Electronic Poker is a popular game that can be bet on in casinos around the world, or alternatively at your house on your home computer, using a net account. The rules are very straightforward and involve the player trying to get the highest mixture of cards achievable in order to come away with cash. In this respect it is much the same as a classic game of poker, minus the involvement with any other players. Of course, techniques used in a physical game of poker, like tricking, will be irrelevant in Video Poker.
The game of Video Poker starts when the gambler inserts credits (either tokens, tickets or money) into the video poker machine and pushes the draw button. A hand of 5 cards will then be electronically ‘given out’ on the screen.
The Video Poker game also has hold buttons, and players will need to now decide which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the enthusiast would like to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons should be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any number of cards they want, whether it’s all or none.
After the enthusiast has selected which cards he or she wishes to keep, they should press ‘draw’, at which point any fresh cards will be dealt if desired. 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 an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money growing for each better hand. A common list of winning hands starts with jacks or better, and moves on to two pairs, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It goes without saying that the payout schedule can vary from machine to machine, so that discerning players are able to select the most beneficial machine every time.
As soon as the first round has finished, the player can either choose to stay on in an attempt to maximize their winnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any credits that they may have won. Additionally, some styles of the game allow the player an opportunity to increase their profits, in which case another game is played. There are also variations among specific games, with some decks of cards including wild cards and other varying aspects to increase playability.