Video Poker Rules - How to Play and Win at All Games

Objective and Popularity of this Game

Plenty of players all over the world love to get in on the action and face off against the house at video poker sites while testing their best strategy ideas in the process. The idea of trying to win at online video poker without needing other people to play with is very appealing, and it's a big part of why the genre is so popular. However, the lack of other players is managed by putting your hand against a pay table to determine any wins instead of trying to make a better hand than the other people you're playing against.

Basic Rules for Online Casino Video Poker Games

Much like what you see in the slot genre and other types of online casino games, you'll find that most sets of online video poker rules are essentially the same with small differences. Accordingly, we think that the best approach for players in 2024 is to learn the basics of video poker before trying to learn what makes specific types different. Down below, we'll give you a straightforward tutorial on the underlying structure of these titles and guide you toward figuring out which particular variation might be a good fit for you as an individual.

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  Choose the Game you Want to Play

  Game selection is the most critical decision that you make before you actually play for two reasons. First, it directly affects the odds of winning in any given hand. Second, the rules for each title does have some variance in things like wild cards and how the pay table is set up. In Jacks or Better, for example, you can win with a single pair, and there are no wilds. However, Deuces Wild requires at least three of a kind for a payout, and all of the "deuces" can substitute for anything.

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  Choose Your Bet Amount

  Determining how much cash you want to play for on each hand is a bigger deal than you might think. Betting is set up so that you can wager up to five coins per hand, and each coin has a chosen monetary value. Different sets of online rules can show some variation on how much each particular coin can be worth, but in most games, you get the top RTP by making sure that five coins are being wagered at a time. This is because it increases the proportionate size for the royal flush jackpot.

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  Press the Deal Button

  Once everything is set up with your game and bet selection, it's time to see your hand get dealt. To do this, you'll need to press the deal button. We recommend double-checking your total bet size and the actual game and pay table you have chosen to make sure that there were no misclicks or other mistakes, and then you're ready to jump in.

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  Decide What Cards to Hold or Discard

  After your cards are dealt, you have to evaluate which ones you want to hold and which you want to discard. This is the draw round, and it gives you a chance to improve the value of your hand. Various strategies can be learned if you want to know how to maximize this value with your discard selection, but this depends a bit on which set of rules you're playing with in the first place and how the pay table is set up.

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  Check the Results of Your Hand

  After the discard round, you'll receive back however many cards you threw away to give yourself a new five card hand. You aren't required to declare your hand at this point, meaning that you don't have to choose which overall hand you have, and instead, it's done for you automatically. If you qualify for a win, then you'll be given the single largest payout that you have made the hand for. At this point, you'll have the option to simply repeat your previous bet size, which makes it easier to jump straight into the next betting round.

How to Read the Payout Table?

A key component of what separates one set of rules from another is how the pay table is set up. With that said, there are often multiple pay tables for each individual game, and they can have different payout rates. Along these lines, one of the best tips we could ever give players is to learn how to read these pay tables and how to figure out what the best ones look like in terms of average payouts.

Video Poker Payouts (vital to understanding the rules)

The most legit example that we could give is for the different Jacks or Better payouts. The top pay table is called 9/6, which refers to the winning amounts for a full house or flush, respectively. This pair of numbers is used to identify pay tables in most of the top variations, and that's convenient since it's easier to understand the relative payouts and odds of winning of different sets of rules as a result. The 9/6 Jacks or Better RTP is 99.54%, and we'll show you how that compares with others in what follows.

• 9/5 : With a 98.45% payout, you get to see how just slightly dropping the payout for the flush is enough to more than triple the house advantage.
• 8/6 : Along similar lines, a small adjustment to the full house payout from 9x to 8x yields an RTP of 98.39%, which is substantially worse.
• 8/5 : As if that wasn't bad enough, decreasing both brings you to an RTP of 97.30%, which is already worse than some other chance-based table games.
• 7/5 : Perhaps the worst set of rules that you'll see anywhere, the 96.15% RTP means that you should avoid this variation at all costs.
• 6/5 : Coming in with a flat 95.00% RTP, this pay table is so bad that you can only really find it in the occasional land-based gaming cabinet in most cases.

Video Poker Card Rules and Winning Hands

Most of the winning hands are the same for each set of online casino video poker rules. However, wild card games do allow for non-standard hand payouts for things like five of a kind. Additionally, there is usually a better payout for a "natural" royal flush instead of one that uses wild cards, and those can be reflected on the pay tables. Nonetheless, the same basic set of winning hands are used as the basis for all styles, and we have a quick reference on these hands for you in what follows.

Types of Online Casino Video Poker Games and their Rules

As is the case in any genre, there are certain sets of online video poker rules that are more popular among players than others. While you should certainly figure out which variations are the best for you instead of just blindly following what other people think, it's useful to understand why most players choose certain titles. Knowing the different types and rules can also be beneficial when it comes to applying video poker strategies. In what follows, we'll show you the three most popular styles and what goes into them to make them so incredibly popular among players.

