Video Poker is a popular game that usually will be played in casinos throughout the globe, or in your house on your PC, through a web connection. The regulations are absolutely straightforward and involve the player trying to achieve the best assemblage of cards possible in order to acquire cash. In this respect it’s much the same as a regular game of poker, minus the interaction with other players. Of course, tactics employed during a physical game of poker, like tricking, will be irrelevant here.

The game of Electronic Poker starts when the bettor inserts credits (either tokens, tickets or cash) into the video poker machine and presses the deal button. A 5 card hand will then be "given out" on the video screen.

The Video Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and bettors should now pick which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the player wishes to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any amount of cards they wish, from all to none.

After the bettor has decided on which cards he or she wishes to keep, the player will then press ‘deal’, at which point any fresh cards will be dealt if desired. The hand is now completed, with the Video Poker machine analyzing the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands listed in the payout schedule.

Typically, the lowest succeeding 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, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It is obvious that the payment schedule can change from machine to machine, so that skillful gamblers are able to pick the most profitable game each and every instance.

As soon as the first round has completed, the player can either choose to continue on in an attempt to increase their winnings, or press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any cash that they may have won. Additionally, some styles of the game allow the player an opportunity to double their winnings, in which situation a further game is played. There are also variations among specific machines, with some decks of cards having wild cards and other differing elements to increase playability.