Gamblers have a choice between playing games where they have no influence on the results and playing games where they directly influence the results. The way you influence the results of gambling games is by using strategy.
- Only a mathematically derived video poker strategy will give you the best return. With a few exceptions, wins on video poker simply finance the playing of additional hands. For the normal video poker player the proper playing strategy is one that will maximize the return of each hand.
- So the total number of combinations in video poker is 2,598,960 × 7,669,695 = 19,933,230,517,200. For more on how to program video poker returns yourself, please see my page on Methodology for Video Poker analysis. This question was raised and discussed in the forum of my companion site Wizard of Vegas.
- While there's no sure-fire way of winning at video poker, using even basic poker strategies can significantly boost your edge. Again, this does not mean you'll have a guaranteed win, but it will improve your chances. How do I play using video poker strategy? Playing while using video poker strategy is remarkably simple.
When you play slot machines or bingo, you can't influence your results. It doesn't matter what you do, you can't use strategy to improve your chances to win.
To play video poker you will tap on the cards you wish to keep or on a button on the console, and then draw cards you wish to replace. You win by having a traditional poker hand, and the amount you win is determined by the machine you are playing on. In video poker, just like regular poker, you will be given five cards.
Many casino games do offer the chance to use strategy to improve your results. This doesn't mean that you can win in the long run, but it does mean that you can minimize your losses. The secret is to learn how to use the best strategy for each casino game.
The reasons to play video poker is because it is one of the easiest forms of gambling for using strategy. With dozens of different base games with each having multiple pay tables, at first glance video poker looks complicated when it comes to proper strategic play.
All of the game variation and pay table combinations are designed to keep you playing while disguising the best options. Most video poker players fall into this trap, but you don't have to.
Everything you need to play video poker like a professional is included below in the ultimate video poker strategy shortcut guide.
This guide is designed to get you started as quickly as possible while still giving you the best strategies to use.
Once you learn everything in this guide, you can keep learning more about video poker games, pay tables, and strategy to find new opportunities if you want to squeeze the last few drops of the house edge out, but it's going to be challenging.
The good news is if you use this ultimate video poker strategy guide you're going to get better results than all but a few players. In addition, if you do want to keep learning and improving, you're going to know what to look for and how to get started.
Video Poker Game Choices
Most video poker games are designed using five card draw. You start with a five card hand dealt from a 52 card deck, and then have the option to exchange any or all of your starting hand for new cards. After the exchange of cards you get paid if you have a hand that ranks high enough to show on the pay table.
The pay table also directly influences the house edge. The house edge is the money the casino keeps as a profit, and it's usually expressed as a percentage. Online poker tournament strategy.
A video poker machine with a 1% house edge keeps 1% of all of the money wagered on the machine in the long run. This means that if you make $10,000 worth of bets, the machine is going to keep $100. It doesn't matter if you make 10,000 $1 bets or 100 $100 bets; the only things that matter are the total amount wagered and the house edge.
The amount the casino keeps for profit, or house edge, is a long term number. This means that in the short term the percentage goes up and down, but the longer you play and the more you bet, the closer your results are going to line up with the edge. In the long run, you can't overcome the house edge, but you can influence it to keep it as small as possible.
If you want to play with the lowest house edge possible, you need to pick a good video poker variation, find the best pay table, and use the best possible strategy. You're going to learn more about strategy in the next section, but first you need to learn how to pick the best game.
The best video poker machines are the ones with the best pay tables combined with the base game with the lowest possible house edge. You can find dozens of variations of base video poker games, and if you want t advance to a true professional level you need to learn more about most of them. But this guide is designed to get you started as fast as possible, so I'm focusing on the two most popular variations.
Deuces Wild and Jacks or Better are the two most common variations of video poker. The good news is that both of these games offer a low house edge if you play on machines with a good pay table.
Both of these variations use the basic five card draw structure and a 52 card deck. The only difference is that there are no wild cards in Jacks or Better, and all of the two's are wild in Deuces Wild.
