POKER, THE VIDEO VERSION

How video poker gives a skilled player the chance to get the best break at any gambling machine...

Video poker is not live poker, and outside of how you evaluate the hands, it bears little resemblance to the table game.
Video poker is a fairly recent phenomenon, dating back to only the mid full tilt poker Seventies. Although early slot machines used cards and poker hands as payoff symbols, players had no choices to make; the reels stopped wherever the machine determined they would.
The increasing popularity of video poker can be traced to several factors and characteristics it has in common with many of the more popular casino games. For instance:
• It’s fast (like craps).
• It gives players the opportunity to make decisions and a reasonable control over the betting results (like blackjack).
• It’s similar to poker (like many of the newest casino games).
• It gives the possibility of a large payoff and is not intimidating (like slot machines).
• You can play it for a low minimum, an investment as small as a nickel.

Maybe what makes it even more popular is that it returns your investment for a pair of Jacks to Aces, in effect, this makes the player feel like a push (a tie) is a win. This is an important psychological factor that makes it seem like you’re winning more than you actually are. Maybe it’s because when you drop a coin into the machine, you consider that a lost Coin, so that when it reappears on an even-money payoff, you feel like you’re a winner. It’s a subtle point, but a powerful one.

FULL TILT STRATEGIC MISTAKES

The next step is to use expert strategy. Don’t expect to play flawlessly the first time you sit down.
Because the different machines all have their own special strategies, you should stick with one type of machine until you’ve thoroughly understood and mastered its specific expert strategies.
Once again, Jacks-or-better is the most basic choice, and by mastering its expert strategy, you’ll have a better chance at the more complicated strategies of other video poker machines. The following strategies can be used for progressive Jacks-or-better and even bonus poker without losing much of an edge.
The most important concept to grasp at the beginning is the need to eliminate costly mistakes. Most of those mistakes are made by confusing video poker with live poker, and can be generalized as follows:

• Don’t hold a kicker. A kicker is an unpaired high card that you would hold along with a lower pair. When playing live poker, that play can be made occasionally to throw your opponents off the trail, but you can’t bluff a machine. Holding a kicker reduces the chances to improve the pair which is more valuable.

• Don’t draw to an inside straight. This is good advice whether you’re playing live or video poker. It seems to be a particular failing of video poker players.

• Don’t play two-card connectors.

MAKING IT COUNT
With over 25 varieties of high-pair machines—Tens, Jacks and Kings or tilt poker better—documented in the past five years, it’s difficult to designate an overall expert strategy, but there are some common suggestions that will keep you in the game much longer than if you simply “fly by the seat of your pants”. These are applicable to most of the Jacks-or-better and bonus poker games, and will give you the best chance to walk away a winner.

• Hold any pair, high or low, rather than keeping one or two high cards, even if they are suited.

• If you don’t have a pair, hold any card above a Ten to a maximum of two.