Video Poker is a popular game that can be enjoyed in casinos throughout the world, or alternatively at your house on your personal computer, through an Internet account. The rules are very simple and involve the player trying to achieve the highest mixture of cards possible in order to come away with money. In this respect it’s very similar as a normal game of poker, without the involvement with competing players. Of course, techniques employed during a real-life game of poker, like tricking, will be useless in Video Poker.
The game of Electronic Poker begins when the enthusiast puts credits (either tokens, tickets or cash) into the video poker machine and pushes the draw button. A hand of 5 cards will be electronically ‘distributed’ on the video screen.
The Electronic Poker game also has hold buttons, and enthusiasts should now choose which cards to hold and which to discard. For the cards the player wishes to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any number of cards they wish, whether it is all or none.
After the player has chosen which cards he wishes to retain, they should press ‘draw’, at which point any new cards will be handed out if desired. The hand is now finished, with the Video Poker machine scanning the cards to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands listed in the payout schedule.
Generally, the lowest 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 common list of winning hands begins with jacks or better, moving on to two pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It should be known that the payment schedule can range from machine to machine, so that knowledgeable players are able to choose the most money-making machine every instance.
Once the initial round has finished, the player can either decide to continue on and try to to maximize their earnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any credits that they may have won. Further, several versions of the game give the enthusiast a chance to double their wins, in which case a further hand is played. There are also differences among specific games, with some decks of cards including wild cards and other varying characteristics to increase playability.