The house edge using proper strategy and a good pay table for each game are included below.
Jacks or Better using a pay table that pays nine for a full house and six for a flush is .46%. This is called a 9/6 machine, and the full pay table is 4,000 – 250 – 125 – 45 – 30 – 20 – 15 – 10 – 5 in the five coin column.
The Deuces Wild pay table you're looking for is a NSUD pay table that has a pay line of 4,000 – 1,000 – 125 – 80 – 50 – 20 – 20 – 15 – 10 – 5 in the five coin column. This pay table offers a house edge of just over .27%.
Offshore poker sites where the base of operation is not in the United States are legal for American players. Furthermore, more states are forming legislation allowing legalized online poker to be regulated. This includes states like Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware. BetOnline Poker is one of the highest-ranking card rooms for US players for a number of reasons, among which is the fact that the site offers some of the highest clearance rates for credit and debit cards as depositing methods. All new players who decide to explore the vast universe of real money poker sites should know that federally, online poker sites are illegal. However, on the individual level, online poker is legal in some of the states. Some websites such as Global Poker (which is a sweepstakes poker site) are allowed in 49 out of 50 US states. On the other hand, more states are continuously examining regulating online poker within their borders. As of January 2021, six states have legalized and regulated online poker: Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Michigan. Legal poker sites for florida.
You always need to bet the maximum five coins to keep the house edge as low as you can. You receive a bonus pay out amount for a five coin wager when you hit a natural royal flush.
Video Poker Strategy Explained
The way you play each hand influences the house edge. Every starting five card hand has a single best way to play to keep the house edge low. In order to achieve the house edge numbers listed in the last section, you must always make the best possible play.
How do you know what the best possible play is?
It can be difficult to know what the best plays are, but the good news is that computer programs have already done all of the hard work. You can use a strategy card or strategy chart that has the best plays listed in order.
You can use advanced math concepts or computers to determine the best plays if you want to, but you can simply get a strategy chart and skip the hard work.
Here's an example of a video poker strategy chart for Jacks or Better:
The way to use the Jacks or Better strategy chart is to start at the top and read down. The first line that includes a hand that you have is the one you use. Ignore all of the plays listed below the first line that describes your hand.
The Simple Plan
I promised you this was the ultimate video poker strategy shortcut guide, so here's your simple plan to get started. All you have to do is follow these simple steps and you can start playing video poker using proper strategy and play with a low house edge.
Once you learn everything in this guide, you can keep learning more about video poker games, pay tables, and strategy to find new opportunities if you want to squeeze the last few drops of the house edge out, but it's going to be challenging.
The good news is if you use this ultimate video poker strategy guide you're going to get better results than all but a few players. In addition, if you do want to keep learning and improving, you're going to know what to look for and how to get started.
Video Poker Game Choices
Most video poker games are designed using five card draw. You start with a five card hand dealt from a 52 card deck, and then have the option to exchange any or all of your starting hand for new cards. After the exchange of cards you get paid if you have a hand that ranks high enough to show on the pay table.
The pay table also directly influences the house edge. The house edge is the money the casino keeps as a profit, and it's usually expressed as a percentage. Online poker tournament strategy.
A video poker machine with a 1% house edge keeps 1% of all of the money wagered on the machine in the long run. This means that if you make $10,000 worth of bets, the machine is going to keep $100. It doesn't matter if you make 10,000 $1 bets or 100 $100 bets; the only things that matter are the total amount wagered and the house edge.
The amount the casino keeps for profit, or house edge, is a long term number. This means that in the short term the percentage goes up and down, but the longer you play and the more you bet, the closer your results are going to line up with the edge. In the long run, you can't overcome the house edge, but you can influence it to keep it as small as possible.
If you want to play with the lowest house edge possible, you need to pick a good video poker variation, find the best pay table, and use the best possible strategy. You're going to learn more about strategy in the next section, but first you need to learn how to pick the best game.
