To Get Started @ Video Poker

How to play video poker
Video poker comes in many flavors and variations, but most machines are based simply on the classic poker game of five-card draw. In this situation you are dealt five random cards from a 52-card deck. Some machines add a 53rd card in the from of a joker.

Video Poker Strategy
If you want to get into playing video poker, and dedicating some time to it, it's essential that you have a working strategy. It's fine to go and play to learn how things work, but if you want to win, a good video poker strategy is in order, and all of them work off of the same basic principle: make the best decisions for every opportunity.

The Video Poker Pay Table
A Video Poker pay table reveals the inner secrets of the game it's for. Problem is, nobody ever tells you just how to read the pay table - how to know which machine is better than another just by checking out that simple payout schedule. The reason for this is, you can't tell just by looking at it, you'd have to run it through a computer to really know. These computer programs do exist (I'm still looking for one that doesn't cost money), and people use them to create a Video Poker Strategy Card for a particular machine. You can buy these strategy cards from some, or find a few online.

Full Pay Video Poker
In the world of Video Poker, the best machines are known as 'full pay' machines. Contrary to popular believe, the term full pay doesn't mean the machine has a payback rate of over 100%. It just indicates that the machine your paying has a payout schedule that is the most player-friendly for that specific game. For Jacks or Better for instance, a full pay video poker machine is known as a 9/6.