Video Poker Strategy: Guide to Winning Charts, Cards, and Tactics

Strategic decisions come into play when choosing which cards to hold. You need to weigh the strength of your hand against the probability of drawing new cards that will improve it. Using a video poker strategy chart can help you make the right decisions and get a high paying hand. Choosing a pay table with higher payouts can reduce the low house edge and increase your potential winnings.

Video Poker Strategy: Charts, Cards, and Winning Guides

While games like Deuces Wild can offer great returns, they also require more complex strategies. If you’re just starting out, stick to simpler games like Jacks or Better until you’ve mastered the basics. Remember, the goal is to maximize your chances of making a winning hand or setting yourself up for a big win on future draws. Don’t be afraid to dump everything if you don’t have any promising partial hands or high cards. Sometimes, the best move in video poker is to break up a winning hand for a chance at an even better one.

• In progressive games betting less than the maximum can reduce the reward for a Royal Flush to almost nothing making it not worth going for.
• For the reason that you’ll miss holding the correct cards, get upset, and most probably hate the session.
• For example, if you’re dealt Ac Kc Qc Td Ts, there are several ways you can play the hand.
• That’s why it’s important to set up your time and budget limits in advance.
• However, very few of these offer video poker machines currently.

Another big reason why players enjoy video poker is the skill factor. There’s a big allure in trying to beat the odds by making the right moves. Once you play enough video poker and start noticing that you’re getting better, you’ll only want to play more. Just like regular poker, video poker is a game that combines luck and skill. Over the years, many people have tried to come up with strategies on how to win at video poker by using math and probability in order to minimize or completely annul the house edge. In video poker, you play against a machine and a fixed paytable.

Why does video poker attract a lot of players?

On the contrary, you will lose your money almost six times faster if you play on the 97.29% machine. In this case, choosing the 99.54% is the better option as it offers you close to full pay. In other words, the 99.54% machine only keeps 0.47% house edge while the 97.29% machine keeps 2.71%. The gravest mistake that you can make in your quest to succeed in video poker is to attempt playing by just…guessing.

Beyond that, make sure you find machines with a full paytable, and not ones with diminished returns for certain hands. Knowing the best video poker strategy for most situations will speed up your game and make you a better player. There may be four different paytables just for the Jacks or Better game at one casino, perhaps a full pay one back in the corner, but a 7/5 sucker machine safe betting by the Sports Bar. A Deuces Wild progressive may have an expected value of 102%, but it sits in a noisy area that you hate to play in. Unlike its Poker namesake, video poker doesn’t rely on bluffs, player tells, or aggressive play styles.

However rare, video poker bonuses can help you earn more by doubling up or even tripling your deposit. There’s no denying, gamer’s clubs are mostly intended to get you and other casino players to play more, and for longer to get comps. Video poker has several versions like Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Tens or Better, Bonus Poker, Joker’s Wild, and Bally’s All American. If you are comfortable playing the max number of coins, so be it. Even so, don’t play at a level that your funds don’t allow you to ride out a streak. Learn the rules, master your strategy, and the game itself, as you might not want to lose a lot of money while still unsure of how to play.

Keep up to date with the live poker scene and your favorite players. If you play the games for high stakes, you will accumulate a lot of VIP points, which can be exchanged for cash, hotel stays, flights, and various other perks. The odds in video poker are pretty close to zero, meaning any extra edge you can get goes to your pocket. Payouts in Jacks or Better range from even money for a single pair of Jacks or better, to 800/1 for a Royal Flush. While we have nothing against these, it still is hard to predict when a royal will come, so if you’d like to use the Kelley Criterion or one of these apps to set bankroll, that’s fine. Still, a very good rule of thumb is 4x the value of the top jackpot and then no more than 10 percent of that in any one playing session.

Step 3: Hit “Deal” to Receive Your First Hand

Note that there’s no limit to the quantity of practice you need to better your video poker strategy. Of course, this creates an advantage for the player, as more combinations are now likely to be the winning ones. To compensate for this advantage, Deuces Wild offers lower payouts for certain combinations and, unlike Jacks or Better, doesn’t offer any for combinations weaker than three of a kind. This is why you need to always check a game’s pay table before you start betting. Most games will have their pay table displayed in the information tab.

By selecting the highest-paying video poker game, you’ll give yourself a better chance of winning and maximizing your profits. To know which games offer the best payouts, you must check and compare their pay tables and RTP scores. Reading reviews from other players can also help determine which casinos are trustworthy and offer the best overall experience.

Read the terms and conditions carefully to ensure you understand the requirements for receiving and using these bonuses. With the right bonus, you could significantly increase your chances of walking away from the virtual video poker table as a winner. One of the players’ most common mistakes is chasing a straight or a flush with three connected cards. One of the most common dilemmas when playing video poker is deciding whether to keep a low pair or a high card. Players usually keep the high card, hoping to land a better hand on the next draw. If you’re looking for ways to extend your bankroll, choose a site that offers strong video poker bonuses.

But at 5 coins, it pays 4,000 coins—an enormous bonus of 2,750 coins! Playing anything less than the max bet means you are drastically lowering the game’s overall RTP and giving away your chance at the jackpot. If a 5-coin bet is too expensive for your bankroll, you should move to a lower denomination machine, not reduce your number of coins.