Wondering how to play video poker? This article covers all the basics, including rules, hands, and how to pick which cards to keep and which to send back to the draw pile.
How Does Video Poker Work?
Bitcoin video poker is a pretty simple game. It does away with all the complexities of playing poker against other people. Instead of sitting at a table with tough competitors, you’re just making the best hand you can. There’s no one to beat. After you’re done making your hand, you get paid according to a paytable.
Video Poker Rules
Each hand starts with your wager. Pick how much you want to bet, and then click to start the deal. You’ll then receive five cards. Your choice then is which cards you want to keep. If you have a good hand, you’ll keep them all. If nothing is connecting, you’ll be sending them back so that you can draw fresh cards. You typically must keep at least one card, however.
After your selections are made, you can draw cards and discard whichever ones you don’t want to keep. This then gives you your final hand. If you’ve made a payable hand (often something like a pair of jacks or better), you get a prize.
Video Poker Hands – High Card to Royal Flush
Video poker is all about making the best hand you can, which means you need to know the rankings. The rankings in video poker follow classic poker. They are as follows, from worst to best.
- High card. This hand doesn’t even have a pair, let alone a straight or flush. In the lowest rank of poker hand, you simply rest on the highest card you have. For example, J-T-8-5-4 would be called “high card jack.” Your highest card is a jack. You won’t get paid for a hand like this.
- One pair. Now you’ve got two cards of the same rank, but nothing else. An example would be A-A-J-4-2. You have a pair of aces. You often get a small payout for a pair, so long as it is high enough. Tens or less often don’t get paid.
- Two pair. A hand with two pairs, such as 8-8-7-7-4.
- Three of a kind (“trips”). A hand with three cards of a given rank. For example: K-K-K-8-5.
- Straight. Five cards of sequential rank, such as 9-8-7-6-5. Four in a row is not enough. It has to be all five. Check the rules for a particular game if you want to know if aces function as a high card only, or whether they can make low and high straights.
- Flush. Five cards of the same suit. All hearts, or all spades, for example.
- Full house (“a full boat”). Trips and a pair, like Q-Q-9-9-9.
- Four of a kind (“quads”). Four cards of the same rank: 2-2-2-2-5.
- Straight flush. A straight made entirely of cards of the same suit. The royal straight flush or royal flush is the highest of this type of hand, and the best hand possible in poker.
Games will award prizes based on which hand you have, according to their posted paytable. In Deuces Wild Video Poker, for example, the paytable starts at 1:1 for trips (the wild twos make this more likely than in standard video poker), increases to 2:1 for a straight, and goes all the way up to 250x for a natural royal flush.
Basic Strategy – How to Pick Between Hands
If you only need one more card for a straight or flush, hold those four and try to draw the final, even if this means breaking up a pair. The larger hands and larger payouts generally justify this move in the long run.
If you are three cards to a royal straight flush (or any straight flush), keep those cards and chase the big payout. When you’re betting the max, this leads to the highest payout in the game.
Absent the above situations, when you get pairs, keep them and discard the rest.
If you don’t have anything, keep jacks or higher (for most variations of video poker) and discard the rest.
What about wilds?
For games that include wilds, it’s important to be aware of certain rule changes.
Games with wilds often have a higher payout threshold. High pairs are often not enough. Trips may be the lowest hand you can get paid with.
Bigger hands are now easier to hit. You’ll have to land these if you really want to earn anything playing the game. Chase the big hands to win. This may mean discarding low pairs when you have a wild. It may be better to keep hands with straight or flush potential.
And of course, you’ll need to recognize and keep wild cards whenever you have them.
Variations
Along with games that bring in wilds, you’ll also see video poker options that feature the chance to run out multiple hands. For example, Aces and Eights 100 Hand lets you see how your selections would play out over a huge number of hands. The multiple hand deal only happens after you make choices on the initial deal, and decide which cards to keep. The draw is then run out over many hands, letting you take a shot at big payouts far more efficiently than a single draw game.
There are other games like Vegas Hold’em that switch up the video poker formula. In that game, you’re up against the dealer in a game of Texas Hold’em. You get two cards and can see a three-card community board. You then decide to fold or call, and the remaining cards are dealt on the board. The best five-card hand wins.
If you like an in-person feel, First Person Video Poker puts you in a virtual casino, seated at a traditional video poker machine. Casino sights and sounds surround you, making the experience a lot like taking a seat in a real casino video poker and slot room.
Video poker has grown a lot beyond the classic days of the early video machines. Try out some varieties and see which one you like best.
Ready for a Five-Card Draw?
So that’s it for our guide on how to play video poker for beginners. Hopefully, you got a sense of the basics from this article. If there are other rules or points you want to learn more about, or if there are other games you’d like to master, keep an eye on our casino strategy articles.
Otherwise, you can pick out a video poker game and play it for real money or for free (just choose demo mode using the selector below the right side of the game window). Remember: max bet and that royal flush will give you the payout of a lifetime!