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Video poker is a casino game based on five-card drawpoker. It is played on a computerized console similar in size to a slot machine.
History[edit]
Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television-like monitor with a solid statecentral processing unit. The earliest models appeared at the same time as the first personal computers were produced, in the mid-1970s, although they were primitive by today's standards.
Video poker became more firmly established when SIRCOMA, which stood for Si Redd's Coin Machines (and which evolved over time to become International Game Technology), introduced Draw Poker in 1979. Throughout the 1980s video poker became increasingly popular in casinos, as people found the devices less intimidating than playing table games. Today video poker enjoys a prominent place on the gaming floors of many casinos. The game is especially popular with Las Vegas locals, who tend to patronize locals casinos off the Las Vegas Strip. These local casinos often offer lower denomination machines or better odds.
A few people that are skilled in calculating odds have made money playing video poker.[1]
The game[edit]
After inserting money (or a bar-coded paper ticket with credit) into the machine, play begins by placing a bet of one or more credits and pressing the 'deal' button. The player is then given 5 cards (like five-card draw) and has the opportunity to discard one or more of them in exchange for new ones drawn from the same virtual deck. After the draw, the machine pays out if the hand or hands played match one of the winning combinations, which are posted in the pay table. Unlike the table version, the player may discard all 5 of their original cards if they so choose.[2]
Pay tables allocate the payouts for hands and are based on how rare they are, the game variation, and the decision of the game operator. A typical pay table starts with a minimum hand of a pair of jacks, which pays even money. All the other hand combinations in video poker are the same as in table poker, including such hands as two pair, three of a kind, straight (a sequence of 5 cards of consecutive value), flush (any 5 cards of the same suit), full house (a pair and a three of a kind), four of a kind (four cards of the same value), straight flush (5 consecutive cards of the same suit) and royal flush (a Ten, a Jack, a Queen, a King and an Ace of the same suit).[3]
Some machines offer progressive jackpots or other unique bonuses, spurring players to both play more coins and to play more frequently.
Regulation[edit]
Video poker machines in casinos in the United States are regulated by state or Indian gaming agencies. These agencies typically require that the machines deal random card sequences using a virtual deck of cards. This is based on a Nevada Gaming Commission regulation later adopted by other states with a gaming authority. Video poker machines are tested to ensure compliance with this requirement before they are offered to the public.
Variations[edit]
There are many variations of video poker. They include Deuces Wild, where a two serves as a wild card; Joker's Wild, where a joker serves as a wild card; Anything's Wild, where the player selects any card (by rank) to act as the wild card before the hand is dealt; pay schedule modification, where four aces with a four or smaller kicker pays an enhanced amount (these games usually have some adjective in the title such as 'bonus', 'double', or 'triple'); and multi-play poker, where the player starts with a base hand, and each additional played hand draws from a different set of cards with the base hand. (Multi-play games are offered in 'Triple Play', 'Five Play', 'Ten Play', 'Fifty Play' and 'One Hundred Play' versions.)
In games which do not have a wild card, a player on average will receive the rare four-of-a-kind hand approximately once every 500 hands, while a player may play tens of thousands of hands before a royal flush, which usually has the highest payout.
Video poker games online are now available in the US in 3 different states: New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada. Players in all three states are able to enjoy fully regulated online video poker games provided that they are physically present in the respective state, of legal age to gamble, and can validate their identity.
Full pay games[edit]
When modern video poker games first appeared, the highest-paying common variant of a particular game was called 'full-pay'. Game variants that returned a lower payback percentage were termed 'Short-Pay'. Though the term full-pay is still in use, today, there are many game variants that return more. Payback percentage expresses the long-term expected value of the player's wager as a percentage if the game is played perfectly. A payback percentage of 99 percent, for example, indicates that for each $100 wagered, in the long run, the player would expect to lose $1 if they played every hand in the optimal way. Full-pay Jacks or Better, for example, offers a payback percentage of 99.54%. Some payback percentages on full-pay games are often close to or even in excess of 100 percent.
Casinos do not usually advertise payback percentages, leaving it up to the player to identify which video poker machines offer the best schedules.
The payoff schedules for most video poker machines are configured with a pay schedule that pays proportionally more for certain hands (such as a royal flush) when the maximum number of credits (typically 5 coins) is bet. Therefore, players who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are playing with a smaller theoretical return.
