Video Poker Tips
Whether you’re a Texas Hold’em player looking to have some fun at video poker or already very familiar with the video poker strategy, this article will provide you with some food and practical video poker tips on how to play this fun casino game. It has stayed popular for decades due to the rare combination of luck and some skill. It’s one of the few games that players actually have a reasonable chance of beating the house, if played correctly.
1) Learn the Rules
You would be surprised the amount of people that rock up to a video poker machine and think its regular slots. So, first things first, please learn the rules. Video poker is based on the poker hand values from one pair to royal flush. It’s based on the old 5 card draw poker game. You know the one you may have played with Grandad? A word of caution though, there are different variants of video poker including; Jacks or Better, Tens or Better, Deuces Wild and Bonus Poker. They are all a little different and it’s important to understand any differences to help your chances.
2) Use a Guide
Some video poker strategy is obvious and some isn’t. It’s a good idea to do a little research into some fundamental video poker strategy. There are plenty of sites that offer an online Video Poker guide. Absorb all the knowledge you can, it will increase your chances of winning and make your time playing a lot more fun. Nobody wants to lose their money fast when they play any casino game. If you don’t know the basics or any strategy at all, you can lose a lot of money very quickly. It’s well worth time doing a little reading first.
3) Pick the Best Games
Like regular poker, game selection is important to increasing your chances of success at video poker. The rules don’t change from one online casino to another, but the pay-outs do. The average pay-out percentage at video poker is around 96%. This means you can expect to get 96c for every dollar you wager. The different video poker games have different pay-outs that can sometimes be tricky to calculate which is better to play. Full pay jacks or better aka 9/6 Jacks or better is typically the most lucrative with a payback percentage of 99.54%.
Jacks or Better 9/6 Pay Table
| Hand | 1 Coin | 2 Coins | 3 Coins | 4 Coins | 5 Coins |
| Royal Flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1,000 | 4,000 |
| Straight Flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| 4 of a kind | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Full House | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Straight | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| 3 of a kind | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| 2 pairs | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
4) Take Your Time
All the casino games have a house edge and the long term bears out and makes the casino a lot of money. Logic dictates you want to minimise their edge as much as possible. This can be done by slowing your game down and not rushing your decisions. The more you play and wager and the quicker you do it, the greater chance the casino has against you. This is the polar opposite of what I always tell readers and players I mentor for Texas Hold’em. We want to maximise our edge and put in volume as the edge will bear fruit in the long run. I a game where you are at a disadvantage, albeit less than the other games, you don’t want the long run to happen, otherwise you will lose.
5) Play Maximum Coins
Anyone who spends time looking at a pay-out table will quickly realise that it is a lot better to bet the maximum coins. If money is an issue, play lower stakes. It’s better for you to play at lower stakes and wager the maximum coins than higher stakes and wager less. You need to wager the max coins to have a chance at the jackpot. You need to be in it to win it and playing less than maximum coins makes it impossible to hit the bonus.
We hope you enjoyed our 5 video poker tips. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or article requests.
