What Odd Strategy Plays are Indicated in Video Poker?

What Makes Jackpot Capital Such a Good Casino?

There is a short answer to this question and a long answer.  The short answer is a large selection of excellent games from Real Time Gaming, safe banking, many promotions, and a helpful customer service staff, all of which make Jackpot Capital online casino a leading jackpot casino among thousands of online casinos!.

The longer answer involves dozens of pages of articles that help gamers get the most fun and profit from gaming here at Jackpot Capital casino.  To that end, we present this article with an unusual question!

How is Video Poker Similar to Slots?

This is a kind of trick question since video poker and slots are actually quite different!  The only real similarity between jackpot slots and video poker are that they are both played on a terminal.

At Jackpot Capital online casino, all of the games are virtual, while at a land based casino, both the slots and the video poker are all played at terminals as opposed to so many other games such as craps, roulette, blackjack, bingo, keno, and baccarat which are played at tables with live dealers, croupiers, and managers.

What is the Main Difference between Slots and Video Poker?

Slots are a pure game of chance and video poker is a game of skill.  You don’t have to make any serious decisions when you play slots at Jackpot Capital casino but you do have to make decisions on every hand when you play video poker!

The happy side of this is that the return to player rate in video slots can be higher than 100% if you play with correct strategy.  The downside is that a lot of video poker players don’t want to learn the best strategy for the different variations on offer here at Jackpot Capital.

So, in this article, we will try to explain basic strategy at the simplest possible level.

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The Bare Basics of Video Poker

Video poker is based on five card draw.  When you play five card draw in a poker room or with your pals of a Friday night, you are playing against real opponents.  Bluffing is usually involved.  You have to guess what your opponents might have if you are facing a bet that you have to at least call to stay in the hand.

In video poker, you play against the pay table!  This is a very important point as we will explain.  In video poker, there is no real dealer and there aren’t any opponents!  You play to get a hand that returns money to you!

How Much Do Good Hands Pay?

Any winning hand will pay anywhere from 1-1 on you bet to several thousand dollars for a Royal Flush per bet.

Here is one of the most important rules about video poker: in order to qualify to win the big bonus for a Royal Flush, you have to bet the maximum on the hand.  If you play multi-hand video poker, you have to bet the maximum on every hand you play in order to qualify for the Royal Flush bonus payout.

The best strategy in video poker where you have bet the maximum is to go for the Royal Flush in many situations.  Even if you fail to get a Royal Flush, which is the most common outcome in video poker, you can also get one of the higher paying hands and the best strategy reflects that!

Why is Video Poker Strategy so Confusing?

There are two main reasons why video poker strategy is confusing.  First, since we are trying for higher paying hands as much as possible, we tend to think in a top to bottom manner when we learn video poker strategy.  However, most hands are far from a top paying hand.  Therefore, it is best to learn video poker strategy from the bottom up.

The second reason why video poker strategy is so confusing is because strategy can be divided into over 30 different scenarios with slightly different strategies for each scenario.  This is quite confusing!  So, here we will divide the possible scenarios into many fewer hands and, as a result, we will learn the most basic strategy from a much smaller set of basic hands.

It is true that the basic strategy we will explore here does have a very fractional smaller return to player rate.  It is a lot more accessible to players who have never been able to learn basic strategy in video poker in the past.

The Most Common Five Card Hand is Nothing!

There are a lot of combinations that might give you some play on the draw.  But the most common hand has nothing of value so you muck all five cards and draw as if from the start.

What if I Do Get a Single High Card?

Since we are playing Jacks or Better, a ten is no better than a deuce!  But jack through ace are valuable cards.  If you get a single high card and nothing else to work with, you keep the high card and draw four cards.

What Might Change that Strategy?

Here are the types of hands that will alter that basic strategy:

  1. If you have three to a straight flush but only one is a high card, you keep all three and go for the straight flush.
  2. If you have two cards to a Royal Flush and one is a ten, you keep both cards and draw three.
  3. If you have four to a straight and only one is a high card, you go for the straight.
  4. If you have a low pair and a high card, you keep the pair.
  5. If you have four to a flush, you go for the flush.
  6. If you have four to a straight flush but only one of them is a high card, you go for the straight flush.

There could be a situation where you have a winning pair and you give it up to pursue a much better hand!  The classic example is when you have four to a Royal Flush and a winning pair.  You should discard the unsuited card from the pair and go for the Royal Flush.  You might get the Royal Flush and the big extra payout or, even if you don’t, you might still pair one of the high cards!

The risk is worth taking!

There is No Risk in Joining Jackpot Capital

As we said at the beginning of this article, there are many areas in which Jackpot Capital excels!  If you are not yet a member of the Jackpot Capital family, we urge you to JOIN JACKPOT CAPITAL NOW!

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