Electronic Poker is a favored game that is able to be wagered on in casinos around the world, or in your house on your personal computer, using a web connection. The game rules are absolutely simple and involve the player trying to achieve the highest mixture of cards possible in order to acquire cash. In this respect it’s very similar as a normal game of poker, without the interaction with any other players. Of course, techniques employed during a real-life game of poker, such as bluffing, will be useless here.
The game of Electronic Poker begins when the enthusiast inserts credits (either tokens, credit slips or cash) into the video poker machine and pushes the draw button. A 5 card hand will be "dealt" on the video screen.
The Electronic Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and enthusiasts should now pick which cards to hold and which to throw away. For the cards the gambler wishes to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any amount of cards they want, from all to none.
After the player has selected which cards he wishes to retain, they should press ‘draw’, which will mean that any new cards will be needed they will be given out. The game is now finished, with the Video Poker machine analyzing the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands shown on the payout schedule.
Typically, the minimum winning hand on an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money getting larger for each better hand. A list of common winning hands starts with jacks or better, moving on to 2 pairs, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It is obvious that the pay out schedule can vary from machine to machine, so that experienced gamblers are able to pick the most profitable game each time.
As soon as the initial round has played out, the player can either decide to stay on in an attempt to maximize their earnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any credits that they may have won. Additionally, some styles of the game give the player an opportunity to increase their winnings, in which case another hand is played. There are also differences among specific games, with some virtual decks having wild cards and other differing characteristics to increase playability.
