Electronic Poker is a popular game that is able to be gambled on in casinos around the globe, or alternatively at home on your home computer, using an Internet connection. The rules are very straightforward and involve the player attempting to achieve the best mixture of cards possible in order to acquire money. In this respect it’s much the same as a regular game of poker, apart from the involvement with any other players. Of course, methods employed during a physical game of poker, such as bluffing, will be irrelevant in Video Poker.
The game of Video Poker begins when the gambler inserts credits (whether it’s tokens, credit slips or money) into the machine and presses the play button. A hand of five cards will then be electronically ‘given out’ on the screen.
The Electronic Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and players will need to now decide which cards to hold and which to throw away. For the cards the gambler would like to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons should be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any number of cards they wish, whether it is all or none.
After the gambler has chosen which cards he wishes to keep, the player will then press ‘draw’, which will mean that any new cards will be given out if desired. The game is now finished, with the Video Poker machine scanning the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands listed in the payment schedule.
Generally, the minimum winning hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money increasing for each and every better hand. A list of common winning hands starts with jacks or better, moving on to 2 pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It goes without saying that the payment schedule can range from machine to machine, so that experienced enthusiasts are able to pick the most beneficial ones each instance.
After the first round has finished, the player can either decide to remain on and try to to maximize their earnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any cash that has been won. Further, a few styles of the game give the player a chance to increase their wins, in which situation a further round is played. There are also differences among specific machines, with some virtual decks having wild cards and other varying characteristics to increase playability.