Video Poker is a popular game that can be enjoyed in casinos around the world, or alternatively at your house on your home computer, through a web account. The rules are very straightforward and consist of the player trying to achieve the greatest assemblage of cards as you can in order to win cash. In this respect it is much the same as a classic game of poker, apart from the involvement with other players. Of course, tactics employed during a physical game of poker, such as bluffing, will be useless here.
The game of Electronic Poker starts when the gambler puts credits (either tokens, credit slips or cash) into the machine and pushes the deal button. A hand of 5 cards will then be electronically ‘distributed’ on the screen.
The Video Poker machine also has hold buttons, and bettors will need to now choose which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the bettor would like to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any amount of cards they wish, whether it’s all or none.
After the player has selected which cards she would like to retain, they should press ‘deal’, which will mean that any new cards will be needed they will be handed out. The hand is now completed, with the Electronic Poker machine scanning the cards to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands printed on the payout schedule.
Normally, the lowest winning hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize 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, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It definitely goes without saying that the pay out schedule can vary from machine to machine, so that skillful bettors are agile enough to select the most profitable machine every instance.
Once the first round has completed, the player can either decide to remain on and try to to increase their winnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any cash that they may have won. Further, several versions of the game allow the player an opportunity to double their profits, in which instance a further round is played. There are also variations between specific machines, with some decks of cards including wild cards and other differing elements to increase playability.