Video Poker Tips

Playing online video poker is a stimulating challenge. And it is useful to know a few tidbits about video poker games that will help you get out of it with a chance at winning. Critical to getting the most out of the video poker games might be to know that the ultimate objective is, and that is to achieve the Royal Flush, the "holy grail" of online video poker, which is a series of five cards, from 10 through Ace, all of the same suit. This is the biggest payout there is, and it is also the trigger for most progressive jackpots that are connected to video poker. Toward this end, players are generally encouraged to play the maximum number of coins at all times. Truth be told, there is a big difference between what the payouts are on a five-coin wager and what it is when less coins are used.

Video poker games are conducted by way of a "random number generator" (RNG), which always makes sure that the cards are shuffled after every hand and dealt on a random basis. That means that in online video poker it won't do you any good to utilize memorization or "counting" procedures like you would do the way you might be able to with a non-random shuffle at a poker or blackjack table. However, the random nature of the online video poker hardly means you can't exercise some sort of strategy for video poker games. In point of fact, there are strategy tables for many variations of video poker that can be memorized and learned without a whole lot of trouble. All you have to do is maintain some discipline and belief in the system, and not fall victim to playing "hunches." In fact, discipline is a key component of the game, if you are even semi-serious about winning. Video poker is a game that can actually be beaten, because there are mathematically-sound decisions that can be made on each of the hands, and those decisions are in the hands of players. Simply put, the more efficient the strategy, the better the player will be able to do. In this way it is a departure from other games like baccarat or roulette, where the house odds are much more fixed.

Remember that, in online video poker, you are playing one-on-one against the house and there is a fixed payout schedule according to the hand that you actually have, and that winning is not a by-product of what you can lure opposing players into thinking what you have. So with video poker games it is always going to be your objective to continue improving a hand. The better the hand you achieve in online video poker, the better the payout, and that is a simple but solid fact about video poker games in general. Along those lines, and recognizing that there are a number of different video poker casino games, as well as a number of different payouts, you may want to take a look at what the payback figures are on various games at various casinos. This number represents what normally comes back to players as a percentage of what is actually put into the "machine." Of course, there are also subtle differences within those numbers. For example, there would naturally be a difference between the percentage the game would pay off to the "public at-large" and what it would pay to the players who are utilizing the optimum mathematical basic strategy to play the game. Obviously, the payout for the latter group would be higher, maybe even considerably higher. Check out our online video poker strategy section for more information.