Jacks or Better[edit]
'Jacks or Better,' sometimes simply called 'Draw Poker,' is the most common variation of video poker. Payoffs begin at a pair of jacks. Full pay Jacks or Better is also known as 9/6 Jacks or Better since the payoff for a full house is 9 times the bet, and the payoff for a flush is 6 times the bet.[4] Sometimes, 10/6 and 9/7 versions of Jacks or Better can be found as promotions.[5]
| Hand | Prize | Combinations | Probability | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 800 | 41,126,022 | 0.000025 | 1.9807% |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 181,573,608 | 0.000109 | 0.5465% |
| Four of a kind | 25 | 3,924,430,647 | 0.002363 | 5.9064% |
| Full House | 9 | 19,122,956,883 | 0.011512 | 10.3610% |
| Flush | 6 | 18,296,232,180 | 0.011015 | 6.6087% |
| Straight | 4 | 18,653,130,482 | 0.011229 | 4.4918% |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 123,666,922,527 | 0.074449 | 22.3346% |
| Two Pair | 2 | 214,745,513,679 | 0.129279 | 25.8558% |
| Jacks or Better | 1 | 356,447,740,914 | 0.214585 | 21.4585% |
| All Other | 0 | 906,022,916,158 | 0.545435 | 0.0000% |
| Totals | - | 1,661,102,543,100 | 1.000000 | 99.5439% |
Bally's All American[edit]
Bally Technologies All American video poker is based on Jacks or Better with an increased payout for flushes, straights and straight flushes, but reduced payout for full houses and two pairs (8-8-8-3-1 versus 9-6-4-3-2). The full pay version (quads return 50 bets), once common but now rare, is one of the highest return versions of video poker offered, but the play strategy is very complex and mastered by few. IGT's version of the game is called USA Poker.
Tens or Better[edit]
'Tens or Better' is a variation of 6/5 Jacks or Better. The minimum paying hand is a pair of tens, rather than a pair of Jacks. Strategy is similar between the two games, in spite of the very different full house and flush payouts.
Joker's Wild[edit]
'Joker's Wild', as the name implies, adds a joker to the mix. The joker is fully wild and substitutes to make stronger hands. The inclusion of the wild joker also adds another winning hand in 5-of-a-kind. The game's name inspired a game show of the same name. The full pay version of Joker Two Pair or better (6-7-8), once common but now rare, is one of the highest return versions of video poker offered, but the play strategy is very complex and mastered by few.
Deuces Wild[edit]
'Deuces Wild' is a variation of video poker in which all twos are wild. (Wild cards substitute for any other card in the deck in order to make a better poker hand). In Deuces Wild, the payout for a four of a kind makes up approximately ⅓ of the payback percentage of the game, and a four of a kind occurs on average approximately every fifteen hands. Deuces Wild can be found with pay schedules that offer a theoretical return as high as 100.8 percent, when played with perfect strategy. This full-pay version is found only in Nevada. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:
| Hand | 1 credit | 2 credits | 3 credits | 4 credits | 5 credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Royal Flush | 300 | 600 | 900 | 1200 | 4000 |
| Four Deuces | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1000 |
| Wild Royal Flush | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Five of a Kind | 15 | 30 | 45 | 60 | 75 |
| Straight Flush | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Four of a Kind | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Full House | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Flush | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Straight | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Three of a Kind | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Theoretical Return | 99.7% | 99.7% | 99.7% | 99.7% | 100.8% |
Variations are available that pay different amounts for the quad 'deuces', such as Double Deuces (2000), Loose Deuces (2500), Triple Deuces (3000), and Royal Deuces (4000). Full pay Loose Deuces (25-17-10), once common but now rare, is one of the highest return versions of video poker offered.
Sigma Flush Attack[edit]
Sigma Flush Attack is a combination of video poker and a banking slot, in this case what is being banked is flushes.[6] After 3,4, or 5 flushes (varies by machine), the machine switches into 'flush attack mode' in which the next flush pays 100 or 125 credits instead of the more usual 30 credits of 9-6 Jacks or Better. Some of these machines are linked, which means players can simply wait for someone else to put the bank in flush attack mode, or alternately with non-linked machines a player can play after observing a previous player hit flushes but not enough to trigger the flush attack, a practice called 'vulturing'. The higher payoff of the flush attack represents one of the higher overlays of video poker. These machines, once common, are now relatively rare.
Bonus Poker[edit]
'Bonus Poker' is a video poker game based on Jacks or Better, but Bonus Poker offers a higher payout percentage for four of a kind. The full-pay version of this game returns 99.2%. (3)The game has multiple versions featuring different bonus payouts based on the ranking of the four of a kind.
Double Bonus[edit]
'Double Bonus' video poker is a variation of Jacks or Better with a bonus payout for four aces. This variation offers up to a theoretical return of 100.2 percent, when played with perfect strategy — however, this % is only on a '10/7' version video poker game (10/7 being the payouts for a full house and a flush). There are many other video poker varieties of 10/6, 9/6, etc. that have slightly lower than the most generous 10/7 version payout. Although the full-pay version has a theoretically-positive return, few play well enough to capitalize on it. Double Bonus is a complex game.(4)
It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:
| Hand | 1 credit | 2 credits | 3 credits | 4 credits | 5 credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four Aces | 160 | 320 | 480 | 640 | 800 |
| Four 2, 3, or 4 | 80 | 160 | 240 | 320 | 400 |
| Four 5-K | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Full House | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 |
| Flush | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 | 35 |
| Straight | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two Pair | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Jacks or Better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Theoretical Return | 99.1% | 99.1% | 99.1% | 99.1% | 100.2% |
Double Double Bonus[edit]
'Double Double Bonus' video poker is a variation of Jacks or Better which offers bonus payoffs for different four of a kinds, as seen in the payout table below. Full pay Double Double Bonus can be found with pay schedules that offer up to a theoretical return of 100.1 percent, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:
| Hand | 1 credit | 2 credits | 3 credits | 4 credits | 5 credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four Aces w/2, 3, or 4 | 400 | 800 | 1200 | 1600 | 2000 |
| Four 2, 3, or 4 w/A-4 | 160 | 320 | 480 | 640 | 800 |
| Four Aces | 160 | 320 | 480 | 640 | 800 |
| Four 2, 3, or 4 | 80 | 160 | 240 | 320 | 400 |
| Four 5-K | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Full House | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 |
| Flush | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Straight | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two Pair | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Jacks or Better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Theoretical Return | 98.9% | 98.9% | 98.9% | 98.9% | 100.1% |
Low pay video poker games[edit]
Often casinos choose to use pay tables which reduce the maximum payout percentage as compared to other commonly available game variants. This increases the house edge, but generally reduces net revenue for the casino as players experience less 'play time' on the machine, busting out of their buy-in at an earlier point. Casinos that reduce paytables generally have to increase promotions to compensate and attract customers.
