Electronic Poker is a popular game that can be played in casinos across the globe, or in your house on your home computer, through a web connection. The rules are absolutely straightforward and consist of the player trying to achieve the greatest assemblage of cards possible in order to win cash. In this respect it is very similar as a normal game of poker, apart from the interaction with competing players. Of course, tactics employed during a real-life game of poker, such as bluffing, will be useless here.
The game of Video Poker begins when the enthusiast inserts credits (either tokens, credit slips or cash) into the video poker machine and pushes the deal button. A 5 card hand will be "given out" on the screen.
The Video 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 enthusiast would like to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons should be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any amount of cards they wish, from all to none.
After the player has decided on which cards he or she wishes to keep, the player will then press ‘deal’, at which point any fresh cards are handed out if desired. The game is now completed, with the Video Poker machine analyzing the cards to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands listed in the pay out schedule.
Generally, the lowest succeeding hand on an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money growing for each and every better hand. A common list of winning hands starts with jacks or better, moving on to 2 pairs, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It is obvious that the payout schedule can vary from machine to machine, so that discerning bettors are able to pick the most money-making machine every instance.
After the first round has played out, the player can either decide to continue on in an attempt to increase their winnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any credits that they may have won. Further, a few versions of the game give the player a chance to double their profits, in which situation a further game is played. There are also variations among individual machines, with some decks of cards having wild cards and other varying characteristics to enhance playability.
