02.16
How to Play Video Poker
Electronic Poker is a popular game that usually will be bet on in casinos around the world, or alternatively at home on your computer, through a net account. The game rules are absolutely straightforward and involve the player trying to achieve the highest mixture of cards possible in order to win money. In this respect it is very similar as a regular game of poker, minus the involvement with competing players. Of course, methods used in a physical game of poker, like tricking, will be useless in Video Poker.
The game of Electronic Poker begins when the gambler puts credits (either tokens, tickets or money) into the machine and pushes the draw button. A hand of five cards will then be electronically ‘dealt’ on the video screen.
The Video Poker machine also has hold buttons, and gamblers should now choose which cards to keep and which to throw away. For the cards the enthusiast would like to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons should 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 enthusiast has selected which cards she would like to retain, they should press ‘deal’, at which point any fresh cards are needed they will be handed out. The round is now completed, with the Electronic Poker machine analyzing the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands shown on the payout schedule.
Typically, the minimum succeeding 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, and moves 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 definitely goes without saying that the payment schedule can change from machine to machine, so that experienced gamblers are agile enough to choose the most money-making game each instance.
Once the first round has played out, the player can either decide to continue on and try to to maximize their earnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any credits that might been won. Further, some styles of the game allow the enthusiast an opportunity to double their wins, in which situation another hand is played. There are also variations between individual machines, with some decks of cards having wild cards and other varying characteristics to increase playability.