Video Poker Rules - How to Play Video Poker
In order to understand video poker you will first have to master video poker rules. Here is a brief summary of the rules of the game.
Video poker rules are more about knowing how this game is played and which hands would get the player the highest payout. A player would need to know how the game has to be played, which the best hands are and which the worst ones are.
The basic rules
A game of video poker begins after you have clicked or selected the appropriate button for the cards to be dealt. A player will be dealt five cards. After receiving them a player can choose to discard any of the cards and by using the deal button can get new cards. Cards that a player does not want can be discarded; cards can be kept by selecting the “hold” button at the bottom of each card. If the cards that a player is left with turns out to be winning combination the player gets paid as per the payout schedule.
Jacks or better is the most common video poker game available hence if a player has a good understanding of how the hands are ranked it will be useful when the player moves on to other types of video games.
Understanding hands
As each hand has a different payout it is essential to know which are the best and worst hands and the likely payouts a player holding any of them will get. The lowest paying hand is a pair of – Kings, Queens, Jacks or Aces. If a player gets two Aces and two Tens then the payout is two per coin bet, this hand is called a two pair. If the hand contains three cards of the same value like triple 7 for example the hand gets three per coin bet, this a termed as Three of a Kind.. A player will get 4 per coin bet if the hand is a set of consecutive cards such as 7, 8, 9, 10, J; this hand is called a straight.
To get 5 or 6 per coin bet a player must have five cards in no specific order but they will have to be from the same suit; this is called a Flush. To get 6 per coin bet a player must have a Full House which would consist of two cards of one value and another three of another value. A player will get 25 per coin bet if the hand has four cards of the same value; this is called Four of Kind. A Straight Flush is one in which a player’s hand consists of any five consecutive cards from the same suit; for example Q, J, 10, 9, 8. The payout for such a hand is 50 per coin bet. The hand which gets a player the highest payout is the Royal Flush. A player will need to have A, K, Q, J, 10 of the same suit. If a player has bet 5 coins the payout will be 4000 or more but in case less than five coins have been bet then the payout is only 250.
Players who can take quick decisions keeping in mind basic strategies will do well in video poker games.