How To Play Video Poker And Win

Let's face it - everyone who plays video poker or any other casino game for that matter is looking to win, and win big. The issue with this is that most casino games make it impossible to win in the long run because of the 'house edge.' Fortunately, video poker is one of the very few games where players can actually escape the house edge and turn things in their favor. This article will teach you how to play profitable video poker by indentifying positive expectation machines, as well as using a few other tips and tricks.

• How To Play Poker Video
• How To Play Video Poker And Win

What is 'Winning?'

Poker Strategy Tips for Beginners. You can find plenty of strategy tips for poker beginners online, but the biggest and best involve your overall approach to the game. Most people agree that, especially for a beginner, a tight aggressive approach is the best way to play. Play Fewer Poker Hands. This is a simple yet highly effective poker strategy. It definitely falls in line.

Tons of people come to this page looking for ways to cheat the casinos and rig the video poker machines - that's not what this guide is about. Rather, this page will teach you how to find slight edges and ways to increase your odds so that in the long run you're a small favorite. Don't expect to win tons of money in a short time period. These methods will work, but you have to be patient and be in it for the long haul.

Expected Value

Casinos make money by instituting a 'house edge' into their games. For video poker the house edge usually ranges between 0.3% and 8% depending on the specific game/pay table. What this means is that every time you put a dollar into a video poker machine, you can expect to receive between $0.92 and $0.997 back, depending on the individual machine. This is called the 'expected value' - basically, the value you expect to get back out of the machine.

To win at video poker you simply need to get the expected value above 100%, and play long enough to let the variance settle down. Sounds simple right? Well, it's easier said than done.

Picking a Game

The first way to increase your expected value is to choose a video poker game with the best rate of return. The rate of return varies depending on the game's rules and pay table. Here are the video poker games with the highest rates of return:

One thing to keep in mind about the games listed above is that the payout percentage is calculated assuming that you're playing a 'full pay' version of the game, and that you're using perfect strategy (which we'll discuss later). If you're playing a game with a reduced pay table or if you use incorrect strategy, you'll have a lower payout percentage.

Perfect Strategy

The second way to increase your expected value is to play with perfect strategy. Since you can determine the outcome of every situation in video poker, it's easy to determine the correct move in every possible situation. Perfect strategy isn't hard to achieve - you just have to utilize discipline and focus.

Since strategy is an entire topic itself, we'll leave that off this page. To learn perfect strategy for the above games, check out our video poker strategy page.

Reduce Variance

If you're playing 10/7 Double Bonus with perfect strategy, your payout percentage will be over 100% which means you have to win, right? Well, not really. Let me explain:

Even though you're a long run favorite you can still lose a lot of money in the short run. The casino has a basically infinite bankroll, and if you sit down at a video poker machine with only a small bankroll it is likely that at some point you'll have enough bad hands in a row that you will go broke.

To prevent this you need to make sure you bring plenty of money to the casino to account for short term downswings, and to play tens of thousands of hands to even things out. The more hands you play, the closer you'll get to the 100.1725% return (aka your profit).

Player Cards

One way to increase your expected return even more is to take advantage of player cards at live casinos. Most casinos let players use their cards at video poker machines, and you'll get points for every hour you play. Usually you'll get extra points for playing more coins and making larger bets.

These points can be used to pay for your food and your hotel room at the casino, so they increase your bottom line even more.

Winning at Progressives (Sometimes)

Although we recommend sticking to the video poker games in the table above, there are certain times when other games may have higher expected returns. One situation where a different game can have a higher payout percentage is when the game has a progressive jackpot that has reached a huge sum.

If you'd like to learn more about when these games are profitable, check out our progressive video poker machines page. MAKE SURE to never play progressives unless the jackpot is big enough, because without a big jackpot they're a sucker's bet.

Ready to Win?

All of the games we discussed above are available for real money play online at the Bovada Casino. Although you can probably find better odds at a live casino, you can still start practicing at Bovada so you'll be ready to crush the casino when the time comes.

