[ English ]

Electronic Poker is a popular game that can be enjoyed in casinos throughout the world, or alternatively at your house on your PC, through an Internet account. The regulations are very straightforward and involve the player attempting to achieve the best combination of cards possible in order to win cash. In this respect it’s much the same as a classic game of poker, minus the involvement with other players. Of course, tactics employed during a real-life game of poker, such as tricking, will be useless in Video Poker.

The game of Video Poker begins when the enthusiast puts credits (either tokens, credit slips or money) into the video poker machine and presses the play button. A five card hand will then be electronically ‘dealt’ on the video screen.

The Electronic Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ printed on them, and gamblers should now pick which cards to hold and which to throw away. For the cards the player wishes to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons must be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any amount of cards they want, from all to none.

After the gambler has decided on which cards he would like to keep, the player will then press ‘deal’, which will mean that any fresh cards are dealt if desired. The round is now finished, with the Electronic Poker machine scanning the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands printed on the payout schedule.

Generally, the minimum winning hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the prize money getting larger for each better hand. A common list of winning hands begins with jacks or better, moving on to 2 pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It is obvious that the payment schedule can vary from game to game, so that knowledgeable bettors are agile enough to select the most beneficial machine every time.

After the initial round has finished, the player can either decide to continue on in an attempt to increase their winnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any credits that might been won. Additionally, a few styles of the game allow the gambler an opportunity to double their wins, in which case a further hand is played. There are also differences among individual machines, with some virtual decks having wild cards and other differing aspects to increase playability.