The best video poker machines are the ones with the best pay tables combined with the base game with the lowest possible house edge. You can find dozens of variations of base video poker games, and if you want t advance to a true professional level you need to learn more about most of them. But this guide is designed to get you started as fast as possible, so I'm focusing on the two most popular variations.
Deuces Wild and Jacks or Better are the two most common variations of video poker. The good news is that both of these games offer a low house edge if you play on machines with a good pay table.
Both of these variations use the basic five card draw structure and a 52 card deck. The only difference is that there are no wild cards in Jacks or Better, and all of the two's are wild in Deuces Wild.
The house edge using proper strategy and a good pay table for each game are included below.
Jacks or Better using a pay table that pays nine for a full house and six for a flush is .46%. This is called a 9/6 machine, and the full pay table is 4,000 – 250 – 125 – 45 – 30 – 20 – 15 – 10 – 5 in the five coin column.
The Deuces Wild pay table you're looking for is a NSUD pay table that has a pay line of 4,000 – 1,000 – 125 – 80 – 50 – 20 – 20 – 15 – 10 – 5 in the five coin column. This pay table offers a house edge of just over .27%.
Offshore poker sites where the base of operation is not in the United States are legal for American players. Furthermore, more states are forming legislation allowing legalized online poker to be regulated. This includes states like Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware. BetOnline Poker is one of the highest-ranking card rooms for US players for a number of reasons, among which is the fact that the site offers some of the highest clearance rates for credit and debit cards as depositing methods. All new players who decide to explore the vast universe of real money poker sites should know that federally, online poker sites are illegal. However, on the individual level, online poker is legal in some of the states. Some websites such as Global Poker (which is a sweepstakes poker site) are allowed in 49 out of 50 US states. On the other hand, more states are continuously examining regulating online poker within their borders. As of January 2021, six states have legalized and regulated online poker: Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Michigan. Legal poker sites for florida.
You always need to bet the maximum five coins to keep the house edge as low as you can. You receive a bonus pay out amount for a five coin wager when you hit a natural royal flush.
Video Poker Strategy Explained
The way you play each hand influences the house edge. Every starting five card hand has a single best way to play to keep the house edge low. In order to achieve the house edge numbers listed in the last section, you must always make the best possible play.
How do you know what the best possible play is?
It can be difficult to know what the best plays are, but the good news is that computer programs have already done all of the hard work. You can use a strategy card or strategy chart that has the best plays listed in order.
You can use advanced math concepts or computers to determine the best plays if you want to, but you can simply get a strategy chart and skip the hard work.
Here's an example of a video poker strategy chart for Jacks or Better:
The way to use the Jacks or Better strategy chart is to start at the top and read down. The first line that includes a hand that you have is the one you use. Ignore all of the plays listed below the first line that describes your hand.
The Simple Plan
I promised you this was the ultimate video poker strategy shortcut guide, so here's your simple plan to get started. All you have to do is follow these simple steps and you can start playing video poker using proper strategy and play with a low house edge.
Use the strategy chart I listed in the last section for Jacks or Better and always wager five coins to unlock the bonus for a royal flush. Find a Jack or Better machine that offers the 9/6 pay table I discussed in the first section.
You can find these machines in some land based casinos, but it's easier to find them when you play online. Most online casinos offer 9/6 Jacks or Better machines.
That's all there is to playing video poker with a low house edge. Find the right machine offering the right game and pay table, wager five coins, and always use the proper strategy.
If you want to keep learning, the next step is to learn about the best strategy for Deuces Wild. The reason I chose Jacks or Better for this guide is because the strategy is simpler than Deuces Wild strategy, and I wanted it to be as simple as possible to get started.
Conclusion
Video poker is an easy game to play at the best online casinos and it offers an easy way to play with a low house edge. Once you understand how to find machines offering a pay table with a low house edge, all you have to do is use the best strategy. Follow the simple video poker plan on this page and you can start playing in just a few minutes.
