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This game is well and truly the
offspring of the recent marriage between gambling and technology. It
is a fun way to combine the fast pace of the slot machine with the
skill and strategies of the much older game of poker. It caters to our
fast paced, time-short world of video games, online casinos and desire
for gambling that is about using skill to make money.
Video poker is the
fantastic result of combining these two seemingly unrelated things,
but the major improvement of this hybrid is that the increase in
choice and control for the player. If you are playing these games in a
land-based casino you still pop your coin in the slot, but unlike the
slot machines which are purely a case of waiting to see what you spin,
video poker is about making the best hand out of the cards that you
get and then the cards that you draw.
The card hands are selected by the random number
generator in the same way that the symbols are generated on a slot
wheel, with approximately 2.5 million combinations to choose from in
the 52 card pack. Players should feel totally secure in this
randomness as the machine is constantly scrolling through a thousand
combinations every second while it is idle and the moment that you
click to make it deal a number is selected which corresponds to a
combination of cards and replacement cards that will appear next if
drawn. All of the winning combinations have exactly the same odds of
appearing as they do in the real game of poker, for example the ‘royal
flush’ appears about once in every 649740 hands!
The object of
video poker is exactly the same as for
poker. You are trying to make a winning hand out of the five cards you
are dealt by the computer. Just as in normal poker you select the
cards you wish to keep, by clicking a button to hold the cards and
then drawing to replace the cards that you have elected not to keep.
The computer assesses the hand to find the best combination and then
pays you according to the payout schedule.
Because you are only playing against the machine it
is worth remembering that you can take your time, there is no one to
rush you. This is a real asset to your playing strategy especially if
you are playing online. It means that there is time to search through
the tables of information that you find through links from video poker
sites, telling you what cards to hold and which to discard when you
are dealt a specific hand. Consulting these support tables is an
excellent strategy which will really help increase your winnings.
Playing your hunches and instincts will very often give you lower odds
of winning than consulting these tables.
Another important tip is to keep aware of the ‘pay
tables’ and use the information on them to search out the best
machines and games on the net. It is always with playing the 9/6
machines, which means the machines that pay a full house at 9:1 and a
flush at 6:1. this is the only area that differs in terms of the
winning odds between machines and in the long run this difference is
quite significant is giving a player a 99.5% payout in comparison to
an 8/5 machine which has a 97.3% payout by giving a full house 8:1 and
a full house 5:1. These percentages are assuming that you will hit a
royal flush at least once in your game.
Not all games of video poker are the same and for
that reason not all payouts are the same either. It is always a
worthwhile process to read the information on the chart. You should
check that you can at least recoup your initial bet by getting a pair
of jacks or better, but ideally choose the game with the highest
payout. The games that generally feature the best terms are ‘Deuces
Wild’, ‘Jacks or Better’ at 9/6 and ‘Double Bonus’ at 10/7. Keep in
mind that progressive games generally have lower payouts unless the
jackpot is high enough!
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