Electronic Poker is a beloved game that can be wagered on in casinos around the globe, or alternatively at your house on your personal computer, using an Internet connection. The game rules are very straightforward and consist of the player trying to achieve the greatest assemblage of cards possible in order to acquire cash. In this respect it is much the same as a normal game of poker, minus the line of contact with any other players. Of course, methods used in a physical game of poker, such as bluffing, will be useless here.
The game of Video Poker starts when the bettor puts credits (either tokens, credit slips or money) into the machine and presses the draw button. A 5 card hand will be electronically ‘handed out’ on the video screen.
The Electronic Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and enthusiasts will need to now choose which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the bettor wishes to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any amount of cards they want, whether it’s all or none.
After the gambler has decided on which cards she would like to keep, they should press ‘deal’, which will mean that any fresh cards will be given out if desired. The round is now finished, with the Video Poker machine scanning the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands shown on the pay out schedule.
Normally, the lowest winning hand on an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money increasing for each better hand. A common list of winning hands begins with jacks or better, moving on to 2 pairs, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It goes without saying that the pay out schedule can range from game to game, so that discerning gamblers are able to select the most profitable machine every instance.
After the first round has finished, the player can either decide to remain on in an attempt to maximize their earnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any money that might have been won. Further, some versions of the game give the enthusiast a chance to double their wins, in which situation another hand is played. There are also variations among individual games, with some virtual decks having wild cards and other varying elements to increase playability.
