Ten Top Trivial Tit-bits of Video Poker
It's the best of all worlds: the combination of the random excitement of slot machines and the cool strategy and play of a poker game - no wonder video poker is just going from strength to strength in casinos! So here are ten top trivial tit-bits to improve your knowledge of what video poker is all about...
- Video poker games are generally based on the five-card draw version of poker.
- Video poker's computerized play console is similar to that of a standard slot machine and can be extremely attractive graphically, particularly as the sophistication of 21stcentury platforms is being constantly redeveloped and enhanced!
- Playing video poker can be a real way into real card play for beginners, as the pay table is usually on screen at the same time as each hand is being played, giving new players the chance to check on which hands are good, helping to decide what to keep or throw and, importantly, when to hold or when to fold.
- Pay tables both indicate and allocate the payouts for various hands, based on the odds of achieving the actual hand. As with all casino games, there is a house-edge on the odds, which can vary across different games and different casinos!
- Similarly, every single video poker machine is set separately so can offer very different payout probabilities to its neighbor, so it can be worth "pokering" around to find the one that suits you (and your bankroll) best!
- Video poker is not just found in the virtual lobbies of online casinos but is a version of poker popular in the biggest real casino establishments in the world: being found in the lobbies of the most up-market gambling establishments including those of Monaco and Las Vegas.
- Video poker machines (online or real) are highly regulated to ensure that they comply with random draw requirements (ensuring that the card sequences are generated completely randomly). No machine is offered for public gaming unless it has satisfied these regulations.
- There are almost as many variations of the video poker games as there are of real-life poker games. These include fun versions such as "wild" games which have a "wild" card to increase the chances of achieving the higher paying winning hands: "Deuces Wild" is one of the more popular versions of this.
- One of the mostly commonly found casino versions of video poker is "Jacks or Better" based on achieving a pair of Jacks (or better) in a winning hand. Some casinos offer versions which include nines or tens "or better" to increase the popularity of these games to players, although the payouts for a full house achieved with nines or tens can be significantly lower than those in the "Jacks or Better" game.
- Another extremely popular adaptation of video poker games are progressive jackpot games in which every wager (sometimes across a number of linked games) feeds into a jackpot which pays out substantially on the jackpot winning hand. These games tend to encourage frequent and longer play to maximize the chances of winning big, which of course tends to hook the player in!