9/5 Jacks or Better[edit]
9/5 Jacks or Better is a low pay version of the game. The payout for making a Flush is cut from 6x your bet to 5x your bet, but all other payouts remain the same. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 98.45% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.
8/6 Jacks or Better[edit]
8/6 Jacks or Better is another often used pay table for Jacks or Better games. The payout for making a Full House is cut from 9x your bet to 8x your bet, while all other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 98.39% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.
8/5 Jacks or Better[edit]
8/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full House payout from 9x your bet to 8x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet to 5x your bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 97.30% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus. A common promotion used by casinos to encourage play on this tight paytable was to add a 2% progressive meter to the royal flush.
7/5 Jacks or Better[edit]
7/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full House payout from 9x your bet to 7x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet to 5x your bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 96.15% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.
6/5 Jacks or Better[edit]
6/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full House payout from 9x your bet to 6x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet to 5x your bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to 95.00% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.
Progressive jackpot games[edit]
Other kinds of video poker only have positive theoretical returns when the progressive jackpot is high enough. Many establishments advertise with a billboard when the progressive jackpot is high enough. Otherwise sub-optimal games like 8/5 jacks or better can become positive expectation when the jackpot is large enough.
Terminology[edit]
As with regular poker, there are many different terms and phrases that are associated with playing video poker. Not knowing these terms may cause a disadvantage to anyone playing the game. The most important video poker terms [7] have been added to the table below.
| Video Poker Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Full Pay | The highest paying variant of a video poker game. Typically with high return-to-player game percentages. |
| Low Pay | Refers to video poker games which increase the house edge and reduce the return-to-player percentage. |
| Natural Royal Flush | A unique case when the highest possible hand, a Royal Flush, is dealt to the player. |
| Power Poker | Theoretically the most profitable poker strategy. |
| Multi-Play | A feature that allows participants to play with more than one hand. |
| Hold | When a player chooses to keep the cards in their hand. |
| Auto Hold | A feature available in certain video poker games. If turned on, the game automatically chooses which cards to hold. |
| Not So Ugly Ducks (NSUD) | A game most well-known for paying 16 for a 5 of a kind and 10 for a straight flush. |
| Game Denomination | Refers to the value of the cards or the coin size in a video poker game. |
| Flush | A five-card hand that contains cards of the same suit. |
| Discard | The cards you decide to throw away after the initial deal. |
| Draw | The second deal of the cards, after you have decided which cards to hold and which to discard. |
| Hand | The five cards (or less) dealt on the screen are known as a hand. |
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Montero, David; Winton, Richard; Vives, Ruben (2017-10-09). 'In the solitary world of video poker, Stephen Paddock knew how to win. Until he didn't'. Los Angeles Times. ISSN0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
- ^'Video Poker Rules & Gameplay'.
- ^'Learn Video Poker Rules and Video Poker Hand Values'. OnlineCasinosDoc.com. Retrieved 2010-08-05.
- ^'Video Poker Analyzer - Wizard of Odds'. wizardofodds.com.
- ^Video Poker Optimum Play, Dan Paymar, Table 9: Attractiveness Quotient of Selected Games, page 175, ISBN1-886070-11-3
- ^Robbing the One-Armed Bandits, Charles Lund, 1999, ISBN091057510X, page 37ff
- ^'Video Poker Online Guide'. online-gambling.com. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
External links[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Video poker. |
- Video Poker Guides at Curlie
Video poker machines provide an excellent opportunity for casino visitors to
play a game that is both fun and lucrative. These machines can be found in just
about any casino of note throughout the world, and they are often the choice of
those who want a combination of slot machine and table game qualities. Even with
online video poker becoming more popular every day, the area on the floor full
of video poker machines is usually one of the hottest spots in the casino.
When you play
video poker in a casino, you do so on machines that are dedicated to the
activity. These machines have come a long way from their original incarnations
when the results weren’t always so random, and they could be manipulated
somewhat by people behind the scenes. The results now are based entirely on the
probabilities of making poker hands and the payouts for each of those winning
hands.
In the beginning of video poker’s heyday, there were only a few brands of
machines that were available. Most of those were based on the Jacks or Better
model, which was itself based on five card draw poker. But the game has grown
immensely over the past couple of decades to the point where you can find many
different variations of video poker machines in your local casino.
