Video poker is a casino game which is based loosely on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized console which is a similar size to a slot machine. Game play begins by placing a bet of one or more credits, by inserting money into the machine, and then pressing a "Deal" button to draw cards. The player is then given an opportunity to keep or discard one or more of the cards in exchange for a new card drawn from the same virtual deck, after which the machine evaluates the hand and offers a payout if the hand matches one of the winning hands in the posted pay schedule.
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On a typical video poker machine, payouts start with a minimum hand of a pair of jacks. Pay schedules allocate the payout for hands based partially upon how rare they are, and also based upon the total theoretical return the game operator chooses to offer. Today, video poker enjoys a prominent place on the gaming floors of many casinos, and the game is especially popular with Las Vegas locals, who tend to patronize off- Strip properties for the better odds offered by those establishments.
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Video poker first became commercially viable once it was 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 rather primitive by today's standards.
Video poker became more firmly established when IGT (now a market-leading provider of gaming devices) brought out Draw Poker in 1979.
Throughout the 1980s, video poker became increasingly popular, as people found the devices less intimidating than playing at the tables.
Today, video poker enjoys a prominent place on the gaming floors of many casinos, and the game is especially popular with Las Vegas locals, who tend to patronize off- Strip properties for the better odds offered by those establishments.
Video Poker Regulation
Video poker machines operated in state-regulated jurisdictions are programmed to deal random card sequences. A series of cards is generated for each play; five dealt straight to the hand, the other five dealt in order if requested by player. This is due to a Nevada regulation, adopted by every other state with a gaming authority, that if dice or cards are used for an electronic game, the electronic versions must be as random as the real thing, within computational limits set by certain tests that are performed by gaming authority agents. It is unclear whether all video poker machines at Indian gaming establishments are subject to the same Nevada-style regulations, as Indian casinos are located on property that is sovereign to the tribe which holds the gaming license.
Newer versions of the software no longer deal out all 10 cards at once. They now deal out the first five cards, and then when the draw button is pressed, they generate a second set of cards based on the remaining 47 cards in he deck. This was done after players found a way to reverse-engineer the RNG cycle from sample hands and were able to predict the hidden cards in advance.
Kinds of Video Poker
Newer video poker machines may employ variants of the basic five-card draw. Typical variations include: Deuces Wild, where a two can serve as a wild card and a jackpot is paid for four deuces or a natural royal; pay schedule modification, where four aces with a five 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 of five cards, and each additional played hand draws from a different set of cards with the base hand removed. (Multi-play games are offered in "Triple Play", "Five Play", "Ten Play", "Fifty Play" and even "One Hundred Play" versions.)
In the non-wild games (games which do not have a wild card) a player who plays five or six hundred hands per hour, on average, may receive the rare four-of-a-kind approximately once per hour, while a player may play for many days or weeks before receiving an extremely rare royal flush.
Video Poker - Full Pay Games
When certain pay schedules are offered by a video poker machine, players using perfect or near perfect strategy can obtain greater than 100% payback over a sufficiently long period of play. These machines are referred to as "full pay" machines. Casinos place full pay machines alongside other machines with pay schedules that offer a negative return, so it is up to the player to properly identify which video poker machines offer the full pay schedules.
Most full pay machines are configured with a pay schedule that is only full pay when the maximum amount of credits is bet. (See the pay schedule tables later in this article for details.)
Deuces Wild
One variation of video poker, called "Deuces Wild", can be found with pay schedules that offer up to a theoretical return of 100.762%, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:
Hand
1 credit
2 credit
3 credit
4 credit
5 credit
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
99.679%
99.679%
99.679%
99.679%
100.762%*
*Notice the gap between the payoff for a Natural Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits. The payoff schedule for most video poker machines has a gap like this, such that players who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are playing with a negative theoretical return.
Double Bonus
Another variation of video poker, called "Double Bonus", can be found with pay schedules that offer up to a theoretical return of 100.1725%, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:
Hand
1 credit
2 credit
3 credit
4 credit
5 credit
Royal Flush
250
500
750
1000
4000*
Straight Flush
50
100
150
200
250
Four Aces
160
320
480
640
800
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
99.1079%
99.1079%
99.1079%
99.1079%
100.1725%*
*Notice the gap between the payoff for a Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits. Players who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are playing with a negative theoretical return.
Double Double Bonus
Another variation of video poker, called "Double Double Bonus", can be found with pay schedules that offer up to a theoretical return of 100.067%, when played with perfect strategy. It is also available with other pay schedules that have lesser theoretical returns:
Hand
1 credit
2 credit
3 credit
4 credit
5 credit
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
98.91%
98.91%
98.91%
98.91%
100.06%*
*Notice the gap between the payoff for a Royal Flush played with 4 credits vs. one with 5 credits. Players who do not play with the maximum number of credits at a time are playing with a negative theoretical return.
Other Full Pay Games
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.
Locating Full Pay Games
Although full pay video poker machines are found in many "locals" casinos (located off the Strip) in the Las Vegas market (and in a few Reno casinos), most Strip casinos and casinos in other markets only offer video poker pay schedules with a negative theoretical return.
The maximum bet size is kept fairly small on video poker machines with a full pay schedule (one dollar or less), which makes it impractical to win a large amount of money over any reasonable period of time.
Video Poker Player's Clubs
Many casinos offer free memberships in "player's clubs" or "slot clubs", which return a small percentage of the amount of money that is bet in the form of "comps" (complementary food, drinks, hotel rooms, or merchandise), or sometimes as cash back (sometimes with a restriction that the cash be redeemed at a later date). These clubs require that players use a card that is inserted into the video poker machine to allow the casino to track the player's "action" (how much the player bets and for how long), which is often used to establish a level of play that may make a player eligible for additional comps.
Comps or cash back from these clubs can make a significant difference in the theoretical return when playing video poker over a long period of time. In some cases, usage of a club card can even add enough value to the pay schedule of a video poker game with a negative theoretical return to make that same game have a positive theoretical return.
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