Last updated: December 29, 2022
Welcome to our video poker guide on how to play, here we show you what’s needed to get started with playing games of video poker at casinos, as well as playing online. Our team of experts curated this guide to help teach players to understand the basics of this exciting casino game while also providing an introduction to some of the more intermediate aspects of the game.
Our team at Casino Today has players covered with a helpful resource for learning how to play video poker. If you are a seasoned player or just beginning, check out this guide before playing your next hand.
Since bursting onto the casino gaming scene in the 1970s, video poker games have continued to develop – becoming one of the most popular casino gambling games. Video poker doesn’t just provide easy gameplay, and it also offers players some of the best casino gaming odds while also allowing you to manipulate the outcome with your skills.
Yes, that’s right – your abilities and knowledge will help your outcomes. Which is why reading this guide on how to play video poker is a smart choice!
Now, before we get stuck into learning how to play video poker, we think that it is important to run you through the background of the game to set the scene.
Video poker hasn’t always been the popular game that it is in modern times. Over the years, the game has changed a bit, with those developments leading to much-improved gameplay.
When we look back at the history of video poker games, we have to start at the very beginning with the early machines. The first machines were the idea of Sittman and Pitt Company in 1891 and felt more like a slot machine than anything else.
These games were images of playing cards on spinning drums with the drum showing the final hand.
A little while later, in 1898, the industry-known godfather of slots Charles Fey developed a similar poker machine that paid out a jackpot of 20 coins if the hand was a royal flush. This game machine was called the ‘card bell’ and was popular as you would expect.
Fey was not done there though; in 1901, he innovated again and designed the ‘skill draw’ poker game. This was the beginning of the future for video poker machines with the introduction of skill.
In these ‘skill draw’ games, players could hold onto cards and re-spin the discarded cards to try for a better hand. The added skill component was a huge draw with players and led to these ‘draw’ poker machines being popular throughout the United States.
What was interesting was that during the early 1900s, gambling was not legal in America. However, there was a way around it for video poker. Players who were lucky enough to win were paid in prizes instead of money.
The most commonly found prizes that players could win were drinks, cigarettes, or cigars – which made sense seeing as just about every liquor store and tobacconist had a machine in the corner.
From here, the machines continued to be introduced throughout the country and worldwide for that matter. However, in the 1970s, players saw the dawn of a new era with the introduction of the early video poker machines. Eventually, with the online casinos of the 1990s, video poker became a staple among casino gamblers.
Players were first introduced to video poker machines by virtue of the old drum games. However, it was the ‘poker-matic’ developed by Dale Electronics in the 1970s, which was the first video poker game.
These early games were installed across all casinos in Las Vegas but didn’t come off as a hit with gamers, but did create the foundation for what would be the future of video poker and an extremely popular game.
Towards the later 70s, a man named Si Redd presented his idea for a new game called ‘video poker’ to the big wigs where he worked as a distributor at Bally Gaming. Unfortunately, the bosses rejected the idea because they did not want to diversify their portfolios, which focused on slot games.
This is known as one of the biggest mishaps in the industry, as Bally Gaming agreed to let Redd have ownership of the patent and shop it around. It was only a matter of months before a deal was hooked up between Si Red and the Fortune Coin Company in Reno to commence mass production of the video poker games.
With the new venture, Si Redd’s Coin Machines (SIRCOMA), in full swing, the new games were showing up all over casinos. Initially, the public was slow to take it on board – by the early 1980s, video poker games had become the most popular gambling games in casinos.
There are many different gambling games available at casinos, so why should you play video poker? There are many reasons as to why smart players choose video poker as their game of choice. The main reason is the relatively low house edge and the potential for finding a video poker game with payout percentages over 100%.
Obviously, the majority of video poker machines that you find at casinos won’t offer these significant payout percentages. But it doesn’t mean that as players we can’t find them.
One of the greatest benefits of playing games like video poker is the flexibility that they offer. In particular, with many different variations to choose from, including those that offer side bets, alternative payout options, and a wider range of betting options.
In our opinion, though the best thing about playing video poker is that it offers players the enjoyment of traditional games, without the requirements that come with them. For example, while poker is a much-loved tournament and social game, it does have limitations because of the player versus a player component. In contrast, with video poker alternatives, the game is played against the dealer (i.e., artificial intelligence).
This lets players enjoy the game at their own pace. Plus, video poker games are a great way to practice playing as it allows you to learn the typical hand ranking systems that appear in poker too.
When it comes to learning how to play, we are big supporters of the understanding that players must first learn how these casino games work. Sure, you can be a great gambler without knowing these things, but it helps to understand what is happening and why.
