Casino video game
A video poker machine at Seven Feathers Casino
Video poker is a casino
game based on five-card draw poker. 💻 It is played on a computerized console similar in
size to a slot machine.
History [ edit ]
Video poker first became 💻 commercially viable
when it became economical to combine a television-like monitor with a solid state
central processing unit. The earliest 💻 models appeared at the same time as the first
personal computers were produced, in the mid-1970s, although they were primitive 💻 by
today's standards.
Video poker became more firmly established when SIRCOMA, which stood
for Si Redd's Coin Machines (and which evolved 💻 over time to become International Game
Technology), introduced Draw Poker in 1979. Throughout the 1980s video poker became
increasingly popular 💻 in casinos, as people found the devices less intimidating than
playing table games. Today, video poker enjoys a prominent place 💻 on the gaming floors
of many casinos. The game is especially popular with Las Vegas local, who tend to
patronize 💻 local casinos off the Las Vegas Strip. These local casinos often offer
lower-denomination machines or better odds.
A few people who 💻 are skilled in calculating
odds have become professional video poker players.[1]
The game [ edit ]
After inserting
money (or a bar-coded 💻 paper ticket with credit) into the machine, play begins by
placing a bet of one or more credits and pressing 💻 the "deal" button. The player is then
given 5 cards (like five-card draw) and has the opportunity to discard one 💻 or more of
them in exchange for new ones drawn from the same virtual deck. After the draw, the
machine 💻 pays out if the hand or hands played match one of the winning combinations,
which are posted in the pay 💻 table. Unlike the table version, the player may discard all
5 of their original cards if they so choose.[2]
Pay tables 💻 allocate the payouts for
hands and are based on how rare they are, the game variation, and the decision of 💻 the
game operator. A typical pay table starts with a minimum hand of a pair of jacks, which
pays even 💻 money. All the other hand combinations in video poker are the same as in
table poker, including such hands as 💻 two pair, three of a kind, straight (a sequence of
5 cards of consecutive value), flush (any 5 cards of 💻 the same suit), full house (a pair
and a three of a kind), four of a kind (four cards of 💻 the same value), straight flush
(5 consecutive cards of the same suit) and royal flush (a Ten, a Jack, a 💻 Queen, a King
and an Ace of the same suit).[3]
Some machines offer progressive jackpots or other
unique bonuses, spurring players 💻 to both play more coins and to play more
frequently.[4]
Regulation [ edit ]
Video poker machines in casinos in the United 💻 States
are regulated by state or Indian gaming agencies. These agencies typically require that
the machines deal random card sequences 💻 using a virtual deck of cards. This is based on
a Nevada Gaming Commission regulation later adopted by other states 💻 with a gaming
authority. Video poker machines are tested to ensure compliance with this requirement
before being offered to the 💻 public.
Variations [ edit ]
Video poker variations include
Deuces Wild, where a two serves as a wild card;[5] Joker's Wild, where 💻 a joker serves
as a wild card; Anything's Wild, where the player selects any card (by rank) to act as
💻 the wild card before the hand is dealt; pay schedule modification, where four aces with
a four or smaller kicker 💻 pays an enhanced amount (these games usually have some
adjective in the title such as "bonus", "double", or "triple"); and 💻 multi-play poker,
where the player starts with a base hand, and each additional played hand draws from a
different set 💻 of cards with the base hand. (Multi-play games are offered in "Triple
Play", "Five Play", "Ten Play", "Fifty Play" and 💻 "One Hundred Play"
versions.)
Additionally, side bets have been added to the game where for a fee, the
player may receive 💻 some sort of benefit. Popular examples include Super Times Pay,
Double Super Times Pay, Hot Roll, Dice Fever, and Atomic 💻 Fever, where the player has a
chance of receiving a factor which multiplies all winnings in a hand,[6] Ultimate X,
💻 where for double the bet the player gets a factor based on the strength of the final
hand which is 💻 applied to the next hand,[7] and Super Draw 6, where for double the bet
the player will receive a sixth 💻 card which can be used to have five card hands easier
to make and make special six card hands with 💻 its own pay table.[8]
A version common in
the early days of video poker, but rarely found today, is "Pick a 💻 Pair" where the
player is presented two up cards and chooses between two pairs of three cards, one of
which 💻 is face up and the other face down.[9]
In games without a wild card, a player on
average will receive four-of-a-kind 💻 hand approximately once every 500 hands, while a
player may play tens of thousands of hands before a royal flush, 💻 which usually has the
highest payout.