The exciting thing about video poker machines in the modern era is that you
can easily find one that fits the style of gambling that you prefer. If you are
the conservative type, sticking to the Jacks or Better games will be the right
way for you to go. But the more adventurous among you can shoot for the bonus
pay tables, wild card games, or twists on video poker that can be easily found
in the casinos.
As a gambler, the wide variety of video poker machines available to you
really gives you the freedom of choice. But it’s important to be able to tell
how those games are different from each other when you spot them in a casino. To
do that, it’s crucial that you also know how to use even the simplest video
poker machine before branching out to the more complicated versions.
In the following article, we’ll take you through the basics of video poker
machines and why they are such a popular item in casinos all over the world.
We’ll also talk about the different games and crucial aspects of play like pay
tables and payback percentages. Finally, we’ll explain how online video poker,
which has become increasingly popular, simulates the action of video poker
machines, and how the online games differentiate from the basic machines.
How to Use a Video Poker Machine
The good news about video poker is that it’s an extremely simple game to
learn. If you know a little bit about Five Card Draw poker and understand how
different combinations of cards make up winning poker hands, you can be at a
machine and playing in hardly any time at all. Even newcomers to the concept
should be able to adjust pretty quickly and get started on video poker machines.
Video poker machines are most often located amidst the slot machines in a
casino. In fact, people often think of them in the same manner as slot machines.
But, as we’ll show you, gameplay is actually quite different.
Basically, a casino can be broken down into sections for table games like
poker and blackjack and then sections for slots, video poker, and other
self-contained machines. Let’s assume that you come upon a video poker machine
for the first time. Here is a step-by-step walkthrough of how you would play the
game.
Step 1: Establish a Bankroll
This is the part of the process where you insert money into the machine. In
the old days of video poker, this was done with coins like quarters or dimes.
Although you might still happen upon machines like this out in the world
somewhere, for the most part, coin-operated video poker machines have become
replaced by newer technology.
These days, video poker machines are usually funded with either paper money
or a ticket. There is usually a slot for you to insert bills.
Or you can take a ticket that you have gathered from playing other games in
the casino and enter that into the machine. In either case, the amount that
you’ve entered will be represented within the machine as “credits” or “coins.”
The value of a credit or a coin is equal to the denomination of the machine,
such as a quarter or a dollar. Some video poker machines give you the
opportunity to choose among several denominations. Others have a set
denomination to which you must adhere.
To determine how many credits you will get upon inserting your money, simply
divide the amount by the denomination.
If you put in $10 and are playing on a quarter machine, you will start with 40 credits, which is 10 divided by .25.
You should always decide the size of the bankroll by the length of time that
you wish to play and by the style of the game. Some games are set up so that you
can expect to stay afloat for a long time even with a modest bankroll. Other
video poker machines are more volatile, which means that you run a bigger risk
of losing all your credits if you don’t put in a substantial amount.
Step 2: Make a Bet
Most video poker machines allow you the opportunity to play between one and
five credits per hand. There are some games with twists to basic gameplay that
allow you to bet even more, often up to ten credits. These machines are somewhat
rare, but they are becoming more popular by the day with casinos and with online
gambling sites (which is why we talk about them below).
While you have the option of betting between one and five credits on basic
video poker machines, it’s always recommended that you play the max bet, which
is five coins. The reason for that is that most pay tables award a higher
proportion of payout to the royal flush hand, the most difficult hand in the
game, achieved with five coins played than they do for one through four. You can
take the chance of betting less, but you’ll be sorry if you are lucky enough to
hit the royal flush but get short-changed for it.
Step 3: Playing the Hand
Each hand played on a video poker machine begins with the deal. From a
simulated 52-card deck (sometimes 53 if there is a Joker involved), you will be
dealt five cards. It’s important to understand how this works, as it will help
you from making ill-advised decisions in terms of your strategy.
Inside the software of most video poker machines is a random number generator
or RNG. This essentially keeps the simulated deck of cards used in the game
constantly shuffled. At the moment that you hit the deal button, the shuffling
stops and the top five cards in the deck are dealt.
You will inspect these five cards for any potential winning hands. If you’re
lucky, you might have a winning hand right off the bat. But even if you don’t,
you can always improve on the hand with a draw round, which we’ll talk about in
a moment.
As for winning hands, here are the most basic winning hands that come into
play in most forms of video poker. Keep in mind that rank refers to the
numerical or face card value of the card, such as 8 or jack, while the suit
refers to whether the card belongs to the hearts, diamonds, clubs, or spades.
- Pair of jacks or better: Two cards of the same
rank, but only with jacks, queens, kings, or aces comprising the pair. - Two pair: Two sets of cards of the same rank.
- Three of a kind: Three of the same rank.
- Straight: Five cards of consecutive rank.
- Flush: Five cards of the same suit.
- Full house: Three of a kind and a pair in the
same hand. - Four of a kind: Four cards of the same rank.
- Straight flush: Five cards of consecutive rank
and of the same suit. - Royal flush: Ten through ace of the same suit.
