Online video poker currently ranks among the most popular online casino games. Despite its relatively short history, it has earned its rightfully respectable position on the casino floor.
Online poker rules employ a combination of 5 card draw and slots. Online casino machines require a new bet with each hand, and payout varies according to bet size.
Online poker removes the complication of betting on hands with multiple players. There is also no limit on the number of cards you can put back.
The four most popular variations are Jacks or Better, Jokers, Deuces and Multi-handed play.
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Jacks or Better Video Poker
Jacks or Better is the most popular form of online casino poker. There are no fancy online casino poker rules, no wilds, just a single draw.
You get paid if your hand contains a pair of jacks or better – hence the name. This is an ideal game version for beginners.
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Jokers Wild Video Poker
This online casino poker variation employs a 53-card deck. The deck contains a joker that is wild. The joker can be any card at any time. Jokers Wild video poker does not have the ace restrictions.
Due to improved odds, payouts are only awarded on hands of kings or better – rather than jacks. The joker appears about one in every ten hands, so be sure to make the best use of it.
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Deuces Video Poker
Deuces online casino Poker is played with a standard 52-card deck. All 2s in the deck are wild.
Payouts in Deuces Wild are unusual. You are paid when you play three of a kind or better. The payouts are smaller for everything other than a natural royal flush.
Players hit good hands with relative ease in Deuces. This typically compensates for lean payouts.
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Multi-Handed Play
Some machines deal a single hand from which you choose what cards to keep and which to replace with new ones.
Machines then deal multiple outcomes for the video poker hand you kept. You must pay the initial bet for each hand.
Some multi-handed online casino games offer up to 52-handed video poker.
Game variations
Recognize the differences among game variations. You cannot beat a game if you don't know its mechanisms.
When to throw away paying hands
Keep your hand if it is four cards to a straight flush, or four cards of a royal flush. It is not worth it to throw away a pair of Jacks so that you can take a chance at a royal flush with three cards. The odds just don’t work that way.
If you starting hand does not pay
Keep 4 cards to a royal or straight flush. The odds are even good enough that you want to keep 3 cards to a royal flush if you don’t have a paying hand.