Video Poker is a popular game that usually will be played in casinos throughout the world, or alternatively at home on your home computer, using a web connection. The rules are absolutely straightforward and involve the player trying to get the greatest mixture of cards as you can in order to come away with cash. In this respect it’s much the same as a regular game of poker, minus the interaction with any other players. Of course, techniques used in a physical game of poker, like bluffing, will be irrelevant in Video Poker.
The game of Video Poker starts when the player puts credits (either tokens, credit slips or cash) into the video poker machine and presses the deal button. A hand of 5 cards will then be "handed out" on the video screen.
The Video Poker machine also has hold buttons, and enthusiasts should now decide which cards to hold and which to throw away. For the cards the bettor would like to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any number of cards they wish, from all to none.
After the player has selected which cards she wishes to keep, the player will then press ‘draw’, which will mean that any fresh cards will be needed they will be handed out. The hand is now completed, with the Electronic Poker machine scanning the hand to see if it matches any of the winning hands listed in the pay out schedule.
Generally, the minimum winning hand on an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money growing for each 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, four of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It is obvious that the payment schedule can range from game to game, so that experienced bettors are able to pick the most profitable game each time.
After the first round has finished, the player can either decide to stay on and try to to maximize their earnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any cash that they may have won. Additionally, several styles of the game give the enthusiast a chance to increase their wins, in which situation a further hand is played. There are also differences among specific games, with some decks of cards having wild cards and other differing aspects to increase playability.