Whether
you are playing at home or in the casino, video
poker can be a lot of fun. It can also be profitable
if you know your strategy and play on machines
that offer a good payback.
There are many different varieties of video poker,
and they do not all offer the same returns. The
pay schedule for each machine is posted on the
machine, so you can use this information to determine
how well the machines pay out. There are pay tables
available all over the Internet where you can
find the payback percentage for the most popular
video poker games. Playing the games that offer
the highest payback schedule will offer you the
best chance at profiting from the video poker
machines.
Besides making sure you are playing at the right
machines, you need to make sure you have the right
strategy for winning at video poker. You need
to know which cards to hold in order to increase
your chances of earning a payout for each hand.
Sometimes this is easy because there is only one
possibility that makes sense. However, at other
times there may be more than one winning hand
that could result from the cards you initially
draw, and you need to know which one is most likely
to come up.
Here is an example to help you understand why
you need to have a good strategy for deciding
which cards to keep.
Let’s say that you are playing a video poker
machine that pays out 6 for a flush and 4 for
a straight. If you have a hand that could give
you either four cards for a flush or four for
a straight, you must decide which hand to go for.
There are nine cards left in the deck that could
complete your flush out of the remaining 47 cards
in the deck. So your odds of winning the flush
are 9/47.
Your odds for getting the straight are lower.
If the cards you have available to use toward
the straight are all consecutive, there are eight
different cards that could make the straight (8/47).
If the cards are not consecutive, but instead
have a gap (such as 2-3-5-6), then your odds for
the straight are only 4/47.
You can also convert your odds to a percentage
that takes into consideration the amount of return
expected for each payoff. The formula for this
is to take the odds times the payout times 100
to convert it to a percentage. So you get 9/47
x 6 x 100 = 115% for the flush or 8/47 x 4 x 100
= 68% for the straight.
This might make video poker seem confusing or
overwhelming, but if you are serious about winning,
you need to learn the strategies that will help
increase your chances. Fortunately, you can do
this without your calculator. There are cheat
sheets available from many sources that tell you
which hands are the best bet. You can purchase
them online and take them with you when you play.
If you want to win at video poker, you need to
be able to determine what the best play is for
each hand. There are 32 possible ways to play
each hand in video poker, and you must play each
hand in the best possible way. You will not do
well in video poker if you make mistakes.
Now that you know how to figure the expected return
for each hand, or how to access the information
if you prefer not to figure it out yourself, you
are ready to start playing video poker. Find a
machine that pays well and get started playing
today.
Sarah Harrigan
has been involved as a player and researcher on online casinos
and online gambling since 2025. She has created this site
as a safe haven for all gamblers, new and old. With over 2500
online casinos to choose from, the majority being unreputable
she felt compelled to use her experience as a player to give
back in terms of online gambling tips and strategies. Because
of her research background you will find her reviews very
honest and refreshing and we hope you will find this site
very useful.
