[ English ]

Video Poker is a beloved game that can be enjoyed in casinos all over the world, or in your house on your computer, using a net connection. The regulations are absolutely simple and consist of the player trying to achieve the greatest mixture of cards possible in order to acquire money. In this respect it’s much the same as a normal game of poker, without the interaction with any other players. Of course, tactics used in a physical game of poker, such as bluffing, will be useless here.

The game of Electronic Poker starts when the enthusiast puts credits (either tokens, credit slips or cash) into the video poker machine and pushes the deal button. A hand of 5 cards will then be electronically ‘distributed’ on the screen.

The Electronic Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and enthusiasts will need to now decide which cards to keep and which to throw away. For the cards the gambler would like to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any amount of cards they want, whether it’s all or none.

After the bettor has decided on which cards she wishes to retain, they should press ‘draw’, at which point any fresh cards are given out if desired. The hand is now finished, with the Video Poker machine scanning the cards to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands shown on the payment schedule.

Typically, the lowest winning hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money increasing for each better hand. A list of common winning hands begins with jacks or better, and moves on to 2 pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It definitely goes without saying that the payment schedule can change from machine to machine, so that skillful players are agile enough to pick the most profitable machine each instance.

As soon as the first round has completed, the player can either decide to continue on in an attempt to increase their earnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any money that they may have won. Further, some styles of the game give the enthusiast a chance to double their profits, in which case another hand is played. There are also differences among specific machines, with some decks of cards including wild cards and other differing aspects to enhance playability.