Whether there’s no poker room at the nearby casino or you’d just rather play from your sofa, video poker offers some fun and a chance to win for anyone seeking to hit that flush, full house, or royal flush. Usually grouped with slots in online gambling sites, video poker is based on Five-Card Draw with numerous game options and bonuses available.

Before you grab your lucky rabbit’s foot and take a seat, check out our guide to video poker below so you know what to expect when playing the game.

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Video poker basics

Many people who don’t play slot machines do enjoy video poker — it can be less intimidating than table games and some simply prefer to have options outside of just spinning reels.

Players are dealt five cards and can choose which cards to keep and which to replace. Catch a few nice cards and rack up a nice payout; miss on your draw and the hand is a loser. The idea is to be the player with the strongest hand. A royal flush — a hand containing an ace, king, queen, jack, and 10 all of the same suit — is the best possible outcome. Other strong hands include:

Straight flush – A sequence of five cards of the same suit
Four of a kind – All four cards of the same rank (four queens, for example)
Full house – Three of a kind plus a matching pair
Flush – Five same-suit cards that aren’t in a sequence
Straight – Five cards in a sequence but not of the same suit

Winning payouts depend which version of the game you’re playing. Pay tables show how much players can win for each hand such as a full house, four of a kind, and a royal flush.

How To Play Poker Video

These are a few common video poker games:

• Deuces Wild – In this classic game, all 2s are wild and can be substituted for any card to complete a hand. Players can even earn some nice cash for four deuces.

• Jacks or Better – This is one of the most common video poker games, in which a player must draw a pair of jacks or higher to earn a payout. No wild cards can mean bigger payouts.

• Jokers Wild – Like the common dealer’s choice poker home game, there is one joker that is wild and can help secure a nice hand.

How To Play Video Poker And Win

Along with deciding which cards to keep in hopes of hitting a jackpot, players must also decide how much to wager. There are usually five options with the maximum bet paying out the biggest jackpots. Video poker also offers a range of bet denominations such as a quarter and up to a dollar and higher.

Options & Strategy

Beyond the games played and bets, video poker players can choose “Bonus” and “Double Bonus” varieties, both of which can offer higher payouts for certain hands and pay out a larger percentage of money in the long run if a player can play perfect strategy.

A somewhat newer addition is the option to play multi-hand video poker. In this option a place can play several hands at the same time. A player will be dealt a hand and then after drawing the other hands will receive random cards allowing for even more paydays. Multi-play ranges from only a few hands to as many as 100.

Another thing to know about video poker is that unlike a slot machine, player choices make a real difference in how a session turns out in the long run. Like blackjack, it’s important that players know basic strategy formulated by gaming experts who’ve run calculations accounting for every draw possible in each game.

For example, Jacks or Better can offer some of the best odds in a casino for those who follow basic strategy. A key principle is to keep any winning hand and not discard an automatic winner in hopes of something bigger. An exception is when a player is dealt four cards with a royal flush draw. With a big payout, pitching in a pair is worth a small loss in hopes of a big reward.

There are numerous sources online to learn basic Strategy and give yourself a better chance to really win some money at video poker.

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Things to remember

Be sure to look for games in the casino and when gambling online that offer the best payouts. Some machines even within the same casino will have very different payout schemes. Be a smart player and look for the most advantageous opportunities.

Some games also offer progressive payouts and are worth playing when they’re an option. A jackpot on a progressive machine offers a chance at a huge jackpot if you do hit one of those top hands such as a royal flush.

When it comes to betting, most experts recommend playing the maximum amount whenever possible to maximize returns. A payout at the highest level of bet is much greater than at lower denominations, obviously, but also usually offers a bigger payout than an incremental increase and higher bonuses for bigger hands. For example, a machine may pay 250, 500, 750, and 1,000 units for the first four rows on the payscale for a player who lands a royal flush. However, that same hand will often pay 4,000 units when a player is wagering the highest amount.