Playing Video Poker Slot Machines

Slot machines — you puts in your money and, every now and again, you win. But poker? Ah, the joy of a game of skill. Sitting there, pitting yourself against the best in the room. Now that’s the real deal. You back your skill against theirs. You bet on you and you win!

If you walked into a real-world casino, you’d find a whole section of Video Poker machines. But there are never as many as the conventional slot machines. Why is that? The answer couldn’t be simpler. The more people play Video Poker machines properly (i.e. with skill), the more they win. The more they win, the less money the House makes. If casinos had their way, there’d never be more than a handful of Video Poker machines. As it is, all the better informed gamblers worked out they had better odds and voted with their feet. They went to the casinos with the most Video Poker machines. If there was a queue of players, they went somewhere else. This forced casinos into developing the machines.

When Video Poker machines first appeared in the mid-1970s, the technology was primitive by modern standards. Now, you’ll find more than a hundred versions of the game with many casinos offering lower denomination or better odds machines. Naturally, all the main versions can be played online.

How to Play

The Video Poker version of draw poker first appeared in 1979. It applies the same basic set of rules as the real-world version of the game. The only difference is that you only play against the machine — there’s no human element of competition. You start by freshening the pot — this is a game you pay to play. In the video version, you’ll be running with a credit balance and the initial stake is deducted from your account. When you press “play”, the machine deals you five cards.

Now, it’s your choice to play the hand as dealt or draw new cards from the virtual deck. Under each of the five cards dealt, there’s a “hold” button. Hit “hold” for the cards you want to keep. Then hit “deal”. The slots takes the discards and deals you the new. This gives you the final five-card hand. The software applies a set of “pay tables”. If your final hand matches any of the card combinations in the table, you are a winner! What could be more fun?

No more passive watching some spinning wheels. The overall effect of Virtual Poker is far closer to the “human” game than you’d think. Why not give it a try and find out how exciting it can be. You work out the odds on the original cards dealt and end up a winner when you draw just the cards you need!