The list above is ranked in order of how likely a player is to achieve the
hand during gameplay. In other words, the pair of jacks or better is the most
common of these hands, while the royal flush is the rarest. The rarer the hand,
the higher the payout on most video poker machines, although there are some
exceptions to this when it comes to bonus-style games.
After looking at your deal, you will then have to decide which cards you will
hold (if any) and which cards you will discard (if any). This decision will be
based on the probability of your receiving certain cards on the draw. Let’s take
a look at a sample deal so you can understand:
With this deal, even though it doesn’t yet constitute a winning hand, there
are several promising seeds which could lead to a winning hand on the deal. The
pair of fours could lead to all kinds of possibilities, while the four hearts
means that you would need to draw just one more heart for a flush. Most tempting
of all is the possibility that you could get a royal flush by drawing the ten
and ace of hearts.
Because of the massive payout for the royal flush, your correct mathematical
play would be to hold the jack, queen, and king of hearts. This would be the
play that would return you the most money if you were to play the hand an
infinite amount of times.
Let’s say that you make the decision to keep the three high hearts. At that
point, you would hit the “Hold” button underneath the specified cards on the
machine. You would then hit the “Draw” button.
Keep in mind that while you were making the decision, the RNG was constantly
shuffling the 47 cards remaining in the deck. Once you hit “Draw,” the top two
cards will be drawn for your hand, replacing the two you have discarded. At that
point, the hand is over, and it will be scored based on whether or not you have
made a winning hand.
Why is it important to understand the concept of the RNG within video poker
machines? It’s to prevent wrong-headed thinking in making your decisions about
what to hold and discard. Understanding that the RNG is present will help you
realize that every deal and draw is random and has nothing to do with any
previous hands played on that machine.
What does that mean? Well, let’s go back to that sample hand that we played
above. Imagine that you had been playing at that video poker machine for a while
and had noticed that you hadn’t received a four in quite some time on the draw.
Those who don’t understand the RNG might think then that they were “due” to
receive more fours. If they did, they might make the mistake of keeping the pair
of fours from the deal in the hopes that the other two in the deck might be
coming. That would mean that they were making a play that wasn’t mathematically
sound.
Because of the RNG, you will always have a one in 52 chance of receiving a
particular card on the deal. You will then have a one in 47 chance of receiving
a particular card from the rest of the deck on the draw. That never changes, and
you always have to keep that in mind when making your decisions.
Step 4: Cashing out or Playing Again
When you have credits remaining in a video poker machine, you will have one
of two choices after completing a hand. You can either play another hand, going
through steps two through four as long as you desire and have credits left to
play. Or you can cash out your remaining credits and receive a ticket which
shows how much money you have left to use in the casino.
You can take this ticket to other machines and play with the money that you
have remaining. Or you can take the ticket to a redemption machine or window and
receive cash for it. If you lose all your credits from a video poker machine,
you’ll have to insert more to continue playing.
Why People Love Video Poker Machines
If you are a savvy casino-goer, you probably understand that video poker
possesses a lot of advantages. Even if you’re a newcomer to the game, we’re here
to tell you that the game contains the best qualities of both slot machines and
video poker. Let’s take a look at how this is so.
Video Poker Machines Advantages Over Slot Machines
- Video poker allows you some control over your gameplay. This is because
of the draw round that allows you to choose which cards you will use and
which you will discard. In the case of slot machines, you have no control
over the outcome of each spin. - Video poker is
bound by probabilities. You know how much of a chance you have of making
each winning hand going into gameplay. When playing slot machines, you’ll
have no way of guessing how often a winning spin might show up during one of
your sessions. - Video poker machines generally pay back more than slot machines. First
of all, video poker allows you to calculate the payback percentage (more on
that below) by combining probabilities and pay tables. Slot machines don’t
allow this, but studies have shown that payouts for slots generally lag
behind the payback for video poker machines by several percentage points.
Video Poker Machines Advantages vs. Table Games
- Video poker machines are played by people alone at a machine. This means
that they don’t face any of the pressure of the table games environment,
where there are certain protocols to follow and unwritten rules to abide.
That means that video poker can be played far from the scrutiny of angry
patrons or disapproving casino employees. - Video poker is relatively easy to play. Many table games can become
quite involved with the different rules and bets involved. By contrast,
video poker can be learned in minutes and can be played well even by
beginners. - Video poker is extremely competitive in terms of payouts with table
games. When you consider the other advantages, it’s understandable why
people would go with video poker over even the most popular table games.
Pay Tables on Video Poker Machines
When you set up at a video poker machine, the first thing that you should do
is locate the pay table. This is a chart showing all the winning hands and how
much they pay depending on how much you bet. You can usually locate the pay
table on the screen or sometimes on the outside body of the machine in question.
Pay tables will tell you exactly what type of video poker machine you are
encountering. It will help you decide on strategy and how much you should keep
for a bankroll. And, when combined with the probabilities of making winning
hands, it will tell you exactly how much payback you can expect during an
average session on the machine.
Let’s take a look at a common pay table for a video poker machine. This is a
Jacks or Better pay table, which means it belongs to one of the most common
video poker machines around. In addition, it’s a full-pay version of Jacks or
Better, which means that it’s the most lucrative version of the game in terms of
expected payout for gamblers.
