Video Poker is a favored game that can be played in casinos around the world, or in your house on your home computer, through a net connection. The rules are absolutely straightforward and involve the player trying to achieve the best combination of cards achievable in order to come away with money. In this respect it is very similar as a classic game of poker, minus the involvement with any other players. Of course, tactics used in a physical game of poker, like tricking, will be irrelevant here.
The game of Video Poker begins when the player puts credits (whether it is tokens, tickets or cash) into the machine and pushes the play button. A hand of five cards will then be "dealt" on the screen.
The Video Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and bettors will need to now choose which cards to hold and which to discard. For the cards the bettor wishes to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any amount of cards they wish, from all to none.
After the gambler has selected which cards he would like to keep, they should press ‘draw’, which will mean that any new cards will be handed out if desired. The game is now finished, with the Video Poker machine analyzing the cards to see if it matches any of the winning hands printed on the payment schedule.
Normally, the lowest winning hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money growing for each better hand. A list of common winning hands starts with jacks or better, and moves on to two pairs, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It definitely goes without saying that the payment schedule can range from game to game, so that discerning bettors are agile enough to select the most beneficial game every instance.
After the initial round has completed, the player can either decide to continue on and try to to increase their earnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any credits that they may have won. Further, several versions of the game give the player a chance to increase their wins, in which instance another hand is played. There are also variations among specific games, with some decks of cards including wild cards and other differing characteristics to increase playability.