Video Poker

The Royal Flush

Starter’s Orders
As an entry point to online gaming Video Poker is really an attractive place to start thanks to the casino, or house, having a lower edge or statistical advantage, and so the more money potential for the player. Not a bad opening position, is it?

The edge alone doesn’t explain the highly popular appeal of video poker. This is a game where the online gambling world offers its players personalised play and a greater amount of control over your gameplay- now that’s more like it!
Each game you choose between will offer you a different payout for each hand and you can pick your game, to match the payouts that suit your game play. Now match your hand to the payout and you’ll be cashing in.

On casino floors around the world the video poker console is ever popular thanks to its focused gaming and it’s less intimidating than taking your place at a poker table. Many players also enjoy the anonymity of a game which pits you against the dealer whether it’s a hand of cards being dealt by a computer or a dealer live streamed from a casino floor, or a specially built studio.

In poker you place a bet, based on the hand that you have compared to your competitors. As you can imagine, for someone with a good strategic head, this is a chance to bet against your hand whether it’s good or not. A big advantage of online is you don’t have the added confusion of trying to read your competitors “poker face” at least- even if it is just the dealer!
One big difference with video poker, unlike a busy game that you play crowded around a table in a land based casino, is that your competitors aren’t really part of your game, just like in blackjack; it is you against the dealer.

How to Play

Choose your Flavour
There are different variants of the game but the most common are Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild or Joker’s Wild.

The game begins with the dealer giving you a hand of five cards. This first hand is very important as essentially you have the choice about which card to keep or discard and this will shape your winning odds significantly from the outset. If you discard a card, you are aiming to “up” your hand to create a higher scoring poker hand. Rather handily, video poker allows you to not only discard your first card but all five of your cards- now that’s better than the table game isn’t it?

In the world of poker there is fairly common understanding of standard poker hands. Even a total beginner will probably have heard these terms before. At the lower end of the payout scale there are 2 pairs, 3 of a kind, a straight flush, a full house, 4 of a kind, a straight flush and royal flush.

Just choose the coins that you want to bet and with the click or mouse or the tap of our mobile phone screen, you can place your bet on your poker hand. It’s a piece of cake, or banana if you’re a fruitarian like me.

Jacks or Better

Jack the Lad
“Jacks or Better” is the most common variant of video poker that you’ll come across which effectively means that the minimum value hand is a pair of Jacks or a pair of queens, kings or aces. Then it’s the standard hands all the way. So far, so straight forward, for a primate, or even a human like you!

Over to you
Everyone’s likes and dislikes vary in video poker, just as in the land base casino games, and here you can explore different games to your heart’s, or your wallet’s content. There are games like Double Bonus Poker on offer where there are extra payouts up for grabs if you are able to manage certain Four of a Kind hands! Lucky old you! And better still, if you have a perfect poker strategy, which is an easy calculation for a primate with a head for figures like me, there is said to be a payout of 100.2 %, Hellllo!