For video poker, this is especially important because you are dealing with hand rankings. As you would expect to know which hands rank better than others, you should know how the inner workings operate.
At the heart of all video poker games is a Random Number Generator (RNG). Actually, these are how all digital or online casino games operate. An RNG is an algorithm that is developed to generate a random number sequence to ensure that – yep, you guessed it – all outcomes are unique and ensure unbiased randomness.
This makes players feel comfortable knowing that they aren’t playing rigged games. Casinos are checked by third party auditors and regulators to ensure that these RNG’s meet randomness standards.
With this intelligent algorithm processing significant strings of numbers constantly, it makes the game virtually impossible for players to ascertain any patterns. Which is great for casinos as it stops players from having a true winning advantage.
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When learning how to play casino games like video poker, it is best to always start at the basics. The fundamentals of video poker are important because they set the foundation for understanding the rules, how to get the most out of the game, and what you should do when practicing.
In this chapter, we look at the basics of video poker, including some of the key terms and slang that you will often hear when playing around other players.
Depending on where you live or play your video poker, you might hear certain words or slang that you are unsure of. In the hopes of removing some of the confusion that often comes with this lingo, here we have collated some of the more common video poker terms that you’ll hear when playing.
Credits are the currency that video poker games often refer to. If the game you are playing is a $1 game and you deposit $1,000, you will have 1000 credits to bet with.
The denomination is the value of coins that a player bet in the game, typically ranging from one coin through to five coins.
A term used when referring to the number two.
Once the player’s hand has been dealt, they’ll discard or remove any number of cards by selecting them and marking them for discard; these cards are then replaced in the final hand.
A term refers to the cards that feature faces, i.e., the king, queen, and jack.
A flush is a winning hand combination in video poker that is scored when a hand features five cards from the same suit – they do not need to be in numerical order.
The fool is slang for the joker card.
Full pay is a video poker game that uses the maximum paytable, offering 9:6.
The high card is the worst poker hand, and it contains no straights, flushes, pairs, or anything worthy.
Another word for the casino.
The most common video poker game with the minimum payout being a pair of jacks.
The term used to refer to a card that does not affect your hand’s overall rank, for example, the last card in your hand that was not part of a four of a kind.
Low pay is a video poker game that does not offer the full paytable, instead offering 8:6.
Jargon term used when referring to the queen card.
Slang used to describe a pair of aces.
A term used to describe a card that does nothing towards your final hand.
The volatility of a game is the measurement used to define the extent of the fluctuation of the ups and downs
In certain wild card games of poker, the wild card is a specific card that can substitute as other cards to complete a winning combination.
Picking the right video poker game to play isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. There are many to choose from, but playing will depend on your bankroll size and how you prefer to gamble.
Some of our recommendations include following the simple process of picking games which suit your bankroll. If you have a lower amount of funds to play with, look for low variance games like jacks or better. This allows you to play more hands.
If you have a larger bankroll to play with, then the more adrenaline-pumping high variance games like triple double bonus poker might be worth checking out.
When you are learning to play casino games, it can be difficult. You need to get a grasp on a varying degree of rules and knowledge while finding a way to put it all into motion. You can go ahead and learn on the fly while you play, but this can be detrimental to your bankroll as losses will pile up.
There is a solution to this, though, and that is that you should be practicing with free video poker games. These games are exactly the same as when you play for real money, the only difference being that you won’t need to put your real money on the line.
So if you lose, you won’t hurt your wallet. This also lets you practice new strategies, which is why we always recommend playing free video poker games to get the hang of a game first.
One of the reasons that so many players turn to the popular online casinos that offer video poker gaming is the added value they receive. At these internet casino sites, players can take advantage of video poker bonuses to get extra cash on their deposits.
This means that it’s possible to play for longer and have more shots to score big wins like royal flushes.
Not all online casino bonuses are the same, and some features better percentage amounts. In contrast, others might have smoother wagering requirements (essentially the rules to playing with and cashing out a bonus) to follow.
So, it is important to shop around or have someone who knows what gives you some advice. This is where we come in, and we have many guides and reviews on the best online casino video poker bonuses from only the reputable sites.
Playing video poker is great fun, but some games are more player-friendly than others. It mostly comes down to the paytables and the house edge, which is often more lucrative than other casino games for video poker. Here we look at the house edge and what variance means in these games.
As you should remember from our common terms, the house edge is another word for the casino. It’s who you play against in video poker, and unfortunately, believe it or not – the house has an advantage over players.
It’s not excessive in video poker as it is in other gambling games, but you still need to consider it. Understanding this will help you to understand which variants of poker are better to play – news flash, some are better than others.
