Video Poker is a favored game that usually will be played in casinos around the world, or alternatively at your house on your home computer, using an Internet connection. The game rules are absolutely simple and consist of the player attempting to achieve the greatest assemblage of cards as you can in order to come away with money. In this respect it’s very similar as a regular game of poker, without the interaction with other players. Of course, techniques used in a physical game of poker, like tricking, will be useless here.
The game of Electronic Poker starts when the bettor puts credits (whether it is tokens, credit slips or money) into the machine and pushes the draw button. A five card hand will then be "given out" on the video screen.
The Electronic Poker game also has buttons with ‘hold’ printed on them, and bettors will need to now pick which cards to keep and which to throw away. For the cards the player would like to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any number of cards they wish, from all to none.
After the gambler has chosen which cards he wishes to retain, the player will then press ‘deal’, at which point any fresh cards are handed out if desired. The hand is now finished, with the Electronic Poker machine scanning the cards to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands listed in the pay out schedule.
Generally, the minimum succeeding hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money getting larger for each better hand. A list of common winning hands starts with jacks or better, and moves on to 2 pairs, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It goes without saying that the pay out schedule can vary from machine to machine, so that experienced gamblers are able to choose the most profitable machine every instance.
Once the first round has finished, the player can either choose to continue on and try to to increase their winnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any credits that they may have won. Further, some styles of the game give the gambler an opportunity to double their winnings, in which instance another hand is played. There are also differences between specific games, with some virtual decks including wild cards and other differing characteristics to enhance playability.