Let's face it - everyone who plays video poker or any other casino game for that matter is looking to win, and win big. The issue with this is that most casino games make it impossible to win in the long run because of the 'house edge.' Fortunately, video poker is one of the very few games where players can actually escape the house edge and turn things in their favor. This article will teach you how to play profitable video poker by indentifying positive expectation machines, as well as using a few other tips and tricks.
What is 'Winning?'
Tons of people come to this page looking for ways to cheat the casinos and rig the video poker machines - that's not what this guide is about. Rather, this page will teach you how to find slight edges and ways to increase your odds so that in the long run you're a small favorite. Don't expect to win tons of money in a short time period. These methods will work, but you have to be patient and be in it for the long haul.
Expected Value
Casinos make money by instituting a 'house edge' into their games. For video poker the house edge usually ranges between 0.3% and 8% depending on the specific game/pay table. What this means is that every time you put a dollar into a video poker machine, you can expect to receive between $0.92 and $0.997 back, depending on the individual machine. This is called the 'expected value' - basically, the value you expect to get back out of the machine.
To win at video poker you simply need to get the expected value above 100%, and play long enough to let the variance settle down. Sounds simple right? Well, it's easier said than done.
Picking a Game
The first way to increase your expected value is to choose a video poker game with the best rate of return. The rate of return varies depending on the game's rules and pay table. Here are the video poker games with the highest rates of return:
| Game | Max Payout Percentage | Play Online At |
| Double Bonus (10/7) | 100.1725% | Bovada Casino |
| Double Double Bonus (10/6) | 100.067% | Bovada Casino |
| Aces and Eights | 99.78% | Bovada Casino |
Winning Video Poker The Easy Way Play
One thing to keep in mind about the games listed above is that the payout percentage is calculated assuming that you're playing a 'full pay' version of the game, and that you're using perfect strategy (which we'll discuss later). If you're playing a game with a reduced pay table or if you use incorrect strategy, you'll have a lower payout percentage.
Perfect Strategy
The second way to increase your expected value is to play with perfect strategy. Since you can determine the outcome of every situation in video poker, it's easy to determine the correct move in every possible situation. Perfect strategy isn't hard to achieve - you just have to utilize discipline and focus.
Since strategy is an entire topic itself, we'll leave that off this page. To learn perfect strategy for the above games, check out our video poker strategy page.
Reduce Variance
If you're playing 10/7 Double Bonus with perfect strategy, your payout percentage will be over 100% which means you have to win, right? Well, not really. Let me explain:
Even though you're a long run favorite you can still lose a lot of money in the short run. The casino has a basically infinite bankroll, and if you sit down at a video poker machine with only a small bankroll it is likely that at some point you'll have enough bad hands in a row that you will go broke.
To prevent this you need to make sure you bring plenty of money to the casino to account for short term downswings, and to play tens of thousands of hands to even things out. The more hands you play, the closer you'll get to the 100.1725% return (aka your profit).
Player Cards
One way to increase your expected return even more is to take advantage of player cards at live casinos. Most casinos let players use their cards at video poker machines, and you'll get points for every hour you play. Usually you'll get extra points for playing more coins and making larger bets.
These points can be used to pay for your food and your hotel room at the casino, so they increase your bottom line even more.
Winning at Progressives (Sometimes)
Although we recommend sticking to the video poker games in the table above, there are certain times when other games may have higher expected returns. One situation where a different game can have a higher payout percentage is when the game has a progressive jackpot that has reached a huge sum. Playamo no deposit bonus codes 2020 australia.
If you'd like to learn more about when these games are profitable, check out our progressive video poker machines page. MAKE SURE to never play progressives unless the jackpot is big enough, because without a big jackpot they're a sucker's bet.
Winning Video Poker Strategy
Ready to Win?
Winning Video Poker The Easy Way
All of the games we discussed above are available for real money play online at the Bovada Casino. Although you can probably find better odds at a live casino, you can still start practicing at Bovada so you'll be ready to crush the casino when the time comes.
