♣ Poker Guide ♣ Poker History ♣ Poker Variants ♣ Hand Rankings ♣ Video Poker
Those with long memories will recall a time when Space Invaders and Donkey Kong cabinets were the entertainment of choice if you wanted to spend your money on a game with a screen. Less widely known is that this was also the era when Video Poker began to make a first, halting appearance.
Video Poker is genre of casino gaming which deserves an explanation of it’s own and the popularity of this variant dates from the release of Draw Poker in 1979. IGT developed this game (although they were known as Si Redd’s Coin Machines at the time) and it became the driving force behind the boom in Video Poker in casinos through the 1980s.
Video Poker is almost exclusively a very basic form of draw poker. This means that players are able to discard and replace one, some or all of their cards. Hand strength is determined according to basic poker hand rankings unless there are individual rule variations. A typical game works as follows:
- Player uses the buttons (or the touchscreen to place their bet
- Player is dealt five cards
- Player chooses how many cards (if any) to discard
- Player is dealt replacement cards
- Winning hands are paid out
That’s all there is to it – a very simple form of draw poker played according to standard poker rankings:
| Standard 'High' Poker Rankings | |
|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 10, J, Q, K A of the same suit |
| Straight Flush | Five card sequence of the same suit |
| Four Of A Kind | Four matching cards |
| Full House | Three matching cards + two different matching cards |
| Flush | Five cards of the same suit |
| Straight | Five card sequence |
| Three Of A Kind | Three matching cards |
| Two Pairs | Two matching cards + two different matching cards |
| One Pair | Two matching cards |
| High Card | The highest card in your hand |
Of course these games are also available online in exactly the same format and these are listed in the table below. Variations in the rules can create a bit of interest in a particular game, for example in Jacks Or Better & All American Multihand the weakest winning hand is a pair of Jacks or better compared to Three Of A Kind playing Deuces Wild. Have a look at our video poker strategy page to get the best value from your bankroll.
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Aces & Faces | Review |
| All American Multihand Poker | Review |
| Deal Or No Deal: Tens Or Better | Review |
| Deuces Wild | Review |
| Deuces Wild Multihand | Review |
| Jackpot Poker | Review |
| Jacks Or Better | Review |
| Joker Poker | Review |
| Mega Jacks | Review |