Video Poker Strategy Guide

Video Poker Strategy Guide Rating: 4,4/5 8741 reviews

Video Poker Rules and Strategy. Video poker is played the same way as five card poker, but there are no opponents to bet against. Instead of competing against other players, your goal in video poker is simply to get the best five card hand possible. Payouts are based on the strength of your hand. Even though you are not required to outplay any. Rather than being purely based on luck, in video poker you can improve your chances with the use of a well thought out strategy. From knowing your pay tables to choosing low pairs, this guide takes. Listed below are links for video poker strategy charts. You can print them out and take them with you to the casino so you know how to properly play your hand in any given situation. Please Note - These charts are in a PDF format and you will need to use Acrobat Reader to print them out. A fully paid video poker machine will give you the best payouts meaning that you’ll make more cash when you get winning hands. In Jacks or Better, the most popular variant of poker video (the one where you will need a pair of jacks to win gains), a glance at the payout table will let you know if the machine offers full payments or not. Just look at the repayment associated with full and color. Video Poker Strategy Guide. And now, when you know enough about the game and realize that you need a plan of action, meet a video poker strategy guide, the thing that will change the idea of gambling you used to meet before. So yes, even when it’s a game of luck, the outcome can be not so random when you care about the plan of your game.

Video poker is one of the few casino games where the player's input has a major effect on the outcome of the game. Every time you push Deal you receive five new cards and have a total of thirty-two ways to play the hand. To be a successful video poker player, you have to make the best choice out of those thirty-two options as often as possible.

Since computers can mathematically analyze all thirty-two ways to play any given hand, it is possible to figure out the absolutely correct decision for every hand you receive. However, most players don't carry around high powered computers when they are in the casino, so how is this useful?

Well, fortunately for us, some video poker experts have taken it upon themselves to analyze every single hand that can come off the deck, and assemble their findings into easy to read charts that teach players how to play. Below we have strategy charts for the most common video poker games:

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Most of our pages above list just an expert-level strategy chart that will get you to within 0.1% of the maximum payout percentage for the respective game. Some of the pages also list a beginner-level strategy chart that isn't as accurate, but is easier to follow. If you want to play video poker on your PC check out our guide here. Alternatively, you can also have a look at this site's list of ipad video poker app for real money.

How to Use a Video Poker Strategy Chart

The strategy charts on our site are actually very simple to understand, but to a beginner they may be a bit overwhelming at the start. To use a chart you follow these steps:

  1. Analyze your hand. Make sure you look at all five of your cards before looking at the chart.
  2. Start at the top of the chart and work down. You are looking for any spots on the chart where your hand matches up. For example, if you had four hearts in your hand as well as a pair of Kings, it would match up with 'Four to a Flush' as well as 'High Pair'.
  3. Once you find a couple matches for your hand, observe which one is highest on the chart. Hold the cards indicated by the highest match.

Video Poker Strategy Training

If you still are a little confused, check out the below example to clear things up:

An Example Hand Analysis

Imagine you are playing a normal Deuces Wild video poker machine. You push 'Draw', and are dealt the hand below:

Ok, so what do we have here as far as options? Well, first of all, we have a Pat Straight, Seven to Jack - a made hand. We also have four clubs, so we have Four to a Flush. If we look at the chart below (a condensed strategy chart for Deuces Wild), we can see that a Pat Straight is just above Four to a Flush, so the Pat Straight is the better hand of the two.

GuideVideoVideo Poker Strategy Guide
HandExpected ReturnExample
Pat Royal Flush800.0000Th-Jh-Qh-Kh-Ah
Royal Flush Draw19.5957Th-Jh-Qh-Kh-4h
Pat Straight Flush10.00006h-7h-8h-9h-Th
Four of a Kind6.2128Ac-Ad-As-Ah-5c
Pat Full House4.0000Ac-Ad-As-Js-Jc
Pat Flush3.0000Ac-Jc-6c-5c-4c
Three of a Kind2.0176Ac-Ad-As-Js-Tc
Four to a Straight Flush1.57454c-5c-6c-7c-Js
Three to a Royal1.3053Ks-Qs-Js-9c-4c
Pat Straight1.00004c-5s-6h-7h-8h
Four to a Flush0.7660Ac-Jc-6c-5c-4h
Poker

But wait! Since all we need for a straight flush is the nine of clubs, we also have Four to a Straight Flush. Because Four to a Straight Flush is higher on the chart than both a Pat Straight and Four to a Flush, the correct play here is to hold the four clubs and discard the nine of spades in hopes of hitting the Straight Flush.

See - it really isn't bad at all, as long as you pay attention to all the cards in your hand.

How Accurate are Strategy Charts?

Another intelligent question to ask is how accurate are these charts? If you find a game that returns 100.5%, but your chart has 0.6% error in it, then you are actually only playing at a 99.9% return - also known as a losing gamble.

Well, the charts on our site are on roughly accurate to within 0.1% of perfect play. So, if you find that game that returns 100.5%, you would be actually earning about 100.4% with our charts - not too bad. Not many charts get much closer than 0.1% because they would have to be extremely long and complicated to explain the subtle differences in rare hands.

Video Poker Strategy Software

Video Poker Strategy 8 5

There are quite a few programs out there than can develop custom strategy charts for all kinds of games with various pay tables. We have reviewed quite a few of these programs, here are links to our reviews: