Video Poker
Video poker is a game that has elements of both five card draw poker and slots games. In standard video poker, you make a wager, then press deal. You are then dealt five virtual cards which are displayed on the video console in a land-based casino or on your computer screen if you are playing online video poker. You can choose which, if any cards, you wish to hold. Then you press deal again. Any cards that you did not choose to hold are discarded and new cards are dealt. If the five cards that are displayed on the console or screen contain a winning combination, you receive a payout based on the payout table displayed on the video poker machine or the screen provided at the online casino.
How is Video Poker Like Five Card Draw? How is it Different?
Like in five card draw, in video poker, players receive five cards, choose which to hold and which to draw, and receive new cards, and then eventually show their hands. There is some strategy and some luck involved in each. The main difference between the two is that five card draw poker is played against other players while video poker is played against the casino. Five card draw poker relies only partly on building the best hand, and partly on tricking the other players into believing that you hold the best hand. In video poker, only the cards count. As a result, good poker players are not always good video poker players.
How is Video Poker Like Slots? How is it Different?
Like in slots, in video poker, you physically or virtually put money in a machine, make a wager, push a button, and the machine presents you with symbols. In video poker, these symbols are cards as opposed to random symbols in slots. In slots, this is the end of the game. In video poker, you now have a chance to make a decision, and there is strategy to employ here. Only after you make your decision is the round over.
What Types of Video Poker are There?
There are a number of different types of video poker. One popular type is called “Jacks or Better.” In “Jacks or Better,” pairs of numbers from two to ten have no payout, but pairs of jacks, queens, kings, or aces pay a small win. This is also called “Aces or Faces.” Some claim that there is a difference between “Jacks or Better” and “Aces and Faces” in that they have slightly different pay tables, but this is more of a casino-to-casino variation rather than a difference between the games. Another main type of Video Poker that is popular is “Deuces Wild.” In “Deuces Wild,” the two is a wild card. Pairs are not a winning combination at all, and five of a kind is possible, because a two can count as the fifth of a type of card. Each of these types can also be played as power poker at many casinos.
What is Power Poker?
Power poker is played exactly like regular video poker, but the stakes are higher, as is the potential for winning. When you are dealt your initial five cards, those cards are dealt out of a number of decks, depending upon the casino. In many instances, power poker is played with ten decks, but some casinos allow you to play 100 decks at once. You choose which cards to hold, and then new cards are dealt individually from each deck. This means that if you held a pair of kings before the second deal, and you are playing 100 hands of “Jacks or Better,” you will win every single hand. Some of those hands will do better. For some hands, you may get two pairs. For some hands, you'll likely get a third or even a fourth king. For some hands, you may get a full house. In a case like this, playing power poker can be extremely profitable. On the other hand, if you get a poor starting hand, it will be played out on the full 100 hands as well. Some may recover, but many will not. It is exciting, but it can drain the bankroll quickly, so players should be careful to only play as many hands at a time as their bankroll can manage.
