Video Poker

Serious casino players are generally slot machine enthusiasts. Even though slot machines hold the majority of casino revenue, there are a few people that love a challenging game of poker. Poker requires skill, thought and can be quite competitive in nature when there are many players in a hand.

This is where Video Poker comes in. Video Poker gives players of this type a taste of both games. When playing Video Poker Slots casino fans get the thrill and the challenge while still being able to feel like they are playing a slot machine.

Video slots are basically the same as playing a hand of poker. You will need to have a strategy and basically some skill in being able to think a tad bit ahead of the game.

Vide Poker Basics

One of the hardest choices to make when deciding to play video poker slots is to decide on what game to actually play. If you don't have a favorite yet, you may want to take a look around the casino for video slot machines. If you're playing online video poker, you might want to check out what other themes that is offered for video poker.

One of the very first things before even beginning to play video poker slots or any casino game for that matter is, distinguish your bankroll. This means figure out what you want to spend and what you can afford to lose. Winning is fun, we all want to win, but lets face it, gambling is gambling. Make sure the amount that you play on is an amount that you don't care to lose.

Now once that is out of the way, let's play a game of video poker!

Choose the video poker game of your choice. There are many fun games out there, "Jacks or Better", "Aces & Faces", "Joker Poker", "Multi-Hand Poker" and many more to choose from.
Place your bets 1-5 credits usually
Your hand is dealt
Hold the cards you wish to keep
Press Deal to finish out the hand
If you have a winning hand, you will be credited for any type of win

Video Poker is the same as playing an actual hand of card poker. If you do not know how to play poker by using a deck of cards, you will want to read up on the basics of playing poker. Use the help option on the video poker game to activate the pay table and the rules of the game.

Video Poker Strategies

In the beginning of this article, I talked about picking machines. This is one of the most important strategies to playing video poker slots. Not all video poker machines pay the same; many have higher pay outs than others. Make sure to check the pay table on any slot machine before playing.

The second best video slot strategy to know is what cards to hold as opposed to what ones to throw out. This is where that old trusty pay table comes back into play. Each slot game holds a different requirement for a win. Make sure you understand what the target cards you want to hold in your hand per each video slot machine that you play. Below is an example of the classic hands to try for in video poker in order of importance:

Royal Flush
Straight Flush
Four of a Kind
Full House
Flush
Straight
Three of a Kind
Two Pairs
Pair of Jacks or Better

Look for the highest payback anytime you want to play video slot poker.

Slots vs. Video Poker

Regular slot machines have always ruled. Many people do not realize the how advanced video poker has become over the last ten years. Many that have made the switch to video poker from card tables or regular slot machine games have found that video poker is actually easier to win and make a profit.

Why is this? Because this is based on a card game of skill and thought, and the pay outs are often better than a regular slot machine. The higher the pay out the higher the chance you have to win actually.

Since video poker slots randomly bring up cards, you are able to try to determine what cards could be left in the deck based on a deck of 52 cards. This is just common sense of counting and paying attention to what has already been played out of the deck. After understanding what is played out of the deck, you are able to determine what is left in the deck.

Regular slot machines you can not do this. The win on slot machine is generated by a number generator and is based strictly on luck alone.

Basically the three most important rules of video poker are: pick your game, learn your game, and know how to play your game.