Video Poker is a beloved game that can be wagered on in casinos across the world, or alternatively at your house on your home computer, through a net connection. The game rules are very simple and consist of the player trying to get the best mixture of cards as you can in order to acquire money. In this respect it is very similar as a classic game of poker, minus the line of contact with any other players. Of course, methods employed during a real-life game of poker, such as bluffing, will be irrelevant here.
The game of Electronic Poker begins when the gambler puts credits (either tokens, tickets or cash) into the video poker machine and presses the deal button. A hand of five cards will then be electronically ‘distributed’ on the screen.
The Video Poker machine also has hold buttons, and players will need to now decide which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the bettor wishes to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any number of cards they wish, whether it is all or none.
After the gambler has selected which cards he or she wishes to retain, the player will then press ‘draw’, at which point any new cards will be given out if desired. The game is now finished, with the Video Poker machine scanning the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands listed in the payment schedule.
Typically, the lowest succeeding hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money increasing for each better hand. A list of common winning hands begins with jacks or better, moving 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 pay out schedule can range from game to game, so that discerning bettors are agile enough to select the most beneficial machine each time.
Once the initial round has played out, the player can either choose to remain on and try to to maximize their earnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any money that might have been won. Further, a few styles of the game give the enthusiast a chance to increase their winnings, in which case another hand is played. There are also differences among individual machines, with some decks of cards having wild cards and other varying aspects to enhance playability.
