Online Video Poker Guide

Though it’s been around since the 1970s, video poker is a hugely misunderstood game. Sometimes, it is equated with slots in its functionality, and people think that it is entirely based on luck. However, if you’ve player online video poker before, you will know that there is one major factor that differentiates it from video slots, namely, player control. In video poker, the first time the cards are dealt, your luck will determine how good or bad they are. However, the control factor comes in when you’re selecting the cards to keep and those to replace. If you know how to do that to maximum effect, you can actually increase your chances of winning.

Of course, you will be faced with a variety of poker types when you decide to play, and certain games have more advantages than others. If you decide to play a game such as Mystery Bonus Poker, you may need to depend a little more on your luck to get that big win, but if you stick with the simple games, such as Jacks or Better, you have a lot more control.

So What's the Winning Strategy?

For the most part, the experts in video poker suggest that the best way to start off in the game of online video poker is to analyse the cards that you are initially dealt and decide which is the best way to get to a winning hand. This is not an easy analysis but if you think about the kinds of cards you could be dealt and the types of winning combinations you need, you will eventually begin to see a pattern emerge. Remember that if you’re not sure which cards make up a winning hand, you can check the machine’s paytable.

This example may help you understand the strategy better. If you are dealt two jacks, a queen, a two and a seven, consider how close you are to a winning combination. In all likelihood, you will notice that you are the closest to two pairs, so it would make sense to discard the two and seven, and keep the jacks – the pair you already have – and the queen, since the chances of getting an extra queen in the draw are quite high.

If you have three cards in random order but they are spades, while your other two cards are hearts, your closest winning combination is a flush. Therefore, it makes sense to get rid of the hearts and hope for two more spades in the draw. The experts say that this kind of strategy is based on the higher ranking cards in your hand. The higher ranked the cards are (that is, the closer they are to giving you a winning combination), the higher your chances of walking away with a lot of money.

Is It Guaranteed?

It is vital that you understand when playing online video poker that there is no guaranteed strategy to win. Though you may be able to increase your chances of winning with the higher ranking strategy, there is still a fair amount of luck that factors into these games. Though playing with a strategy can help you reduce the house edge, there is no way to guarantee how the cards will fall.

The next time you visit a South African online casino to play online video poker, try a few variants of the game and apply this strategy to them. This will help you practice and cement the strategy in your mind, so that it becomes ingrained and you start doing it automatically. At first, this means that you may take a little longer to decide on what to do with each hand, but in the long run, this strategy could help you reduce the house edge in online video poker, and increase your chances of winning.