Видео покер

Правила и основни принципи

Video poker, also known as Draw Poker, is a game in which the player is dealt 5 cards from a 52-card deck (from Deuces to Aces). The player may hold or replace any of these cards in order to form a winning hand. To begin, you must first place a bet. In most games you can wager 1 to 5 coins with a value you choose, usually between 0.05 and 5 leva. After pressing the Deal / Draw button, you will receive 5 cards, each of which you can keep or discard. Select the cards you want to hold, whether specific ones or all of them.

Your goal is to create a winning hand, so choose carefully. Then press the Deal button again and the cards you discarded will be replaced with new ones. The game normally indicates immediately whether your hand is a winner. The payout depends on the exact combination you have made, how strong the hand is, and the size of your wager. In video poker, betting the maximum number of coins is a sound strategy because the payout for a Royal Flush is much higher than what you would receive for the same hand with just one coin wagered. A Royal Flush is the highest paying hand in the game, but forming it is far from easy. This is why every new player should learn the winning hands in video poker and how they are ranked by payout.

Печеливши ръце

Because video poker is derived from classic poker, its winning hands are very similar to the ones you may already know from table poker. Some variations deviate from the standard rules, and every game has its own specifics. Nevertheless, the hand rankings in Jacks or Better are considered the baseline and influence almost every other version.

In standard Jacks or Better the strongest hand is a Royal Flush, a combination of Ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of the same suit. It offers the highest payout and is the least likely to be dealt. The next best hand is a Straight Flush, which is five consecutive cards of the same suit. In other words, a Royal Flush is simply the highest Straight Flush. This hand is followed by Four of a Kind, which is exactly what it sounds like, four cards of the same rank, such as four Kings.

The next hand in the hierarchy is a Full House, made of a pair and a three of a kind, for example two Nines and three Fives. It is followed by a Flush, or any five cards of the same suit that do not need to be in order. Next comes a Straight, five consecutive cards of any suits. The lowest winning hands are Three of a Kind, Two Pairs, and One Pair. In most video poker variations the weakest qualifying hand is a pair of Jacks or higher, although some games consider a pair of Tens a winning hand as well. Also keep in mind that the weakest winning hand, a pair of Jacks, pays even money, meaning the player receives a payout equal to the bet made for that round.

Wild карти

A wild card is a playing card that can substitute for any other card in the deck and it is often used in certain poker games. For example, if you hold two Kings, two Fives, and a Joker, the Joker can act as a King. In this case you would make a Full House instead of Two Pairs, which means you would win much more thanks to the wild card. This special card appears in some games because it makes winning hands easier to form and adds more excitement and surprise.

Although Jokers are usually designated as wild cards, other cards can also play this role in video poker. One of the most popular variations uses all four Deuces as wild cards, hence the name Deuces Wild. Another well-known version is Joker Poker, where one Joker is added to the deck and treated as a wild. In Double Joker Poker there are two Jokers in the deck, in other words two wild cards.

Wild card video poker games generally do not pay for One Pair and Two Pair hands. The reason is the higher likelihood of forming a winning combination when wilds are in the deck. To compensate, these games remove the two lowest ranking hands. Another feature of wild card video poker is that it offers two types of Royal Flushes: Natural Royal Flush and Wild Royal Flush. The difference is easy to guess, a Wild Royal Flush includes a wild card, whereas a Natural Royal Flush uses five standard cards. In these games the Natural Royal Flush is always the strongest and highest paying hand.

Генериране на Произволни числа (RNG)

In order to play video poker correctly and maximize their chances of winning, players need to understand the fundamentals of the game. There are quite a few myths surrounding video poker and electronic casino games in general. One of them claims that these machines or virtual games are preprogrammed to pay jackpots, for example, once every six months or once every 100,000 rounds. Others insist that the cards in video poker are not shuffled automatically. Such misconceptions not only confuse players, they also lead to poor decisions during gameplay.

The truth is that all virtual casino games are powered by Random Number Generation (RNG) technology. This modern software continuously creates long sequences of numbers using complex algorithms. The numbers are random, and they determine which card will be dealt and where it will appear on the screen. RNGs are extremely sophisticated, secure, and almost impossible to manipulate. For that reason they have hundreds of applications across many industries that require unpredictable outcomes. RNG technology is used not only in the development of video poker and slots but also in computer simulations, statistical analysis, and cryptography.

The practical effect of RNG-driven video poker is that the odds of receiving any specific hand are always the same. The cards you receive initially are selected randomly, so it is possible to hit the jackpot twice in a row, although that is highly unlikely. It is also possible to play Jacks or Better for weeks without ever seeing a Royal Flush. Conversely, you could land a high paying hand the first time you open the game.

Jacks or Better

Jacks or Better is perhaps the most widespread form of video poker in the world. It is the simplest version and is offered in many formats. Alongside the 9/6 full-pay Jacks or Better, game developers have created many lower-paying variations in which the payouts for a Full House and Flush are 9:1 and 5:1 or even lower. There are 8/5, 8/6, 7/5, and even 6/5 versions of Jacks or Better. Because of the reduced payouts, the average return-to-player percentages for these games drop significantly, to about 95 percent.

Deuces Wild

This is another very popular video poker variant and, as its name suggests, it features wild cards. All Deuces in the deck act as wild cards, meaning they can replace any other card in your hand. The full-pay version of Deuces Wild offers a return of 100.76 percent, but unfortunately it is rarely available at casinos. Players will usually find lower-paying games with an RTP of about 98–99 percent.

The lowest qualifying hand is Three of a Kind. New winning hands have been added here—Four Deuces, which has a specific payout depending on the variation, and Five of a Kind, which is made of four cards of the same rank plus a wild Deuce.

All Aces

All Aces is a popular video poker variation that can be found at some of the largest online casinos. With a potential return of 99.92 percent, it is quite generous and is often favored by many players. This is a 7/5 game, but the biggest difference here is the increased payout for Four of a Kind hands, especially Four Aces, which pays 400 times the bet. If the Four of a Kind is made of Twos, Threes, or Fours, the payout is 100 times the stake, whereas hands made of Fives through Kings pay only 50 times. The payout for Two Pair is the same as in Jacks or Better, equal to the wager.

Tens or Better

Tens or Better does not deliver huge payouts, but it is a great game for beginners because the wins are smaller yet occur more frequently. This is because the lowest paying hand in this variant is a pair of Tens or higher. You can therefore win more often, even though the reward is close to your original stake. There are several versions of Tens or Better with slightly different payout schedules, but typically Full House and Flush hands pay 6 and 5 times the bet, respectively.

The game includes the „Gamble Win“ feature, which is triggered after any win. You can choose the „Double“ button to enter the feature or the „Collect“ button to return to your session. If you decide to use it, five cards are dealt, one face up. You must pick one of the other four cards that has a higher value than the face-up card. If you guess correctly, your winnings are doubled; if not, you lose them.

Прогресивен видео покер

Some video poker games offer progressive jackpots that can be won when you form a Royal Flush while betting the maximum number of coins. These games are linked together and a percentage of every wager feeds a shared jackpot. You can of course hit the jackpot on any of the connected machines. Such games often have a lower average return, but once the jackpot grows, the RTP can jump well above 100 percent.

Although most progressive video poker variations award the jackpot only for a Royal Flush, some also pay it out for lower-ranking hands such as a Straight Flush or Four of a Kind.