Electronic Poker is a popular game that usually will be bet on in casinos all over the world, or alternatively at home on your PC, using a net account. The rules are absolutely simple and consist of the player trying to achieve the highest combination of cards possible in order to come away with money. In this respect it’s very similar as a regular game of poker, without the interaction with any other players. Of course, tactics employed during a physical game of poker, like tricking, will be irrelevant in Video Poker.
The game of Video Poker starts when the gambler inserts credits (either tokens, tickets or money) into the machine and presses the draw button. A 5 card hand will be "dealt" on the screen.
The Electronic Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and players will need to now pick which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the bettor wishes to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons must be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any amount of cards they wish, from all to none.
After the gambler has selected which cards she wishes to retain, the player will then press ‘draw’, which will mean that any new cards will be given out if desired. The game is now finished, with the Video Poker machine scanning the cards to see if it matches any of the winning hands listed in the pay out schedule.
Normally, the lowest succeeding hand on an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money increasing for each better hand. A list of common winning hands begins with jacks or better, and moves on to two pairs, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It definitely goes without saying that the pay out schedule can vary from game to game, so that experienced gamblers are agile enough to choose the most profitable ones each and every instance.
As soon as the first round has completed, the player can either choose to remain on and try to to increase their winnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any money that they may have won. Further, a few versions of the game allow the gambler a chance to increase their winnings, in which situation another game is played. There are also variations among individual games, with some decks of cards having wild cards and other varying aspects to increase playability.