Video Poker is a popular game that is able to be played in casinos all over the world, or in your house on your computer, using a net connection. The game rules are absolutely straightforward and involve the player trying to get the best combination of cards possible in order to win money. In this respect it’s very similar as a normal game of poker, minus the line of contact with any other players. Of course, tactics used in a real-life game of poker, like tricking, will be useless in Video Poker.
The game of Electronic Poker begins when the player inserts credits (whether it’s tokens, credit slips or cash) into the video poker machine and presses the play button. A hand of 5 cards will then be "dealt" on the video screen.
The Video Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ printed on them, and bettors will need to now pick which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the enthusiast would like to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons should 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 decided on which cards he or she would like to retain, the player will then press ‘deal’, which will mean that any new cards are handed out if desired. The round is now completed, with the Electronic Poker machine scanning the cards to see if it matches any of the winning hands listed in the payout schedule.
Generally, the minimum succeeding hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money increasing for each better hand. A common list of winning hands starts with jacks or better, moving 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 payout schedule can change from machine to machine, so that knowledgeable bettors are able to select the most money-making game every instance.
Once the first round has finished, the player can either choose to remain on and try to to maximize their earnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any money that they may have won. Additionally, a few versions of the game give the bettor an opportunity to double their profits, in which case a further round is played. There are also variations among specific games, with some decks of cards including wild cards and other varying aspects to increase playability.