Video Poker

Video poker offers the best payback percentages among slots and video slots. This is because video poker machines software is required to operate with a standard 52 deck of cards. Therefore your odds of hitting a certain hand is the same as playing cards at home. 

"Jacks or Better" is the most common variation of video poker available.

Many people who are not that familiar with video poker make the mistake of playing video poker the same way they play poker at home with their family and friends.  In the video poker version "Jack or Better" you are required to make at least a pair of jacks or higher to receive credits.  For example;  let's say you are dealt a pair of 8's,  a king, a jack and a queen.  The pair of 8's alone is not enough to receive wining credits.

You would have to decide to either hold the pair of 8's and discard all the other cards or hold the eights with on of the face cards.  In this situation I recommend that you hold the 8's and discard the other cards.  When you do this you have a good chance of drawing another 8, another pair or 4 of a kind.  However, if you decided to hold the 8's and a face card then you are now looking for only one or two cards (8's or the one face card).  When we play poker at home against others we sometime hold a high card with a pair to have a better hand than our opponent.  But with video poker there is no other opponent. 

The key to winning at video poker is playing for the top four lines listed on the table. For example; if you are playing deuces wild and the pay table shows that a royal flush offer 4000 coins, royal flush with a deuce offers 125 coins and 4 deuces offers 1000 coins and strait flush offers 60 coins.  Then you stand a better chance of winning if you play for four deuces or a royal flush.  Many people play video poker and pass up the opportunity for 4 deuces because they were dealt a four of a kind with 3 deuces, which pays only 20 coins, instead of going for the 4th deuce for 2000 coins.

Video Poker is a skilled game and is a lot of fun.  If you want to win, you must remember are there to win.  Play for the big prizes.  Basically what we are saying here is that if you playing a game of deuces, then go for deuces.  If you are playing the game Double double for four of a kind, then play for four of a kind.  Don't play for the little stuff. Scared money can't win.

Video Poker Variations

Video poker comes in several different variations of five-card draw poker: Joker's Wild, Bonus Poker, Double bonus, Double Double Bonus, Tripple Bonus, Let it Ride, Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild and more. Below is a sample of a typical video poker payout.

"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 payout's.

"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 1/3 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 100.762%, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns.