players an auto play mode. This mode is great for beginners because they can learn which hands make the best wins. Auto mode is also used by avid video poker players because they only have to select how much they want to bet & the game will do all of the work for them. The game will select the best hands at all times for the players.

How Video Poker is Played

Basically the game layout will show the pay table at the top of the screen, some casinos replace the pay table with a graphic and will use a button to bring up the pay chart if the player would like. Under that the player will see 5 cards and three buttons a Deal Button, Bet One Button or a Bet Max button each button is pretty self explanatory, if a player wants to bet one at a time they can use the bet one button until they have reached the amount they would like to bet and then click the deal button. Bet max will automatically bet the game max amount which is usually $5 and then the cards will be dealt. 5 Cards will be dealt onto the table face up, the player will then need to choose which cards to keep and which to discard by clicking the cards they would like to keep. The player will then click the Draw button which will deal out cards in place of those that were discarded. If the player has a winning hand they will be asked if they want to head to a bonus round where they can double their bet. The bonus round consists of 1 card that is face up, and 4 cards that are face down, the player must pick one card of the 4 that are face down, this card must be higher than the one that is already face up, if the player wins they can continue playing the bonus round, doubling their bet each time or they can head back to the original video poker game!