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VIDEO POKER STRATEGIES &
INFORMATION |
Video Poker Strategy - Starting out right
If you want to get into playing video poker, and dedicating
some time to it, it's essential that you have a working
strategy. It's fine to go and play to learn how things work,
but if you want to win, a good video poker strategy is in
order, and all of them work off of the same basic principle:
make the best decisions for every opportunity.
To get the most out of a video poker machine, you need to be
able to do three simple things. These are: read the pay
table to choose a machine that offers the highest payback -
know the best strategies for the specific machine you're
playing - understand the volatility of a machine, so you can
have an idea of how much your bankroll will fluctuate.
Playing video poker is extremely simple; playing it well is
slightly more complex. Like blackjack, Video poker is a game
where the house edge is a variable affected by the skill
level of the player. One main skill is proper machine
selection; the other is knowing the proper strategy for the
machine your playing. Since there are a million varieties of
Video Poker, there are a million strategies, and people
quickly become overwhelmed at what they seem to need to
know. Don't fret though, you can start with a single
machine, and what you need to know for a single machine
isn't overwhelming at all.
In the broadest terms, there are non-wild card video poker
games like Jacks or Better, and there are wild card games
like Deuces wild. In these two categories there are many
different varieties, some good, some bad. Payout schedule
return rates vary from under 90% to over 100%.
One of the most common varieties of non-wild games is the
Jacks or Better game. Jacks or better is very popular
classic game and considered the 'standard' video poker box
by many patrons. It also acts as a great place to start, as
it's easy to understand the strategy you use. Of course, Fat
Tony wouldn't recommend it if it wasn't also a decent bet.
The best version of Jacks or Better has a 99.5% payback
percentage when you get the strategy perfect. This means
that over the long run you're only expected to lose half a
dollar on every hundred dollars spent in the machine.
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JACKS OR BETTER STRATEGY
To use this strategy you simply look at the hand you've been
dealt, then compare it the list. The highest hand on the
list that it matches are the cards you should keep. So start
at the top of the jacks or better strategy card list and
work down until you've found a match. Keep the combination
of cards that matches the listing and discard the rest.
If you're a poker player you may have to alter your lingo a
bit. What poker players call an 'inside straight', video
poker players often call a straight with a 'gap'. So if you
have four cards of a five card straight, and the missing
card is in the middle of the run (meaning the straight can
only be completed with one card, as opposed to on either
side of a straight) the straight is said to have one gap. If
you have the makings of a straight with two missing cards,
it's called a straight with two gaps.
Jacks or Better Strategy Card
Royal flush
Straight flush
Four of a kind
Four-card royal flush
Full house
Flush
Three of a kind
Straight
Four-card straight flush
Two pair
Pair of jacks or better (high pair)
Three-card royal flush
Four-card flush
TJQK: unsuited
Pair of 10s or less (low pair)
9TJQ: unsuited
89TJ: unsuited
9JQ (s)
9TQ (s)
Four-card straight, open, no high cards
Three-card straight flush, two gaps, two high cards
Three-card straight flush, one gap, one high card
Three-card straight flush, open, no high cards
JQKA: unsuited
Two-card royal flush, two high cards
Four-card straight, one gap, three high cards
Three-card straight flush, two gaps, one high card
Three-card straight flush, one gap, no high cards
JQK: unsuited
Two high cards: unsuited (when you have three don't keep the
ace)
Two-card royal flush with 10 and no ace
One high card
Three-card straight flush, two gaps, no high cards
Nothing (draw five cards)
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Play the 7's Wild
The Deck:
There are 52 cards in the deck of the 7's Wild
machine. Four of them are Wild cards, all four of them 7's.
Hence the name, 7's Wild.
The Payout Table:
No pair is worthy of a payout, neither are any two pairs.
The payouts begin with 3-of-a-kind and better. A straight
and a flush both pay double the bet, and a full house wins 3
times the bet.
The paytable reflects the
wild cards in the deck, and pays for 5-of-a-kind. It also
pays differently for 4 Wild cards (7's in this case), and
all other 4-of-a-kinds.
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Play the Joker Poker
The Deck:
The Joker Poker machines uses a 53 card deck. There is
one wild card in the deck, the joker.
The Payout Table:
Joker Poker's paytable begins at Kings or better, which
returns the bet. Two pair also returns the bet.
Three-of-a-kind pays twice the bet.
The full house/flush ratio on the machine is 6/5.
Four-of-a-kind pays 20-to-1.
Because of the wild card in the deck, the paytable
addresses 5-of-a-kind hands, and pays differently for Royals
that make use of wild cards, and those that occur naturally.
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Play the All American Poker
The Deck:
There are 52 cards in the deck of the All American Poker
machine. There are no jokers in the deck, and none of the
cards are wild.
The Payout Table:
The payout table begins at a pair of Jacks or better. One
or two pair returns your bet. Three-of-a-kind triples it.
A straight pays well, 8 times the bet. The full
house/flush ratio is 8/8. A straight flush pays well also,
returning an amazing 200-to-1.
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Play the Double Joker
The Deck:
The Double Joker Poker machine uses a 54 card deck. The
deck contains 2 jokers, which are wild cards.
The Payout Table:
The payout table does not reward the player for any one
pair. Two pairs returns the bet. Three-of-a-kind doubles the
bet, and a straight returns triple.
The full house/flush ration on the machine is 5/4.
Four-of-a kind pays 8-to-1. Because the machine has wild
cards, you can hit a five-of-a-kind. There is also a
different set of payouts for hitting a natural Royal Flush,
or a Royal Flush with the aid of a wild card in the hand.
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