Video poker games online are now available in the US in 3 different
states: New 💻 Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada. Players in all three states are able to enjoy
fully regulated online video poker games provided 💻 that they are physically present in
the respective state, of legal age to gamble and can validate their identity.
Full pay
💻 games [ edit ]
When modern video poker games first appeared, the highest-paying common
variant of a particular game was called 💻 "full-pay". Game variants returning a lower
payback percentage were termed "short-pay". Though the term full-pay is still in use,
many 💻 game variants return more. Payback percentage expresses the long-term expected
value of the player's wager as a percentage if the 💻 game is played perfectly. A payback
percentage of 99 percent, for example, indicates that for eachR$100 wagered, in the
long 💻 run, the player would expect to loseR$1 if they played every hand in the optimal
way. Full-pay Jacks or Better, 💻 for example, offers a payback percentage of 99.54%. Some
payback percentages on full-pay games are often close to or over 💻 100 percent.
Casinos
do not usually advertise payback percentages, leaving it up to the player to identify
which video poker machines 💻 offer the best schedules.
The payoff schedules for most
video poker machines are configured with a pay schedule that pays proportionally 💻 more
for certain hands (such as a royal flush) when the maximum number of credits (typically
5 coins) is bet. 💻 Therefore, players who do not play with the maximum number of credits
at a time are playing with a lower 💻 theoretical return.
Jacks or Better [ edit ]
"Jacks
or Better," sometimes called "Draw Poker," is the most common variation of video 💻 poker.
Payoffs begin at a pair of jacks. Full pay Jacks or Better is also known as 9/6 Jacks
or 💻 Better since the payoff for a full house is 9 times the bet, and the payoff for a
flush is 💻 6 times the bet.[10] Sometimes, 10/6 and 9/7 versions of Jacks or Better can
be found as promotions.[11]
Hand Prize Combinations 💻 Probability Return Royal Flush 800
41,126,022 0.000025 1.9807% Straight Flush 50 181,573,608 0.000109 0.5465% Four of a
kind 25 3,924,430,647 💻 0.002363 5.9064% Full House 9 19,122,956,883 0.011512 10.3610%
Flush 6 18,296,232,180 0.011015 6.6087% Straight 4 18,653,130,482 0.011229 4.4918%
Three of 💻 a kind 3 123,666,922,527 0.074449 22.3346% Two Pair 2 214,745,513,679 0.129279
25.8558% Jacks or Better 1 356,447,740,914 0.214585 21.4585% All 💻 Other 0
906,022,916,158 0.545435 0.0000% Totals - 1,661,102,543,100 1.000000 99.5439%
Bally's
All American [ edit ]
Bally Technologies All American video poker 💻 is based on Jacks or
Better with an increased payout for flushes, straights and straight flushes, but
reduced payout for 💻 full houses and two pairs (8-8-8-3-1 versus 9-6-4-3-2). The full pay
version (quads return 50 bets), once common but now 💻 rare, is one of the highest return
versions of video poker offered, but the play strategy is very complex and 💻 mastered by
few. IGT's version of the game is called USA Poker.
Tens or Better [ edit ]
"Tens or
Better" is 💻 a variation of 6/5 Jacks or Better. The minimum paying hand is a pair of
tens, rather than a pair 💻 of Jacks. Strategy is similar between the two games, in spite
of the very different full house and flush payouts.
Joker's 💻 Wild [ edit ]
"Joker's
Wild", as the name implies, adds a joker to the mix. The joker is fully wild 💻 and
substitutes to make stronger hands. The inclusion of the wild joker also adds another
winning hand in 5-of-a-kind. The 💻 game's name inspired a game show of the same name. The
full pay version of Joker Two Pair or better 💻 (6-7-8), once common but now rare, is one
of the highest return versions of video poker offered, but the play 💻 strategy is very
complex and mastered by few.
