If you finally wish to try video poker, first, you should understand all the ins and outs of playing this game. You can always find those video poker machines at carousels in the same area of the casino as normal slot machines. Like slots, nearly all modern video poker machines take bills and convert them into credits. You will use those credits instead of manually feeding coins every time you play. Both slots and video poker machines have identical buttons, which you use to initiate the game process.
Betting in video poker
On most video poker machines, you can use one to five coins at once. In other words, you may increase your wager – and winnings – based on the number of coins you use for each game. Almost all video poker machines are either dollar or quarter machines, but they are also available in various denominations from a nickel to $100. A few machines are even multi-denominational, and you can choose which level you wish to bet. They have a Max Bet button for five-coins betting. If you decide to bet more than a coin but fewer than five coins, you can press the Bet One button a few times. What is the advantage to playing the five coins maximum betting? You qualify for the lucrative royal flush jackpot offered only in the five-coin betting.
Stretching your video poker bankroll
Video poker’s attractive return is based on making a royal flush, but that will only occurs about once in approximately 40,000 hands. So patience is crucial. A royal flush generally takes quite a long time (nearly 100 hours on average), and you should prepare a hefty budget to ride out the swings, it is recommended that you start off with quarter machine rather than dollar machine. But be careful, you can go many trips without making a royal flush.
The minimum recommended bankroll for tackling a quarter machine is $1,000. For dollar machines, that figure rises up to $5,000. Seems steep? These are actually scaled down amount for weekend warriors and beginning gamblers. You may still play video poker with less bankroll, but your opportunity of surviving long enough and hitting a royal flush decreases accordingly. Remember that you may play up to 500 hands each hour, so be ready for some weird swings to your bankroll.
Hitting the best hand in one draw
When you feed your credits into the machine (or bills) and push the Deal button, five cards appear on your screen, dealt from the standard 52-card deck. When you receive your five starting cards, the game nearly resembles Five- Card Draw poker. Then, you need to push any of the buttons – one button for each card – located on the front of the machine to keep, or hold, any cards. There are three available options with a hand:
- Hold all the cards.
- Discard all the cards.
- Hold a few cards and toss the others.
When you receive the first five cards, most machines digitally highlight winning hands for your convenience on the payout table, while some machines even advise which cards to hold. Complying with the machine’s advices can prevent you from unexpectedly throwing away a huge winner. The pay scale adopts standard poker rankings and only rewards better hands.
A video poker machine replaces any discarded cards with new cards from the other 47unused cards in the deck. As you have no other players to beat, your aim is to make the best poker hand possible in one draw.
After you are happy with your decision, push the Deal/Draw button to get your new cards. You may change your decision on the Hold buttons by hitting them again right before you hit Draw. For instance, pushing the Hold button a second time overrules the previous action and discards the cards you were going to hold.
Collecting video poker winnings
The machines pay you in credits or coins. After your win and you are done celebrating, just push the Deal/Draw button, and the whole process starts over. When you are done playing, push the Cash Out button, and the video poker machine either prints a cash-out ticket to be redeemed at the cashier’s cage or spews your coins into a hopper.
Online Video Poker
In online Video Poker you must take advantage of a decent online casino bonus, as this will help increase your bankroll. Just remember that there are lots of online casinos out there, so you are always able to join another online casino to collect another casino bonus, or alternatively you can check with your current online casino to see if they have any reload bonuses.
