Electronic Poker is a beloved game that can be played in casinos around the globe, or in your house on your PC, through an Internet account. The regulations are very straightforward and involve the player trying to achieve the best mixture of cards possible in order to acquire money. On this account it is much the same as a classic game of poker, minus the interaction with any other players. Of course, techniques used in a physical game of poker, such as tricking, will be irrelevant in Video Poker.
The game of Electronic Poker starts when the player inserts credits (whether it is tokens, tickets or cash) into the video poker machine and presses the play button. A hand of 5 cards will then be electronically ‘handed out’ on the video screen.
The Video Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ printed on them, and bettors should now choose which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the bettor would like to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any number of cards they wish, from all to none.
After the enthusiast has selected which cards she would like to retain, they should press ‘deal’, which will mean that any new cards will be needed they will be handed out. The hand is now completed, with the Electronic Poker machine scanning the cards to see if it matches any of the winning hands listed in the pay out schedule.
Generally, the lowest winning hand on an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money growing for each and every better hand. A list of common winning hands begins with jacks or better, moving on to two pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It is obvious that the pay out schedule can range from game to game, so that discerning enthusiasts are agile enough to select the most profitable game each time.
Once the first round has finished, the player can either decide to stay on in an attempt to maximize their earnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any money that they may have won. Additionally, several versions of the game allow the player an opportunity to increase their wins, in which case a further hand is played. There are also differences between individual machines, with some decks of cards including wild cards and other differing characteristics to increase playability.