What is video poker?
Video poker is one of the most popular gaming machines in most casinos and many people prefer it over slot machines because the winning combinations are more varied and there is much more room for strategy. The video poker machine looks very similar to a slot machine and it accepts coins, credit tickets or special magnetic cards, depends on the casino.
How the game operates
The game starts when the player places his bets by inserting money (or the credit ticket) into the machine and presses the "Deal" button in order to draw cards.
Video Poker is based on five card draw-poker which is the most basic form of poker. In this case, the player is dealt five cards and from them he selects which to keep and which to discard. After this selection, the computer replaces the cards according to the player's decision and evaluates his hand according to the winning hands that are posted in the pay schedule. If the player's hand matches one of the winning hands, the machine offers him a payout.
Progressive Jackpots
Some video poker machines offer progressive jackpots for royal flush or other rare hands. Progressive jackpot is a jackpot where the value of the payout increases a small amount every time a game is played. In most cases there's a set of machines that is linked to one progressive jackpot.
Variations of video poker
Some casinos house newer versions of video poker machines that employ variations of five-card draw poker. The most common variants are: Deuces Wild (in which a two serves as a wild card and a jackpot is paid for four deuces or natural royal) and Multi-play poker (in which the player starts with a basic hand of five cards and in each played hand he draws from a different set of cards).
Difference between video poker and real poker
Unlike real poker, in video poker you don't play against other players, so the goal is not to beat the hands of the other players, but to have one of the hands that included in the winning hands list or the payout table. This difference makes most of the known poker techniques useless.