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Video Poker Game Rules

As one of the newest games in the gambling industry, video poker has captured a huge part of the market. The game combines the elements of luck found in slot machines, with elements of skill and challenge in poker. As such, this game has a huge following of players who actively seek it out at casinos all over the world.


The Objective of Video Poker

Video poker players need to select which cards to keep and which to discard in order to make the best poker hand possible and get paid out for any winning combinations.


Hand Rankings in Video Poker

Texas Hold ‘em Poker usually has two common forms of bets: antes and blinds :

Antes are usually only used in tournament games where players need to deposit a certain, agreed upon amount of money into a pot at the start of each hand.

Blinds are two forced bets that are placed with every hand. The small blind, placed by the player to the left of the dealer, is usually half of the low limit bet amount. The big blind, placed by the person to the left of the player who placed the small blind, is equal to the low limit bet size.


Playing out a Game of Texas Hold ‘em Poker

Players need to have a good understanding of traditional poker hand rankings before they can start a game of video poker. The suits of the cards are of no consequence to the outcome of the game - what is important is the number values of the cards. The Ace is considered the highest card in the video poker deck, with the King being the highest face card. All numbers keep their own value.

The hand rankings of cards in video poker are as follows, (from best to worst):

  • Five of a Kind (only applicable when playing a version of video poker with a wild card feature).
  • Royal Flush
  • Four of a Kind
  • Full House
  • Flush
  • Straight
  • Three of a Kind
  • Two Pairs
  • One Pair

How to Play Poker Video

Video poker is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. There are a wide variety of video poker types, although most of them work in the following way: The player inserts between one and five coins into the video poker machine. Five cards are dealt. The player now needs to decide which of the five cards he wishes to discard and which to keep. Players can discard all, some or none of the cards. Once the cards have been selected and discarded, new cards are dealt in their place. The idea is to make the best poker hand possible with the cards that were dealt. It is important to note that the game is played against the dealer.


Video Poker Game Variants

As the popularity of video poker soared with the introduction of the game to online casinos on the internet, software companies set out to create games with a twist. Although the basic idea of video poker remains the same throughout, there are a number of exciting variants of the game available to try out. The important thing to remember is that players need to take special note of the specific rules and payout percentages of each new game so that they can avoid making mistakes and thus increase their winnings.

Several popular variants, with differing rules, include:

Jacks or Better: A winning hand needs to comprise of at least one pair of Jacks (or better).

Deuces Wild: The two’s (aka deuces) are wild cards and therefore replace any other card in the hand to create a winning combination.

Joker’s Wild: In this case, the Jokers are wild and the player needs to have at least two pairs to form a winning hand.

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