Electronic Poker is a popular game that is able to be enjoyed in casinos all over the world, or in your house on your personal computer, through an Internet connection. The game rules are absolutely straightforward and involve the player attempting to achieve the highest mixture of cards possible in order to win money. In this respect it’s much the same as a classic game of poker, minus the involvement with any other players. Of course, tactics used in a real-life game of poker, like bluffing, will be useless here.
The game of Video Poker begins when the player puts credits (whether it’s tokens, tickets or money) into the video poker machine and pushes the deal button. A five card hand will be "handed out" on the screen.
The Electronic Poker machine also has hold buttons, and gamblers should now pick which cards to hold and which to throw away. For the cards the player wishes to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any amount of cards they wish, from all to none.
After the gambler has chosen which cards he would like to retain, the player will then press ‘deal’, which will mean that any new cards are needed they will be given out. The hand is now completed, with the Video Poker machine analyzing the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands printed on the payout schedule.
Normally, the minimum succeeding hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money increasing for each better hand. A list of common winning hands begins with jacks or better, and moves on to two pairs, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It is obvious that the payout schedule can change from machine to machine, so that skillful bettors are agile enough to select the most money-making machine each and every time.
Once the initial round has completed, the player can either choose to stay on and try to to maximize their earnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any money that they may have won. Additionally, a few styles of the game allow the gambler an opportunity to double their wins, in which case a further round is played. There are also variations between specific games, with some decks of cards having wild cards and other differing characteristics to increase playability.