28 July 2024
StrategyVideo Poker Strategies to Help You Win
Discover all there is to know about playing video poker, such as how it operates, your odds of winning, and how to use techniques to increase your earnings.
Some might classify video poker and slot machines together. This is an error. In contrast to those who play slots, whose chances are always the same, proficient video poker players can significantly raise their chances of winning.
In actuality, video poker has the highest winning chances of any casino game. Depending on the machine you choose to play, you can even completely remove the casino's edge to increase your chances of winning.
"Why would the casinos offer video poker if gamblers fare so well?" one may wonder. Don't they stand to lose money? To find the answers to these kinds of queries, continue reading. We'll also explore the reasons that make video poker one of the most profitable games available, as well as tips and tactics to increase your chances of winning. With these improved strategy tools at your disposal, you'll be eager to give video poker a try.
What Makes Video Poker So Great?
The house holds the advantage in gaming virtually always. Ultimately, you lose and the house usually comes out on top. The anticipated return percentage (% RTP) is a measure of the house's edge.
For instance, the house has a 5% to 10% advantage when it comes to slots, where the typical RTP is between 90% and 97%. This indicates that you lose between five and ten cents for every dollar you wager when playing slots.
RTP can exceed 99% for skilled players or novices learning the game, giving the house an edge of less than 1% in video poker games. Better still, some machines let skilled players skew the odds to their advantage. If you could enter a casino knowing that your chances of winning money were higher than your chances of losing it, wouldn't that be amazing?
Not for the residence. The casinos would discard their video poker machines if they were not profitable. Fortunately for them, most gamblers who play video poker don't use any kind of strategy. The average RTP for inexperienced video poker players drops below 95%, which is comparable to many slot machine payouts.
Techniques for Various Video Poker Games
You can play a variety of different kinds of video poker machines. The main distinction is that every one of them will have unique guidelines and needs a unique best course of action. The RTP of a video poker machine might also vary based on the type of poker that it offers.
The majority of video poker machines essentially use a five-card draw mechanism. Five cards are handed to each player in five-card draw poker. They can discard any number of cards to be dealt new ones, depending on their hand.
Video poker machines come in a wide variety of five-card draw varieties. Below, we'll discuss techniques for two of the most widely used variants: deuces wild and jacks or better. Other styles you may encounter are as follows.
Double bonus: Jacks or better with a bonus payout for four aces
Double double bonus: Jacks or better with bonus payouts for multiple four-of-a-kind poker hands
Joker poker: Jacks or better with jokers added to the deck
10s or better: 10s are the lowest pairs that pay out instead of jacks
All American: Jacks or better with higher payouts for flushes and straights but lower payouts for full houses and two pairs
Better or Jacks?
Jacks or better machines were the original video poker machines. This type of equipment is still among the most often used today. Jacks or better indicates that in order to receive any payoff, a player must hold a pair of jacks or a higher expensive hand. Nothing happens to single pairs of cards (2 through 10) that are lower than a jack. The winning hands for jacks or better machines are as follows:
Three or two of a kind: Keep in mind that you cannot win a payout if you have two of a kind without face cards.
Two pairs: You can use either face or number cards in your two pairs.
Full house: There is one pair and one three-of-a-kind in this hand. These could be any kind of card.
Flush: A hand in which every card is in the same suit. For example, if all of your cards are hearts, you have a flush.
Straight: A hand in which every card appears one after the other. You have a straight, for example, if your cards are 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. To form a straight, you need a card at the start or finish, and to complete a straight, you need an inside straight, which requires a card in the middle.
Straight flush: It occurs when every card in a hand is of the same suit and is arranged sequentially.
Royal flush: In video poker, this is the winning hand. This indicates that you have every straight in the same suit that is feasible.
Depending on the cards you are initially dealt, there are specific steps you might take to obtain these winning hands. Maximizing your chances of getting paid out can be achieved by understanding which cards to keep and which to discard. Always start with the things at the top of this list.
- Keep every card if you have a complete house or higher.
- Keep all four cards and discard the other if you have a royal flush with four cards. Even though you might think there's not much chance of getting the one card you need, you should always go for the royal flush to increase your earnings.
- If you have a straight or flush, keep every card.
- Keep your three of a kind and ask for two cards if you have them.
- Keep the four cards and discard the one if you have a straight flush with them.
- Discard the remaining card and keep two pairs.
- Three cards are discarded and a high pair is kept.
- Keep three cards and discard two if you have a royal flush.
- Keep the four cards that lead to a flush and discard the other one.
