VIDEO POKER TIPS

As with slots, one of the biggest advantages you can give yourself when playing online video poker is to choose the best available video poker machine. This is the easiest way to win at video poker more often. Also like slots, the technology behind video poker machines keeps getting better and new games are constantly being released to keep the experience fresh and exciting.

In this way, a lot of the video poker tips you need to stay on top of deal with seemingly small variances from one game to the next, but these are the details that matter if you want to win at video poker. The video poker odds and payouts tend to change with each of these new video poker machines, and your expected payout changes with them. Here are a few video poker tips that apply to all games: note the minimum paying hand, the minimum bet, the jackpot (if there is one) and if anything is wild. Each of these factors will affect your ideal video poker strategy.

With so many variables attached to each new game, you can save yourself a lot of money by playing video poker for free first. Here at PlayingExpert.com we are happy to direct you to the best sites to play both cash and free video poker. To help you narrow down your search for the ideal video poker variant, we’ve compiled the following list of short video poker tips for the most popular variations. These video poker tips are by no means exhaustive, but they give a good overview of the most popular and accessible games.

Video Poker Tips: Jacks or Better

Jacks or Better is the standard format for online video poker machines. The game gets its name from its minimum paying hand, a pair of Jacks. All of the standard video poker rules apply to this format and there is sometimes, but not always, a jackpot offered for hitting a royal flush.

Video Poker Tips: Joker Poker

Joker Poker is very much like the standard Jacks or Better, except for the addition of one Joker to the deck. Now, this isn’t like the Joker from games like Pai-Gow Poker where the wild card is treated as an ace unless it’s in a straight or a flush. A video poker Joker can be used as any card or suit you need to make a hand. The addition of a Joker improves the player’s odds quite a bit, so to offset this the typical Joker Poker payout table lists the minimum paying hand as a pair of kings rather than a pair of jacks.

Video Poker Tips: Deuces Wild

This video poker variant takes the wildness of Joker Poker to a new level. In place of Joker Poker's one wild, Deuces Wild makes all four 2s in the deck wild cards. This change not only adds four wilds to the game, but it also removes the four worst cards, vastly improving a player’s odds. To compensate for this, the minimum paying hand for Deuces Wild is three of a kind. Even with the addition of four wilds, the minimum hand can be hard to achieve, so you'll have fewer paying hands playing this variant.

On the other hand, the four wilds make larger hands more accessible; it's a trade off that appeals to players chasing big payouts. In some cases, depending on jackpots and payout structures, Deuces Wild can even offer the player a positive expectation scenario. While positive expectation video poker games are rare, they do exist and give you a real chance to win at video poker more consistently. The only way to find these machines is to do your homework; pay close attention to the payout table, and of course optimize your winnings by always playing video poker with a slot club card.