In gambling games, we refer to the house edge as a percentage, and it allows us to get an approximate idea of how much a player could expect to lose after playing over some time.
For example, a typical edge in jacks or better video poker games is 0.46% for full pay machines. With this edge, we can consider that if we played over some time and bet a total of $1,000, we would expect to lose an average of $46 during that session.
Knowing the edge of casino games like video poker machines will help you identify which games are better worth your time. Just remember to check the paytable as full pay and low pay machines will have a different edge because of the reduced payout amounts.
The variance or volatility is how unpredictable a game is, in a general sense, think of it this way:
Typically video poker bonus games are high variance because of the wild nature of their big payouts. This is the opposite of the simple or standard-type games like jacks or better, which feature a low variance.
In this chapter, we look at how to actually play games of video poker. You’ll get actionable tips on how to manage your bankroll, a breakdown of how to play by the rules, plus how credits will impact your gameplay.
Before you can play, you need to decide how many coins to play with. Whether you play online or offline, it’s as simple as using your bankroll or loading cash into a machine. You can play with between one and five coins on most video poker machines, but understand that some games will limit your access to the biggest payouts unless you are staking the maximum five coins.
We suggest that you play the maximum amount of coins at all times. If you can’t afford that amount at your preferred bet, then reduce your bet, not the number of coins included.
The first step in actually playing video poker or any casino gambling game for that matter is to come to terms with how much you have to play with, and how much you can afford. You should never play with money that you aren’t happy to lose – it’s that simple.
All top-performing video poker players know that managing a bankroll is the best strategy for winning and playing more because more playing means more hands, which means more chances at the bigger prized hands.
If you only have a small bankroll, focus on low variance games like jacks or better (it’s popular for a reason!). However, overall you should give yourself a limit on how much you can:
If you can follow the three limits above, you will certainly be better off with your bankroll.
Playing video poker is simple, especially when understanding the hand rankings hierarchy is the only real aspect that you need to learn. While each variant will have different specific rules or gameplay, they mostly follow the same basic rules.
First, figure out the amount that you wish to bet. Always make sure that it is using the maximum five coins or credits; otherwise, you could leave money on the table. When you are ready to roll, hit the ‘draw’ button to receive your first set of cards.
Now that you have your initial hand refer to your strategy chart if necessary and check your hand to see if any winning combinations are there. Select any cards that are not beneficial to your hand and get rid of them by hitting ‘discard’.
This will then draw your new cards to replace any that were discarded, and from here will determine whether any winning hand is achieved. If you were lucky and scored a winning hand, you are paid out, with the next game ready to start when you are.
Throughout this informative learning to play video poker guide, you have done exactly that – learned what you need to know to play properly. But there are still a couple of things that you need to wrap your mind around if you are to do well.
The first of these aspects is rather important, so be sure to take your time when reading over this chapter that is all about the different variants of video poker games available.
Here we give you a heads up on a range of game types, including:
While many of these games will feel similar, there are certain differences between them – some of which they may love and others they may dislike. So, switch on, get ready, and check out some of the best video poker game types!
When you think of video poker, you will more than likely be accustomed to the jacks or better series of games. This is because jacks or better is widely considered the most popular variant. In games of jacks or better, players can take advantage of:
The big thing to note about jacks or better games is that there are often two games to play, these are what we refer to as full pay and short pay. Casinos introduced lower pay games because they wanted a better house edge.
A full pay jacks or better game is known as a 9/6 and is a common game. This means that you will get paid $9 for every $6 you bet. Whereas a short pay game will pay $8 for every $5 you bet.
This gives the low pay game a lower return to player percentage of about 97.29%.
Pick a pair games were popular when they first hit the video poker scene, but they are fairly uncommon nowadays. This is primarily because the gameplay is drastically different from traditional video poker.
So players either love it or hate it, we don’t mind it. It’s certainly worth a try.
This variant is played very differently to traditional games. In pick a pair poker, two cards are dealt face-up, along with two sets of three cards with both of the topmost cards face up. Players must pick one of the two piles (of three cards) to go with the two initial face-up cards to create the players’ hands.
With their five-card hand, players can see the four face-up cards but must choose to discard one of those cards, which can be frustrating if you have a four of a kind here as you have to break it up.
To counter this frustrating gameplay, the payouts are good, and the game features a relatively low variance.
Progressive video poker variants are the same game types that you would normally enjoy but with the added twist of a potential big-win jackpot – like you would see on progressive slot games.
In a basic sense, with progressive variants of video poker, a portion of the bets played through the table are added to the jackpot. This amount will typically be 1%, but you must note that the pot’s size will be a factor in what strategy you need to follow when playing progressive video poker games.
