Video Poker is a beloved game that usually will be played in casinos across the world, or in your house on your personal computer, using an Internet account. The rules are absolutely straightforward and involve the player attempting to get the greatest mixture of cards possible in order to win cash. In this respect it is very similar as a classic game of poker, apart from the involvement with competing players. Of course, techniques used in a real-life game of poker, like tricking, will be useless here.
The game of Video Poker begins when the gambler inserts credits (whether it’s tokens, credit slips or cash) into the video poker machine and pushes the play button. A hand of five cards will then be electronically ‘distributed’ on the screen.
The Video Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and gamblers should now pick which cards to hold and which to throw away. For the cards the enthusiast would like to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons must be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any number of cards they want, from all to none.
After the enthusiast has selected which cards he wishes to keep, the player will then press ‘deal’, at which point any fresh cards will be dealt if desired. The round is now finished, with the Video Poker machine analyzing the hand to see if it matches any of the winning hands shown on the pay out schedule.
Typically, the minimum winning hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money growing for each and every better hand. A list of common winning hands starts 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 goes without saying that the payment schedule can change from game to game, so that experienced gamblers are agile enough to select the most beneficial machine each instance.
After the first round has completed, the player can either decide to continue on and try to to increase their winnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any cash that they may have won. Additionally, several versions of the game allow the enthusiast an opportunity to double their winnings, in which instance another game is played. There are also variations among specific games, with some virtual decks having wild cards and other differing characteristics to increase playability.