9/6 Jacks or Better Pay Table
| Coins/Hands | 1 coins | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four of a kind | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Full house | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Straight | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Three of a kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two pairs | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
To read a pay table, all you have to do is follow the winning hand that
you’ve made over to the amount that you’ve bet.
Let’s say that you managed to come up with a flush on a hand on which you bet five coins. Following
the “Flush” row over to the “5-coins” column reveals the number 30, which means
that you’ve won 30 coins for that hand (or a 25-coin profit, since the original
five coins are included in that total).
You might notice the discrepancy among payouts for the royal flush. For one
through four coins played, you’ll get odds of 250 to 1, but that jumps to 800 to
1 for five coins played. That’s why, in the section above about making your bet,
we recommended the max bet on each hand you play at a video poker machine.
The goal when you play this game is to measure your odds of making certain
hands against the payout you can potentially get for those hands. This will
become second nature as you play video poker machines on a regular basis.
Correct strategy will increase your expected payouts.
Payback Percentages of Video Poker Machines
As we stated above, video poker machines don’t really hide anything from
players. When you step up to a machine and see the pay table, you have all the
information you need to determine the payback percentage. You can do this by
doing a set of mathematical equations or, and this is the much easier way to do
it, you can simply look up the pay table online to see the expected payback
percentage.
In terms of payback percentage, you have to understand that these figures are
not meant to be predictions of how you will do playing at a video poker machine
over a short period of time. Instead, they represent what a player can expect
back from a machine on average. The more that you play certain video poker
machines, the more you can expect them to return something close to their quoted
percentage.
For the 9/6 version of Jacks or Better that includes the pay table that we
displayed above, the payback percentage is 99.54%. That means that you can
expect to walk away with 99.54% of your starting bankroll during an average
session. It also means that the house edge, which represents the amount that the
casino will take from you, is .46%.
In monetary terms, this means that $10,000 of action in the machine would, on
average, leave the gambler with $9,954 in their bankroll. That’s a loss of $46.
But that doesn’t mean that you’ll come in at that percentage every time. On a
single session, you could get lucky and put together several lucrative winning
hands in a hurry. Or you could conceivably lose a bunch of hands right off the
bat, which would push your specific percentage way down in a hurry.
The math dictates the percentage will eventually come very close to 99.54% if
you play the game over a long period of time. Keep in mind, however, that the
percentage is based on the notion of perfect play. In other words, to reach that
99.54% percentage over time on that Jacks or Better video poker machine, you’ll
have to make the correct decision on what to hold and what to discard in every
single hand that you play.
That might seem like a tall task, but it’s achievable if you get some help.
Video poker training software can show you your mistakes while playing out
simulated hands. Strategy cards allow you to look over your hand, compare it to
the combinations on the strategy cards, and how which cards are the essential
ones and which can be thrown back.
Types of Video Poker Machines
As we noted at the beginning of this article, there are now many different
types of video poker machines available on the market. They can usually be
broken down into four main categories. Here are those four categories, along
with detailed descriptions of each.
Jacks or Better
We’ve already talked about Jacks or Better a few times throughout this
article. It remains the standard for video poker games, and all variations on
video poker machines essentially spring from the original. You can see the pay
table for the full-pay version listed above.
Jacks or Better is the perfect game for beginning video poker players. There
are no real twists to it. It’s just a deal and a draw and a player trying to
make the best possible hand with his five cards.
The reason that many people choose Jacks or Better, beyond the ease of play,
is that it can actually be one of the more competitive games in terms of
payouts. Especially if you can find the pay table above, you are looking at a
payback of over 99%, which is a percentage which we would always recommend that
you try and take advantage of should you come across it.
Jacks or Better also stands out as the least volatile of all video poker
machines. You can expect to play a session for a long period of time without
having to worry too much about losing all your credits. That’s the case even if
you don’t bring too much money into your session.
Yet Jacks or Better lacks for some people because it’s extremely hard to pick
up a jackpot-style hand. Only the royal flush really stands out in that regard,
and your chances of picking up one of those are slim, even if you play hundreds
of hands. In fact, the lack of that jackpot component is one of the reasons that
video poker machine manufacturers began to branch out to some of the versions
listed below.
Bonus Poker
When you’re talking about bonus video poker machines, you are talking about a
whole branch of machines that generally all change the game in the same way. The
extent to which they make these changes varies from machine to machine. But the
main way that they veer from Jacks or Better is usually uniform among all the
bonus games.
What bonus video poker machines promise are higher payouts for hands at the
top end of the pay table. Specifically, bonus poker machines reward four of a
kind hands much more aggressively than Jacks or Better machines. In fact, you
can usually get paid more for a four of a kind on a bonus machine than you could
for straight flush, even though the straight flush comes up less often in
gameplay.
Although the four of a kind payouts on bonus machines still lag behind what
you can achieve with a royal flush, you can expect them to be in the same
ballpark. In fact, the longer the name of the bonus game, the more aggressively
they tend to pay out for a four of a kind.
Triple Double Bonus video poker machines will give you more for a quad than just your
run-of-the-mill bonus game.