This is because as the pot grows in value, the variance grows too. Therefore the strategy will change towards favoring a crack at the progressive winning hand rather than grinding out the lower paying hands.
When playing these games, you need to understand that they do payout less than standard games. This is approximately 2% lower, so it is better not to start playing in a progressive game until the jackpot value is higher than at least half the value of a standard big win.
Unfortunately, these larger pots don’t stick around all that often as they are won more frequently than their slot counterparts.
A wild card is a variant of jacks or better, which, as the name suggests, features wild cards. This means that these games feature cards that can count as one or more different cards from any suit or rank – thus the name wilds.
Often these games will be based around one card being the wild. For example, in joker poker, the joker card is the wild, whereas, in deuces wild, the two are wild cards.
You will notice between these wild card games and traditional video poker that the payouts are lower. This is because there is more potential for winning hands to be paid out with the wilds.
Some high roller tables and games go as far as removing the low-paying hands like two pairs and high pairs.
While the wilds substituting for cards is great for wins, the casinos reflect this improved chance with lower payouts. This means there are different payouts for wild hands as opposed to hands that win on a natural.
These multi-hand variants are not necessarily a game type in their own right. Instead, they are versions of video poker that allow you to play multiple hands at once. These can be found for just about all game types, but playing isn’t as straightforward as you might think.
The gameplay and strategies are similar to the single-hand games, so there’s no need to learn any alternative playing strategy.
What a multi-hand variant of video poker entails is the same game, but your bet will be played against multiple hands and place the same bet against each hand.
Typically you will find three-hand, five-hand, and ten-hand games. However, it is not uncommon to see 50 or even 100-hand games.
Just remember that playing such a high volume of games will increase the amount of bankroll that you are playing through.
So far, in this guide, we have explored through five chapters, giving you an understanding of how to play video poker games. As we close out our guide, there is still one aspect of the game that you need to get introduced to. That is the various video poker strategies that players can use to improve their chances of winning, plus getting the maximum enjoyment out of their bankroll.
In this chapter, we look at exactly that! We cover why you should play with strategies and everything you need to know about using video poker strategy charts in your game.
Although there is a fair share of autonomy in playing video poker, the games are different from their distant cousins – the slot machines. Video poker games feature a skill component that allows players to impact the way they play and their chances of winning.
Video poker may be random, but you can still play smartly, which is where playing with a strategy comes in handy.
When it comes to playing with the optimal strategy in video poker games, the strategy is all about making the best possible play by playing to the strengths of the hand you receive. Also, to not make silly mistakes like playing without the maximum coin denomination and voiding any big wins.
So, when you are learning a strategy, you will need to memorize the hand rankings and best possible plays. It sounds really difficult trying to save all of this information to your memory, but we have a trick up our sleeve, and we’ll share it with you.
A video poker strategy chart is like a cheat sheet to learning your strategy. You can keep it on you when playing and refer to it as you go. It is even a good practice tool as you can use it as a flashcard and test yourself as you learn.
Although there are many different strategies and you can make up your own depending on what you wish to get out of your gaming – whether its many smaller winning hands or focusing on scoring a huge profit with more royal flushes.
The purpose of using a strategy chart really is to supplement your gaming with wins so that you can continue playing more hands, in the hopes of getting big wins with royal flushes or other high paying hands and so on.
Typically when creating a strategy chart, you can make it whichever way you like. The most common format is a simple list of the winning combinations, or what cards to discard in the event you have no clear winners.
As we mentioned before, it’s best to focus your strategy chart on a key aspect of the game. There are over 2.5 million combinations to score any of the ten winning hands in a traditional non-wild video poker game in total.
The best way to use a video poker strategy chart is to list the best winning hands or otherwise focus on some of the easier to remember options. It is a smart idea to do what works better for you, as every player has a different way to go about it.
When using a strategy chart properly, it is all a process of elimination. Don’t be afraid; it is rather easy to use. When you get your hand, refer to the top of your strategy chart and compare it with the hand you are dealt with. If you have the cards listed, hold onto those cards and either discard any necessary cards or hit draw.
But what if your hand doesn’t have those cards? It’s simple to check the next line of the chart and continue doing this process until you find your cards on the chart. If you have no decent winning hand, discard all the cards by hitting the draw button and hope that luck is on your side for a better outcome.
Marilyn Chavez is an associate researcher at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, where she studied the mathematical probabilities and aspects of casino games like slot machines. She’s written several case studies which have been published by multiple problem-gaming institutions to help spread awareness about the dangers of online gambling and gambling addiction. She also presented a 2019 Ted talk on the topic of gambling among minors.
