Electronic Poker is a beloved game that usually will be gambled on in casinos throughout the world, or alternatively at home on your computer, using a web connection. The game rules are absolutely simple and involve the player trying to get the greatest combination of cards possible in order to win cash. On this account it is very similar as a classic game of poker, apart from the interaction with competing players. Of course, techniques employed during a real-life game of poker, such as bluffing, will be useless in Video Poker.
The game of Electronic Poker starts when the player puts credits (either tokens, tickets or money) into the video poker machine and pushes the deal button. A 5 card hand will be electronically ‘dealt’ on the video screen.
The Electronic Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and players should now decide which cards to hold and which to discard. For the cards the enthusiast wishes to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they illuminate. The player can decide to keep any amount of cards they wish, from all to none.
After the enthusiast has chosen which cards he or she wishes to keep, the player will then press ‘deal’, at which point any new cards will be needed they will be dealt. The hand is now finished, with the Electronic Poker machine analyzing the cards to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands listed in the payment schedule.
Typically, the minimum winning hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money getting larger for each better hand. A list of common winning hands begins with jacks or better, moving on to 2 pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It definitely goes without saying that the payout schedule can vary from game to game, so that discerning players are agile enough to choose the most money-making machine each time.
As soon as the initial round has played out, the player can either decide to continue on in an attempt to maximize their earnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any credits that they may have won. Further, some styles of the game give the player an opportunity to double their wins, in which situation another hand is played. There are also variations among individual games, with some virtual decks having wild cards and other varying characteristics to increase playability.