In addition, bonus machines sometimes spice up the four of a kind payments
even more by including the notion of a kicker in the equation. When you get a
four of a kind, the kicker is the fifth card in the hand not included in the
quad. For example, look at the following hand:
In that hand, the two of hearts is the kicker. Depending on what the pay
table specifies, getting a four of a kind with certain kickers can really boost
your winnings in a bonus game. It brings a whole new level of strategy into play
as well.
Bonus games generally give you much more of an opportunity for a large payout
on a single hand. Yet to do this, these video poker machines have to compensate
somewhere else on the pay table. And that is where bonus games start to lag
behind Jacks or Better versions.
When playing bonus video poker, you’ll probably notice lesser payouts for
some of the more common winning hands. Two pair is the hand that is most
generally affected. Bonus video poker machines often pay out only even money for
a hand of two pair, compared to 2 to 1 in Jacks or Better games.
That might not seem like a lot to give up for the chance at hitting more
jackpot-style payouts. But what you have to realize is that the two pair hand
will come up often in gameplay. And getting less for those hands will eventually
start to chip away at your bankroll if you don’t manage to get a four of a kind
or better hand.
As a result, you will find it harder to sustain your bankroll playing a bonus
game. Even though the payback percentages of bonus poker video poker machines
are right in the same range as Jacks or Better, that’s assuming someone playing
for a long time and eventually hitting those quad hands. Someone only playing
for a little while might watch their bankroll diminish quickly if they aren’t
lucky enough to land a rare hand.
Wild Card Video Poker Machines
Anyone who has ever played poker at home is probably familiar with the
concept of wild cards. A wild card is any card that is designated before the
start of gameplay that can be changed into whatever rank and suit the player who
gets the card desires. When you play poker with a wild card, rare hands come
into play much more often.
Video poker manufacturers, sensing how poker players enjoyed the concept of
wild cards, soon began incorporating them into their machines. As a result, it
isn’t hard to walk into a casino and pick out many different wild card video
poker machines to play.
There are generally two kinds of wild card video poker machines that you
might encounter in a casino. Deuces Wild is played with a standard 52-card
simulated deck and designates the four 2s in the deck to be wild cards.
Meanwhile, Joker Poker includes a 53rd card in the deck, the joker,
which is designated as wild.
So how does a wild card change video poker play? Consider the following hand:
If you were playing video poker without wild cards, you would have a losing
hand if you ended with those five cards. But imagine that you were playing on a
Deuces Wild video poker machine. Suddenly you can change the two 2s into the
following:
That hand, because of the wild card, is now a straight flush. Instead of a
losing hand, you now have one of the rarest hands in the entire game.
Wild card games have their own pay tables, which tend to be top-heavy as if
they were a bonus game. That means that they can be equally volatile. But the
presence of the wild cards really adds a new element to the video poker machines
that allow them.
Hands like the straight flush, four of a kind, or even the royal flush are
much more likely with wild cards. In fact, you can even get a five of a kind
with the use of a wild card, something that isn’t even possible with a normal
simulated deck.
But many people note the wild cards and immediately think that they are
dealing with a more lucrative video poker machine. What they may not realize is
that the pay tables have been adjusted to account for this. Hands which pay
handsomely in Jacks or Better pay much less on a wild card machine since they
are much more achievable with the wild cards.
In addition, hands at the bottom of the pay table that pay off in Jacks or
Better or even bonus poker, such as a simple pair, won’t return you anything on
wild card video poker machines. A three of a kind is usually the minimum hand to
pay off in a wild card game.
The bottom line is that you should assess wild card games in the same way you
would any other video poker game. Check out the pay table and do some online
research to see what the payback percentage might be. If you find a favorable
one, you shouldn’t hesitate to go for it.
Specialty Video Poker Machines
This last category is a bit trickier because the games that can be included
in this category tend to add their own unique twists to the proceedings. They
can usually be assessed in the same way as more normal video poker machines,
with pay tables and accompanying payback percentages. But there is usually some
sort of extra component that alters the usual way of doing things in the game.
One of the most common ways that these specialty machines make their unique
mark is by requiring players to make an extra bet to activate the twist. It
might be just a single coin more, or it could be double the max bet. That makes
these games a bit more expensive and volatile.
Of course, the extra element added by the bigger bet usually adds to a
player’s payback percentage. That means that it’s usually advisable with games
like this to make the extra bet and take your chances. As a result, you have to
be prepared for that larger bet on each hand.
So, what are these twists and extras? Well, as we said, they can vary wildly.
Sometimes you might be able to achieve free spins during gameplay, meaning that
you can win credits during these hands without running the risk of losing any.
Multipliers are also a common component in these special video poker
machines. In other words, you would get winnings that were increased by the
amount of the multiplier.
If you made a winning hand that was
normally worth 25 coins that was attached to a 3x multiplier, you would win 75
coins instead.
Certain games might give you a second draw if you are dealt certain cards.
Others might give you a spin of an imaginary wheel if you play for a while and
achieve certain milestones, with each spot on the wheel attached to a different
prize.
These video poker machines continue to pop up as manufacturers come up with
new ideas. Just as with the games above, however, you should do your research on
the game and see if the payback percentage is worth the trouble. You should also
make sure you understand the rules completely so that you don’t make any
unnecessary strategic errors if the decision-making process is altered by the
twist to the game.
