Video Poker Rules & Howto
Video poker is a combination of five-card draw poker and a slot machine. There are really no set of rules in dealing with slot machines- you put your coins in, and either pull the handle or press the 'spin' button. There are a few rules in making winning poker hands, though so that is what we will cover in this section.
Once you put your coins in the slots, the machine will deal you a hand of five cards. After looking over the five cards, you must choose which ones to discard and which ones to keep or hold. If you are satisfied with your hand as-is, you can elect to stay on that hand and not get dealt any new cards.
If you decide you want to discard some of your cards, you would simply press the “hold” button beneath all the cards you want to hold. Do not press the button below any of the cards that you want to get rid of. Press the 'deal' button one more time, and the cards you did not hold will be replaced by new ones. You only get to do this once.
Once you have gotten your cards, you must now make the best hand you can with the cards. Fortunately, since you are playing on a machine, you don't have to think too hard- the machine will do the figuring for you! Depending on your hand, you may have won a certain sum of money. The machine, like a regular slot machine, will give you your payoff should you win.
Whether you win or not depends on the payoff chart that each machine has on either the machine itself or on the screen. The better your hand is, the better the payout. Here is a list of the poker hands that you can make, ranked from best to worst.
- Five of a kind (only if the game uses a wild card such as a joker)
- Royal Flush
- Straight Flush
- Four of a Kind
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight
- Three of a Kind
- Two Pair
- One Pair
If you are not sure what each of these hands consists of, you can refer to the 'glossary' section to get these definitions.
While most video poker machines will require at least a pair of jacks for a payoff, there are several variations that may pay you for a lesser hand. Again, you must refer to the pay chart on the front of that particular machine in order to find out if a particular low hand qualifies as a win.
For games that have a wild card, the machine will automatically give that card a rank that gives you the best possible hand.
Like traditional slot machines, video poker allows you to play more than one coin. The payoff chart for that particular slot will tell you how much you win on each bet. For instance, you may be playing quarter slots. If you put 50 cents in instead on only a quarter, your will increase your winnings should you get an eligible hand. It is advised that you play the max amount of coins for that slot if you want to win big.
