Video Poker Strategy, Rules & General Overview

Video Poker was first introduced to the world in the 1970's but received a cool reviews because of the low payouts.  Payouts have improved since then and it's now one of the hottest games. This is a very popular form of gambling, both in online casinos in and land-based casinos and continues to grow daily. This type of game is played very fast, while providing hours of nonstop excitement. Choosing to play Video Poker you must have a combination of skill and luck. Most Video Poker games come in different denominations so that players with all types of bank rolls can play. You can play from as little as a nickel to in some cases as much as five dollars. Most games are based on a five-card draw poker, where players are dealt five cards and can get rid of any of them to try to make their hand better. New cards are then dealt in place of those cards that were thrown out and the final  cards decide who wins the hand.

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This is what players spend hours on end trying to master, many think that the game is never mastered, some are just better than others are. If you happen to be a serious poker player you can usually find the game or chances that will give you the advantage over the house.

To be a good poker player, or gambler for that fact you have to be able to find an advantage, this however is not easy because if it were then every time someone played poker or gambled they would win. This is a very serious game with ups and downs that usually require nerves of steal and a nice sized bankroll. Video Poker has many variations of the game and each separate one has its own different strategy, players must know what the best pay tables are, where to find them, how they should play them, and finally what the pay tables actually mean. In this game the players can get the advantage, which of course means that they will be able to win. The basic idea of the game is to end up with the best five-card poker hand at the end of the game and you win the pot.

Each different Video Poker game has is own type of personality and rewards players in its own way. Taking the time to learn more than one strategy will end up paying off in the long run, you will be able to make more of an informed decision and possibly end up winning more. One thing that rings true in all of these games online is that you must pay attention to that make it or break it “hold” button. Some people are very into the game and they don’t pay attention and hit the button and either make themselves accidentally throw away a good card or keep a bad one. Make sure that all of the cards that you want to keep are held before you press the button to draw new cards. Also make sure to check the game you are playing because they are not all the same, some games have a discard button instead of a hold button, you don’t want to throw out a Royal Flush because you didn’t pay attention to the buttons.

If you are looking for a great Video Poker game then you should always try to find one that pays 9 to 1 for a Full House, and 6 to 1 for a Flush which will in the end give you the best pay out rates. But, if you find a Four of a Kind bonus game that is paying 7 or 8 to 1 for a Full House and 5 to 1 for a Flush that is also a great find and will end up paying out more than most.

Whatever you do you want to pick one strategy and stay with it, you really should go out and find several different general strategies and try to follow all of them because in the end you will probably end up losing money rather than gaining. First you must decided whether you want to go for the huge win with the Royal Flush and a possible pay out of 650,000 to 1 or if you want to play for a long time and get the best payback. To start off with you must know the value of the cards and the basic poker hands.

Cards are ranked in order of number from high to low, Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and Ace (Ace is mentioned twice because it can be counted as either a high card or a low card). There are four suits of cards, none are higher ranking than another one they are Diamonds, Spades, Hearts, and Clubs. Remember that some games do have wild cards, which can be any card and this helps you make a better hand, more often. The basic hands are as follows;

Royal Flush is five cards of the same suit that are Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten.

Five of a Kind is only possible when you are using wild cards because there are only 4 of each card otherwise. If more than one person has Five of a Kind then the highest hand wins.

Straight Flush is a great natural hand; it has five cards in order, that are all the same suit.

Four of a Kind is when a player gets all four suits that have the same number.

Full House contains three of a kind and a pair, which means three same cards and a pair of the same numbered cards, such as Q,Q,Q,55.

Flush is when all five of the cards in your hand are the same suit. A Straight is when all five of your cards are in order like 45678.

Three of a Kind is when you get three of the same numbered cards in your hand.

Two Pair is when you have to pairs of same numbered cards in your hand.

One Pair is one pair of the same numbered cards.

High Card  is not a winning hand as above, but can be used to break a tie. Say if two players have a pair of Queens and a pair of Tens, the last card in their hand would decided the winner, that is the High Card.

You must also know when it is time to give up your hand “fold”, to “raise” the bet, and when to “call”. When you call you are betting enough to match what has been wagered since the last time you bet. Raising the bet is obviously raising the bet from what another player has bet, and folding is when you know that you don’t have a winning hand and you get out so you don’t loose more money. If you are a beginner, it is wise for you to practice in a play mode before you play for real money, this way you can make sure that you have an idea of what you are doing before you start betting and losing money.

One piece of advice is don’t ever keep a High Card if it is by itself, like if you had four cards you wanted to discard but there was an Ace you want to keep, don’t keep it, chances are it won’t work out they way you want it to. Possibly the most important thing you should realize while playing Video Poker whether you are a beginner or you have been playing all your life it that you should study the machine/game before you play it. You want to know for sure what you are getting into before you start betting on it. The best thing to do right after to start playing for real money if you are a new player is to play on a machine with the lowest possible denomination, this way you can have hours of fun and not end up spending a lot of your bankroll. Not only will it allow you to keep up your bankroll but it will allow you to further feed your knowledge of the game so that when you start playing for one and five dollars you might not loose as much money because you have some idea as to what you are doing.

So if you are a player that wants to play a game where you can get the advantage over the house, or if you love playing poker and want to be able to play for real money, then Video Poker is one of the greatest choices you could possibly make. It offers hours of fun, along with amazing payouts and excitement and action that never ends. Video Poker has been around for about 30 or so years and in all of that time they have continued to make new breakthroughs in gambling fun and will continue for the next generations of poker players all over the world. This game can be found at almost all of the online casinos.