Deuces Wild [ edit ]
"Deuces Wild" is a variation of video
poker in 💻 which all twos are wild. (Wild cards substitute for any other card in the deck
in order to make a 💻 better poker hand). In Deuces Wild, the payout for a four of a kind
makes up approximately ⅓ of the 💻 payback percentage of the game, and a four of a kind
occurs on average approximately every fifteen hands. Deuces Wild 💻 can be found with pay
schedules that offer a theoretical return as high as 100.8 percent, when played with
perfect 💻 strategy. This full-pay version is found only in Nevada. It is also available
with other pay schedules that have lesser 💻 theoretical returns:
Hand 1 credit 2 credits
3 credits 4 credits 5 credits Natural Royal Flush 300 600 900 1200 4000 💻 Four Deuces 200
400 600 800 1000 Wild Royal Flush 25 50 75 100 125 Five of a Kind 15 💻 30 45 60 75
Straight Flush 9 18 27 36 45 Four of a Kind 5 10 15 20 25 💻 Full House 3 6 9 12 15 Flush
2 4 6 8 10 Straight 2 4 6 8 10 Three 💻 of a Kind 1 2 3 4 5 Theoretical Return 99.7% 99.7%
99.7% 99.7% 100.8%
Variations are available that pay different 💻 amounts for the quad
"deuces", such as Double Deuces (2000), Loose Deuces (2500), Triple Deuces (3000), and
Royal Deuces (4000). 💻 Full pay Loose Deuces (25-17-10), once common but now rare, is one
of the highest return versions of video poker 💻 offered.
Sigma Flush Attack [ edit
]
Sigma Flush Attack is a combination of video poker and a banking slot, in this 💻 case
what is being banked is flushes.[12] After 3,4, or 5 flushes (varies by machine), the
machine switches into "flush 💻 attack mode" in which the next flush pays 100 or 125
credits instead of the more usual 30 credits of 💻 9-6 Jacks or Better. Some of these
machines are linked, which means players can simply wait for someone else to 💻 put the
bank in flush attack mode, or alternately with non-linked machines a player can play
after observing a previous 💻 player hit flushes but not enough to trigger the flush
attack, a practice called "vulturing". The higher payoff of the 💻 flush attack represents
one of the higher overlays of video poker. These machines, once common, are now
relatively rare.
Bonus Poker 💻 [ edit ]
"Bonus Poker" is a video poker game based on
Jacks or Better, but Bonus Poker offers a higher 💻 payout percentage for four of a kind.
The full-pay version of this game returns 99.2%. (3) The game has multiple 💻 versions
featuring different bonus payouts based on the ranking of the four of a kind.
Double
Bonus [ edit ]
"Double Bonus" 💻 video poker is a variation of Jacks or Better with a
bonus payout for four aces. This variation offers up 💻 to a theoretical return of 100.2
percent, when played with perfect strategy — however, this % is only on a 💻 "10/7"
version video poker game (10/7 being the payouts for a full house and a flush). There
are many other 💻 video poker varieties of 10/6, 9/6, etc. that have slightly lower than
the most generous 10/7 version payout. Although the 💻 full-pay version has a
theoretically-positive return, few play well enough to capitalize on it. Double Bonus
is a complex game.(4)
It 💻 is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser
theoretical returns:
Hand 1 credit 2 credits 3 credits 4 credits 💻 5 credits Royal Flush
250 500 750 1000 4000 Straight Flush 50 100 150 200 250 Four Aces 160 320 💻 480 640 800
Four 2, 3, or 4 80 160 240 320 400 Four 5-K 50 100 150 200 250 💻 Full House 10 20 30 40
50 Flush 7 14 21 28 35 Straight 5 10 15 20 25 Three 💻 of a Kind 3 6 9 12 15 Two Pair 1 2
3 4 5 Jacks or Better 1 2 💻 3 4 5 Theoretical Return 99.1% 99.1% 99.1% 99.1%
100.2%
Double Double Bonus [ edit ]
"Double Double Bonus" video poker is 💻 a variation of
Jacks or Better which offers bonus payoffs for different four of a kinds, as seen in
the 💻 payout table below. Full pay Double Double Bonus can be found with pay schedules
that offer up to a theoretical 💻 return of 100.1 percent, when played with perfect
strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser 💻 theoretical
returns:
Hand 1 credit 2 credits 3 credits 4 credits 5 credits Royal Flush 250 500 750
1000 4000 Straight 💻 Flush 50 100 150 200 250 Four Aces w/2, 3, or 4 400 800 1200 1600
2000 Four 2, 3, 💻 or 4 w/A-4 160 320 480 640 800 Four Aces 160 320 480 640 800 Four 2, 3,
or 4 💻 80 160 240 320 400 Four 5-K 50 100 150 200 250 Full House 10 20 30 40 50 Flush 💻 6
12 18 24 30 Straight 4 8 12 16 20 Three of a Kind 3 6 9 12 15 💻 Two Pair 1 2 3 4 5 Jacks
or Better 1 2 3 4 5 Theoretical Return 98.9% 98.9% 98.9% 💻 98.9% 100.1%
Low pay video
poker games [ edit ]
Often casinos choose to use pay tables which reduce the maximum
payout 💻 percentage as compared to other commonly available game variants. This increases
the house edge, but generally reduces net revenue for 💻 the casino as players experience
less "play time" on the machine, busting out of their buy-in at an earlier point.
