Electronic Poker is a beloved game that can be bet on in casinos all over the world, or alternatively at your house on your personal computer, through a net connection. The game rules are absolutely simple and involve the player trying to achieve the best mixture of cards possible in order to win money. In this respect it is much the same as a normal game of poker, minus the interaction with competing players. Of course, techniques used in a real-life game of poker, such as tricking, will be useless in Video Poker.
The game of Video Poker starts when the enthusiast inserts credits (whether it’s tokens, credit slips or cash) into the video poker machine and pushes the deal button. A hand of five cards will then be electronically ‘given out’ on the video screen.
The Video Poker game also has hold buttons, and gamblers will need to now choose which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the gambler wishes to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons must be pressed so that they illuminate. The player can decide to keep any number of cards they want, whether it is all or none.
After the enthusiast has selected which cards she wishes to retain, the player will then press ‘deal’, at which point any fresh cards will be given out if desired. The round 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 pay out schedule.
Typically, the lowest winning hand on an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money getting larger for each and every better hand. A list of common winning hands begins with jacks or better, moving on to 2 pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It is obvious that the payment schedule can change from machine to machine, so that experienced bettors are agile enough to select the most profitable machine each instance.
After the first round has played out, the player can either choose to remain on and try to to increase their winnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any credits that they may have won. Further, several versions of the game allow the gambler a chance to double their winnings, in which case a further round is played. There are also variations among specific machines, with some decks of cards including wild cards and other varying characteristics to increase playability.