Video Poker. Rules & Hand Rankings

When changing between online casinos, make sure you check for any variations in their general rules. This will depend on the software that drives their online casino.

The object of the game is to get any of the winning combinations of poker hands. Be sure to review the winning combinations and the payoff schedule before you play. In other words, become as familiar with the video game as you can before you start betting real money. The good thing about online casinos is that you can download their software and play their video poker games for free before you get into the nitty gritty of playing for real money.

Video poker has many variations such as Jacks or Better or Joker Poker, but most of the games are based on 5-card draw poker. The player is dealt 5 cards from a single deck and then has the choice of drawing up to 5 replacement cards. The nice thing about video poker is that it is a game that rewards skill. If your skill is perfect and you play the right video poker machines you can actually shift the advantage of the game from the casino to the player.

Playing video poker is really quite simple (it is the strategy that's complicated). Most machines allow the player to bet from 1 to 5 coins for each hand that is dealt. The number of coins played then becomes the multiplier for the payout table when a winning hand is dealt. As you add a coin, the payout table changes to show the new payout for each hand. You then have the choice of holding and discarding whichever cards you want. The remaining cards are dealt and the hand is over.

The good thing about playing with online casino software is that just about all of them will let you change the playing denomination of the particular video poker game you are playing. For example, you can change from 25 cents to one dollar denominations when you want to. Before you start betting, make sure you know how to change the betting denomination because their video poker games might be set to a one dollar betting denomination by default, and you have to change it to 25 cents or 50 cents or whatever you want.

Progressive Video Poker machines are becoming very popular at online casinos because of their increasingly large jackpots. For example, Casino Kingdom has the Jackpot Deuces Progressive. The changing jackpot dollar amount is always exciting to see, especially if it gets really big.

Multi-Hand Video Poker

Just about every Online Casino now has multi-hand versions of video poker. One Online Casino has Multi-hand Deuces Wild, Multi-hand Jacks or Better, Multi-hand Joker Poker, and Multi-hand Aces and Faces.

The following chart is a quick review of your Poker Hand Rankings:

Click here for a list of Video Poker Casinos.