💻 Casinos that reduce paytables generally have to increase promotions to compensate and
attract customers.
9/5 Jacks or Better [ edit ]
9/5 💻 Jacks or Better is a low pay
version of the game. The payout for making a Flush is cut from 💻 6x your bet to 5x your
bet, but all other payouts remain the same. This reduces the maximum payout percentage
💻 to 98.45% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the Royal Flush bonus.
8/6
Jacks or Better [ edit 💻 ]
8/6 Jacks or Better is another often used pay table for Jacks
or Better games. The payout for making a 💻 Full House is cut from 9x your bet to 8x your
bet, while all other payouts remain the same as 💻 in a full pay game. This reduces the
maximum payout percentage to 98.39% for players betting five coins per hand 💻 to receive
the Royal Flush bonus.
8/5 Jacks or Better [ edit ]
8/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full
House payout 💻 from 9x your bet to 8x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x
your bet to 5x 💻 your bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This
reduces the maximum payout percentage 💻 to 97.30% for players betting five coins per hand
to receive the Royal Flush bonus. A common promotion used by 💻 casinos to encourage play
on this tight paytable was to add a 2% progressive meter to the royal flush.
7/5 Jacks
💻 or Better [ edit ]
7/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full House payout from 9x your bet to
7x your 💻 bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet to 5x your bet. All other
payouts remain the 💻 same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum payout
percentage to 96.15% for players betting five coins 💻 per hand to receive the Royal Flush
bonus.
6/5 Jacks or Better [ edit ]
6/5 Jacks or Better cuts the Full 💻 House payout from
9x your bet to 6x your bet, and also cuts the Flush payout from 6x your bet 💻 to 5x your
bet. All other payouts remain the same as in a full pay game. This reduces the maximum
💻 payout percentage to 95.00% for players betting five coins per hand to receive the
Royal Flush bonus.
Progressive jackpot games [ 💻 edit ]
Other kinds of video poker only
have positive theoretical returns when the progressive jackpot is high enough. Many
establishments 💻 advertise with a billboard when the progressive jackpot is high enough.
Otherwise sub-optimal games like 8/5 jacks or better can 💻 become positive expectation
when the jackpot is large enough.
Terminology [ edit ]
As with regular poker, there are
many different terms 💻 and phrases that are associated with playing video poker,
including the following:[13]
Video Poker Term Explanation Full Pay The highest paying
💻 variant of a video poker game. Typically with high return-to-player game percentages.
Low Pay Refers to video poker games which 💻 increase the house edge and reduce the
return-to-player percentage. Natural Royal Flush A unique case when the highest
possible hand, 💻 a Royal Flush, is dealt to the player. Power Poker Theoretically the
most profitable poker strategy. Multi-Play A feature that 💻 allows participants to play
with more than one hand. Hold When a player chooses to keep the cards in their 💻 hand.
Auto Hold A feature available in certain video poker games. If turned on, the game
automatically chooses which cards 💻 to hold. Not So Ugly Ducks (NSUD) A game most well
known for paying 16 for a 5 of a 💻 kind and 10 for a straight flush. Game Denomination
Refers to the value of the cards or the coin size 💻 in a video poker game. Flush A
five-card hand that contains cards of the same suit. Discard The cards you 💻 decide to
throw away after the initial deal. Draw The second deal of the cards, after you have
decided which 💻 cards to hold and which to discard. Hand The five cards (or less) dealt
on the screen are known as 💻 a hand.
See also [ edit ]
