Video Poker is a popular game that can be played in casinos across the world, or in your house on your PC, using a web account. The rules are very straightforward and consist of the player attempting to get the greatest combination of cards achievable in order to acquire cash. In this respect it is much the same as a regular game of poker, minus 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 Electronic Poker begins when the bettor inserts credits (whether it’s tokens, credit slips or cash) into the machine and presses the draw button. A hand of 5 cards will then be electronically ‘distributed’ on the video screen.
The Electronic Poker game also has hold buttons, and players will need to now decide which cards to hold and which to discard. For the cards the gambler wishes to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons must be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any number of cards they want, whether it is all or none.
After the player has chosen which cards she wishes to keep, they should press ‘deal’, at which point any fresh cards will be dealt if desired. The game is now completed, with the Video Poker machine scanning the hand to see if it matches any of the winning hands shown on the pay out schedule.
Normally, the minimum winning hand on an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money increasing for each and every better hand. A common list of winning hands begins with jacks or better, and moves on to two pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It goes without saying that the payment schedule can vary from machine to machine, so that knowledgeable bettors are agile enough to choose the most money-making machine each instance.
Once the first round has completed, the player can either decide to remain on and try to to increase their earnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any credits that they may have won. Additionally, some styles of the game give the player an opportunity to double their profits, in which case another game is played. There are also variations between specific machines, with some decks of cards including wild cards and other differing aspects to increase playability.