How to Play Video Poker
Video Poker is kind of a combination between five card draw and slots. You can either play it at a live casino or at home in your living room in your pajamas. You can play it at home via one of the many video poker sites online. Some of these sites offer a fun mode where you do not have to bet any money while you are learning how to play.
In order to play Video Poker, you need to know how basic five card draw poker works. The possible combinations are pairs (two of a kind), two pairs, three of a kind, straight (five consecutive cards), flush (five cards of one suit), full house (three of a kind and a two of a kind), four of a kind, straight flush (five consecutive cards of one suit) and royal flush (ace, king, queen, jack, ten of the same suit).
The royal flush is always hand to win the jackpot in any video poker game. If you are playing a video poker game with wild cards, you must get a "natural royal flush" or a royal flush without any wild cards.
You can pay between 1 to 5 coins per hand. The coin value is determined by what machine you are on, i.e. quarter or dollar machine. The machine deals you with 5 cards and you have to choose from these which ones to hold and which ones to discard.
Once you have made up your decision, you press deal and get your replacement cards. At this point (for most video poker games), the game is over. There is a chart on the screen that shows how much money you win per the number of coins you bet. You must make a qualifying hand to win your money back.
View some more advanced video poker strategies
Different Video Poker Variations
Aces and Faces or Jacks or Better - both of these mean the same thing. If a casino has both of these games, then the payout structure is going to be slightly different between the two games. You must get a pair of Jacks or higher in order to win.
Tens or Better - same game as above, but this game allows you to win your money back with a pair of 10's
Joker Poker - the game is played with a 53 card deck that has one joker card, which is wild and can be substituted for any other card. The qualifying hand is a pair of Kings or better.
Double Joker Poker - this game is played with two jokers in the deck. Each joker is wild. Two pair is the minimum qualifying hand.
Deuces Wild - played with a 52 card deck, but the four two's are wild cards. You must get at least a three of a kind to qualify.
Deuces and Jokers - this video poker game has six wild cards. Even though you still must get a three of a kind or higher, the payouts are slightly lower than Deuces Wild
Multiple Hand Video Poker
This is a cool feature some video poker games have. You get to play
multiple hands. Usually this works in one of two ways.
1. You have to play one hand at a time, then advanced to the next hand for a chance to win a larger payout. This is a fun game to try to chance for a big win. I've seen up to four hands that you can win for a large bonus.
2. You are deciding which cards you are going to keep. Once you have locked in which cards to keep, you are holding these cards in each of your hands. For every hand you have, random cards are given to each hand. Some of the hands get completed and some don't. Each hand is a percentage of what you bet total, so you may not entirely win your money back by hitting one hand.
