Video Poker Rules

The fast paced world of video poker offers players a variety of machines to try their luck at: All American, Joker Poker and Deuces Wild to name just a few. Each version of video poker gives a player a different aim as betting strategies and the types of payouts differ from game to game.

On most standard video poker machines, the option of playing at Max Bet enables a player to potentially achieve more in the way of payouts. Each level of betting may have a different corresponding level of payout but to be in to win the entire pot it is worthwhile to play at the Max Bet level.

Payout ratios differ from machine to machine so a successful player should study the payout charts at each machine to fully understand what type of betting strategy they should employ. For example, it is far more favourable to bet on Jacks or Better if you are playing All American than if you are playing the Joker Poker variety of video poker. All American poker rewards the Jacks or Better bet with a 30 to 1 payout. In comparison Joker Poker only pays out 20 to 1.

Betting itself is relatively easy to grasp in video poker. Machines offer a player a choice on which coins to bet ranging from 25 cents through to 5 dollars. Usually the maximum bet is five times higher than the minimum, for example on a $2 machine the maximum bet would be $10. In this case, betting the Max Bet of $10 would make a player eligible for the entire jackpot.

To protect their interests, casinos sometimes add machines with a lower payout rate to a group of video poker machines in order to even out the odds of winning. Therefore sometimes players playing what they believe are the same machines could be playing at a mix of superior and inferior video poker machines. This is why it is important to check out the payout and betting information for each machine and not to make assumptions about the game.

You can also ensure you are playing at the most favourable machines by being aware of how each model works when it comes to payouts. The 6/5 video poker machine has the lowest rate of payout averaging a jackpot once in every 70,000 rounds. The 7/5 machine payout averages out at once every 50,000 hands. The 8/5 machine payout is once every 45,000. By far the most favourable video poker machine is the 9/5 which pays out once in every 40,000 hands.