Video poker game employs a single deck of card for the game. The machine deals the cards. The player discards the cards that does not help making a paying hand and gets due replacements for the number of discards.
The flow of the video poker game can be summarized as:
- Five cards are dealt on the screen.
- The player is informed of the payouts applicable for the different hand strengths, considering no pay or low pay, the player discards the numbers that are not useful.
- Pre-draw and pre-replacement bets are mandatory in most cases.
- The player can choose to discard, 1, 2, 3 or 4 cards. In some variants, the player can discard all the 5 cards and get a complete replacement.
- The newly formed hand strength is assessed and the payout is dispensed accordingly.
For a normal video poker hand, the payouts are high for the royal flush and decreases in the order shown below:
- Royal Flush > Straight Flush > Four of a Kind > Full House > Full House >Flush > Straight > Three of a Kind > Two Pair > Pair
There are several video poker variants developed by different game developers; however, the common of them are:
- Jacks or better
- Deuces wild
- Jokers wild
For video poker variants other than the original pure version, you have to see the order of ranking applicable for the variant to see understand the best and least paid hand.
The aim of the video poker game is to make a hand that pays and it does not matter whether you have the highest hand rank. With lot of open information about the ins and outs of cards, if you follow a mathematical strategy, you can save the house edge in high pay machines and enjoy the maximum advantage.