Electronic Poker is a favored game that can be gambled on in casinos around the world, or in your house on your PC, through a net connection. The rules are absolutely straightforward and involve the player attempting to achieve the highest combination of cards achievable in order to win money. In this respect it is very similar as a regular game of poker, apart from the interaction with any other players. Of course, tactics used in a physical game of poker, like tricking, will be useless here.
The game of Video Poker starts when the gambler puts credits (either tokens, credit slips or cash) into the video poker machine and presses the play button. A 5 card hand will be electronically ‘dealt’ on the video screen.
The Video Poker machine also has hold buttons, and gamblers will need to now pick which cards to hold and which to discard. For the cards the bettor wishes to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they illuminate. The player can choose to keep any amount of cards they want, whether it’s all or none.
After the player has selected which cards he or she wishes to retain, the player will then press ‘deal’, which will mean that any fresh cards are needed they will be dealt. The round is now completed, with the Video Poker machine analyzing the cards to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands printed on the payout schedule.
Generally, the lowest succeeding hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money increasing for each and every better hand. A list of common winning hands starts with jacks or better, and moves on to two pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It definitely goes without saying that the payout schedule can range from machine to machine, so that experienced players are able to choose the most profitable ones each and every instance.
Once the first round has finished, the player can either decide to remain on in an attempt to increase their winnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any money that has been won. Additionally, several versions of the game give the gambler an opportunity to increase their profits, in which situation a further round is played. There are also variations among specific games, with some decks of cards having wild cards and other varying elements to increase playability.