Video Poker Games to Know

There are a lot of different types of video poker games. Each have different rules and wild cards but most are based on standard poker hand rankings. These are the eight most common types of video poker games.

Aces & Faces – the most played single-line video poker game. For hand rankings, a four of kind of Aces or face cards is better than a Straight Flush. The lowest payout is a pair of Jacks.

Joker – Joker and a standard deck give a total of 53 cards. The best payouts are Natural Royal
Flush (no Joker), Five of Kind (with the Joker) and a Joker Royal Flush.

Double Joker – same rules as the Joker game, however, two Jokers the wild cards.

Deuces Wild – 2’s are wild cards. Since your odds of winning are better, the payouts start at three of a kind instead of a pair.

Deuces & Joker – similar to Deuces Wild but brings a Joker into the concept. The 2’s and the Joker make up five wild cards. Payouts begin at three of a kind with the best payout at four deuces and the Joker. Four deuces is a better hand than a Wild Royal Flush with the Joker.

Jacks or Better – favorable player odds for a single or multi-line game. The lowest payout is a pair of face cards, where you break even. Bets range from $0.05 to $100 per hand on the multi-line games.

Tens or Better – pretty much the same as Jacks or Better but the lowest payout is a pair of 10’s.

Progressive –progressive jackpot increases each hand just like a slot machine. The pot increases since each player gambles on the same virtual machine. The pot resets after every jackpot. These games use 52 cards and several Jokers.

Rules of Let It Ride Poker

Let It Ride is like Pai Gow Poker in that it is a different and popular form of poker, but that’s about all the two have in common. You play the dealer in Let It Ride Poker and the betting is quite different than Five Card Draw Poker.

The Let It Ride Poker table is shaped like a blackjack table and the rules are simple. It’s the betting that is tricky. Five cards are dealt face down with two going to the dealer and three to the player. The goal of Let It Ride is still to form the best five-card poker hand. You just have more rounds of betting before you can see all five cards. That doesn’t mean that Let It Ride is an expensive game though, as the rounds of betting can be minimal. Each player has three spots labeled 1, 2 and $.

So, after looking at your three cards, you can take away bet 1 to fold or you can stay in the hand, hence letting it ride. The dealer then turns over their first card to be added as the fourth card in your hand. Then, you can remove bet 2 or let it ride again. Next, the dealer turns of the second and last card to complete your hand. Now, all players left in the hand must turn their cards over to determine a winner, which is based on standard poker hand rankings. Let It Ride Poker is sort of like a combination of blackjack and poker in that it is fast-paced and requires strategy in addition to luck.

Rules of Five Card Draw Poker

Five Card Draw is the standard and most basic form of poker. There are tons of other variations out there like the popular Texas Hold’em and different forms of Stud Poker like Five Card Stud and Caribbean Stud. But before understanding any of those other games, you need to know the basics.

For Five Card Draw, each player must ante up, or put in a small wager to play the hand. Then, five cards are dealt to each player. Five Card Draw is similar to the betting of Texas Hold’em but doesn’t have community cards. Once the cards are dealt, the first round of betting proceeds. You must form the best poker hand and can discard however many you want from you hand. But there is only one round of discarding. The dealer collects the discards and issues new cards to those players. A second round of betting occurs. Players can raise and re-raise each other until everyone has called or folded. Then, there’s a showdown and the cards are revealed to determine the winner.

Sounds easy, right? Well, poker is a game of strategy. The best players know the odds of each hand winning in any scenario. Playing poker online is much easier than at a land-based casino where you must enter your name and wait for a table. At online casinos, you just click on a table to join and play with however much your deposited into your account. The tables will have different stakes. If you’re just starting out, play online first to learn the game since poker is a game of etiquette. You will learn when to place your bets and have lots of time to make decisions. Another benefit of online casinos is that you can move a lot faster. Once the hand is over, you can change seat or tables.