Video poker machines like these offer intriguing variety to gameplay. And
they usually increase your chances of high payouts in one fell swoop. You just
have to understand how these games stack up and how they are properly played
before dipping your toe in the pool.
Multi-Hand Video Poker Machines
This technically wouldn’t be a category like the others since the games
mentioned above could easily be included in a video poker machine that includes
multi-hand play. Essentially, a multi-hand video poker machine allows you the
opportunity to play several hands at once from the same deal.
That last phrase is the key aspect of multi-hand play. You receive one deal
only. The hands then play out with distinct draws after you make your choices on
what to hold and what to discard from that original hand.
Let’s see how that might play out with a multi-play machine that allows you
to play three hands at a time. We’ll assume that the game is based on the Jacks
or Better pay table above. Here is the initial deal:
From these cards, you decide that you want to keep the three consecutive
hearts and get rid of the jack and the ace. That decision will now govern all
three hands that you are playing. The RNG will now deal out three different
draws taken from separate decks containing the other 47 cards (besides the five
cards you were dealt).
In this case, let’s imagine this is what you get in your three hands:
In the first draw, you made a flush, while the second provided a two pair.
The third draw was a loser. You would then tally up your winnings.
Assuming you bet five coins per each hand, you would currently be sitting at a 25 coin profit.
It’s important to note that the king of hearts showed up in two hands. That
can happen in multi-hand video poker since there are different decks used for
each draw.
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Also, note that you must make a wager on each hand to play. Considering that
it’s important to make a max bet, just as you would if you were playing on a
single-hand machine, multi-hand video poker machines require more of a financial
commitment than normal video poker machines.
The volatility levels also rise with the more hands you play. You can play
five, ten, or even more hands at once on multi-hand video poker machines.
Everything, from the amount that you can win to the quickness with which you
might lose all your credits, rises exponentially the more hands that you add.
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When considering a multi-hand video poker machine, you have to take into
account the expense. But you can also consider the kind of payoff you can walk
away with in a hurry if your initial deal is a good one. And the rush of playing
all those hands at once is hard to deny.
Comparing Online Video Poker to Video Poker Machines
Top gambling websites all over the world include video poker as one of their
prize offerings to their patrons. After all, video poker translates very well to
an online version. Looking at the screen of a computer, tablet, or smartphone
for your deal is very similar to looking at the screen of an actual machine in a
casino.
The mechanics of video poker gameplay is essentially the same on one of the top gambling websites as they are
in a physical casino. You’re still looking at your deal and deciding which cards
to hold and which to discard. And you’re also dealing with an RNG that is
driving the action and keeping it random from hand to hand.
Yet playing online has its own sets of advantages and disadvantages when
comparing it to play on an actual video poker machine. On the one hand, the
freedom of being able to play anywhere for real money is a good thing. Instead
of having to battle traffic and crowds as you make your way to a casino, you can
play video poker in absolute comfort.
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In addition, you can take advantage of the fact that there won’t be crowds
around you in other ways. For example, we mentioned above how strategy cards are
one way that you can hope to achieve perfect play for video poker. But unless
you memorize the cards, which can be very difficult, you might have a hard time
utilizing the cards in a casino.
You could print out the cards and bring them into the casino perhaps, but
certain casinos might have some qualms about you sitting at their video poker
machines and consulting a kind of cheat sheet. Even if they don’t, you might
feel self-conscious about the act of holding a card at the machine while other
players gawk at you.
But if you’re playing video poker online, you can sit there with a printed
card in front of you and consult it on every single hand. As long as the card is
accurate, you can ensure perfect play. And that means that you can max out your
winnings.
In addition, you can really look around and find pay tables and payback
percentages that are beneficial to you. It might mean that you have to sign up
for several different casinos. But you are not in any way limited by the choices
as you would be at a local casino with finite space for video poker machines.
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Yet there are advantages to playing at a local casino’s video poker machines
over playing online. If you have an issue with a game when playing online, it
can be extremely difficult to get help from a site that might be located
thousands of miles away. But your casino will have employees at the ready to
help out should a problem arise at a machine.
In addition, you might find that the rewards that are offered by the casino
can be a bit more lucrative. By signing up for a club card and using it in your
video poker machine, you will be eligible for all kinds of bonuses and rewards.
Those perks also exist in online casinos, but they are usually subject to
stricter requirements.
Finally, playing a video poker machine at a casino offers you an experience
where you can gamble without any interference. By contrast, you would have to
sign up for an account to play at an online casino. That means sacrificing
personal information and, perhaps, credit card numbers to create an account, and
that might constitute too much of a loss of privacy for some people to handle.
When you get down to it, you can make a case for playing video poker machines
over playing simulations of them online and vice versa. It all comes down to
your own personal preference in the end.
Conclusion on Video Poker Machines
Video Poker Machine
Video poker machines offer an easy and exciting way for you to spend your
gambling dollars when you enter the casino. And, if you do a little research,
you will quickly improve your chances of winning at the game as well. Chances
are, once you locate the video poker machines section of your local gambling
establishment, you might not want to go anywhere else on the grounds for the
rest of your stay.