- Also, keep a low pair. You have a higher probability of scoring another pair or three of a type even though it doesn't pay off.
- Choose to go for the straight and only discard one card if you have four cards in a row.
- If two of your cards are likely to increase your chances of getting a royal flush, keep them in the same suit.
- Throw away the other two cards if you have three toward a straight.
- If all else fails, hold two high cards in distinct suits. Select the lowest two out of the three.
- If two cards are the same suit, keep the 10 and the face card; discard the other three.
- Save one high card, and discard the others.
- Make a request for every new card.
It's crucial to remember that you should never fold a winning hand in the hopes of raising your hand. The chances are not in your favor even if you could be tempted to give up a pair in order to try for a straight. You have the highest chance of winning in video poker if you follow these guidelines, but you have to do it regularly. You won't benefit from them if you occasionally stray from them.
Wild Deuces
Decoins Wild machines, as the name suggests, offer five-card draw games in which the first two cards are wild. Wild cards increase your odds of making winning hands.
The following is a list of deuces wild machine winning hands:
- Three of a kind (In deuces wild, you don’t get paid out for either one or two pairs.)
- Straight
- Flush
- Full house
- Four of a kind
- Straight flush
- Five of a kind (Even though there are only four of each card, this is possible because deuces are wild.)
- Deuces royal flush (A royal flush but one or more of the cards is a deuce)
- Four deuces (Five of a kind of the remaining card)
- Natural royal flush (A royal flush without using a deuce)
In deuces wild poker, you'll observe that a hand with one pair, or even two pairs, does not pay out. In order to improve your chances of winning in this kind of poker, consider the following methods when choosing which cards to hold:
- Keep the four cards that you believe to be a royal flush and discard the fifth.
- Four of a kind are kept; the other card is discarded.
- Three of a kind are kept, and the other two cards are discarded.
- Keep the four cards you have toward a straight flush and discard the other one.
- To make a royal flush, keep three cards and discard the other two.
- Three cards are discarded and one pair is kept. You are more likely to acquire three of a kind even if you won't be compensated for a pair.
- Four cards are kept toward a flush, while one is discarded.
- Discard one card and hold four in the direction of a straight.
- To make a straight flush, hold three cards and discard the other two.
- If you have a royal flush, keep two cards and discard three.
- Toss all of the cards in your hand if it contains nothing.
Although the inclusion of wilds can increase the excitement of these games, the increased likelihood of winning implies that the rewards from these machines won't be as high as those from games like Jacks or Better.
All-Purpose Strategies for Video Poker
Whatever video poker game you're playing, there are some methods that can help you win. These pointers will assist you in making the most of every opportunity available to you while playing the game.
Locate Full-Pay Terminals
Always play the slots with the highest reward possible. Examining the pay table on a machine's screen will tell you if it is in full pay. A full-pay table may appear slightly differently depending on the type of video poker you play.
The majority of full-pay video poker machines will pay out at an excessive rate if you strike the royal flush using the highest stake, which is one thing they all have in common. They will often pay at a ratio of 800 to 1 in this situation.
Always Place the Highest Bet You Can
Imagine yourself playing a lengthy game of video poker on a Jacks or Better machine. Since your bankroll is running low, you decide to reduce your maximum wager from five coins to three coins. You nearly instantly hit the royal flush, just like magic. You've won seven hundred fifty coins. You could have won $4,000 if you had placed the maximum stake!
Despite the high RTP of video poker, there will still be bad runs where it seems like you've played an absurd number of hands without winning anything. You will require a sufficient bankroll to ensure that you can weather the storm. The amount of money you need to have depends on how frequently you play.
Make Research
Finding the greatest video poker games is the first step towards playing them. If you intend to play video poker online, try to obtain a list of the finest pay tables on the specific website by reading reviews about it. Keep an eye out for anything questionable in the client testimonials. It’s rare but not unheard of for some online gambling games to underhandedly rig the system to lower your odds of winning. You only want to play on the most reputable sites with the highest payouts.
Play It Safely
It's always a good idea to only wager money you can afford to lose, even though playing video poker or any other casino game may be a lot of fun. Because of this, it's critical to gauge each gaming session and bankroll precisely. You'll be less likely to lose control if you make a strategy for how long you'll play and how much you'll spend.
Although the odds of winning in video poker are among the highest of any game, gambling is never safe. Get up and leave the game after four hours if that's how long you intend to play. It's wonderful if you're ahead. That's what you won. If your session bankroll is $500 and you lose it, resist the urge to go to the ATM. By using a measured approach to video poker, you’ll make sure your gaming sessions are awesome and, most importantly, safe.
