Video Poker Rules

Video Poker Rules

Video poker used to be a game for young guys that didn’t have anything better to do than hold up the video poker machine for everyone else for hours. Since online casinos are a fact anyone can play this great game and there are no lines! If you already know how to play poker you have come a long way in understanding video poker rules. Any beginner player should take advantage of the option of playing video poker for free online.

How to Play
The first thing you need to do is decide what video poker machine you want to play on. There are video poker games with bonus rounds and special jokers and wilds that can influence how you try to build your hands. In basic video poker you have five cards to make a hand out of. You look at the original cards that the machine will deal you and you decide if you want to discard and draw new ones or if you want to keep it as it is. You are only playing against the machine so you don’t need to focus on any other player’s actions.

Rankings of Hands
The highest ranking video poker hand is the Royal Flush which is followed by the Straight Flush. Just like in regular poker your high cards are worth more than your low ones. You need to check that the Ace can be used as both 1 and 10 before you start playing. When you play with jokers you should focus extra so that you don’t miss out on a hand that you can build when you have a card that can substitute any cards.

Making Bets
You decide how much you want to bet on the game at the beginning and this sum will influence how much you can win. A beginner might think that smaller bets are safer but this depends on how many rounds you need to play to break even. A good way to learn the video poker rules for bets is to play a free version of the game. This will show you, hands on, how the bet works at your level of play.

Calculating your Winnings
Added to the ranking of the hands is a score and this is what will set your result. When you’re through with a game the final score will be the hand you produced minus the amount of actions you took. Every new card you takes costs so you need to know if it is worth it. If you don’t end up making a useful hand you will actually lose money so try to learn the strategies for successful video poker before you enter the real-money games.

Playing for a Progressive Jackpot
When you play for a progressive jackpot the video poker rules stay the same but you might have to bet the highest possible to be eligible for the jackpot. To win the jackpot you will need to produce the highest ranking hand with a minimum of new cards drawn. It isn’t easy but it gets very exciting!