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  Jacks or Better

  Jacks or Better is generally considered to have the set of rules that all other variations are more or less based on. The volatility is reasonable since it has a balanced pay table, and with no wild cards, the strategies for this game are fairly straightforward when compared to many other options. Overall, this is the version that virtually everyone recommends that new players start with.

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  Deuces Wild

  When you take the traditional 52-card French deck and make about 7-8% of the cards wild, you get Deuces Wild. This game requires a minimum of three of a kind to get a payout, and when this is combined with so many wild cards in the deck, the volatility definitely increases. However, the increased strategic complexity and higher average hand value help to create a tremendous amount of excitement, which is where the popularity of this game stems from.

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  Double Bonus Poker

  Double Bonus Poker and its related "bonus" cousins are what happens when you take Jacks or Better and add a number of extra payouts for different variations of four of a kind. Four aces gets a big payout boost, and four of twos through fours also gets an increase while four kings through four fives have a more traditionally sized win. Likewise, some lower hands have smaller payouts, most notably two pair only getting a 1x win to compensate for these top-heavy prizes.

Choosing The Right Video Poker Game is Part of the Rules

Some people focus on playing for fun while others play to maximize their chances of winning. In our reviews of the different sets of video poker rules and places to play, we try to focus on balancing both of these approaches. With that said, there are certain pieces of information that all players should take into consideration when picking the right game, and down below, we'll give you an overview of all of this to make it much easier to choose what will fit you the best.

Video Poker Rules for Odds and RTP

One of the main things to consider, even if you're playing for free, is the RTP. This stands for "return to player" and is represented as a percentage to give you an idea of the average amount of wins that are paid out as a percentage of the bets taken in. Different video pokers have different RTP amounts and different odds of winning, and you can even see variation in the various pay tables for the exact same type of game. Along these lines, it's a critical piece of information when deciding which rule set to play with.

Bonus Features

You'll find that some games are very straightforward with no bells or whistles while others offer something extra. There are two main features that can be added to these games, and they both drastically change the character of the experience. To help you decide if these options are a good fit, we have a quick look at what they're all about in what follows.

• Wilds : Some video poker rules allow for wild cards. Typically, these are jokers or deuces, and they will substitute for the single best cards that can give you the highest payout available based on the other cards in your hand.
• Progressive Jackpots : The rules for how progressives are handled in video poker aren't exactly standardized, so you can see different methods for how the jackpot might be awarded. In most cases, however, you simply need to make a particular hand like a royal flush in a particular suit.

Top 10 Most Popular Video Poker Games to Play at Online Casinos

No matter if players are getting in on the action on the computer or if they're using a mobile gaming app, we tend to see them go toward the same types of video poker casino rules and pay tables on average. Because of this, we can look at the most popular titles in the genre as a whole instead of breaking it up into mobile and desktop recommendations. Down below, you'll see the most popular games, their payout rates, who makes them and where you can play.

How To Win at Video Poker - Strategy and Winning Tips

One of the things that keeps players so interested in this genre is that it's an incredibly strategic type of game. You can try to play better and better in order to get better payouts, which is a big part of the appeal. Understanding what strategy actually looks like in these games and how to go about improving at it is critical if you want to have a great experience, and we'll show you how to get started off on the right foot.

Is Video Poker Strategy part of the Rules?

Under most sets of video poker rules, you'll have five cards in front of you on the draw round that can be discarded or held. That leads to 32 different ways to play any five cards that you're dealt (including standing pat/not discarding at all). Outside of game and pay table selection, strategy in this game is about being able to figure out which way to play the discards is best. While most players can narrow it down to two or three options for most hands, picking out the highest-performing option of those is a bit more tricky.

Top Tips for Real Money Wins in 2024

We want players to be able to learn at their own pace, so instead of diving into the intricacies of ultra-advanced strategy, we want to give you something more accessible instead. What follows are a handful of tips to get you started thinking about this game in the right way. This will start you on the right path toward improving your payout rates and having better opportunities and chances to come out ahead.

1. Occasionally, no deposit bonus offers will allow you to play video poker but it is better to look for generous welcome bonuses as this is a solid way to build a bankroll.
2. No download and no registration are required to practice with free play games, and this is our recommended method for getting used to strategic ideas and seeing if you like how a particular set of video poker rules work.
3. Taking advantage of match bonuses and other promo offers will give you extra value on top that you should always be looking to cash in on.
4. We really recommend using a basic strategy chart for these games because it's always best to be able to check to see if you're right about how to play a particular hand.
5. Make sure that you're always playing with five coins. A failure to do so will hurt your RTP percentage, even if it means you have to drop down the size of the individual coins to do so.

Learn Video Poker Rules with Free Games

Many online casinos will let you play free games without any risk. This is a great opportunity to learn the rules of video poker online with real world experience instead of only considering it in theory. It's worth noting that many real money players like to jump back and forth to the paid and free games to try new strategies, warm up before sessions and just enjoy themselves in a more relaxed environment.

FAQs

• What is the best bonus to use for video poker games at online casinos?

  A welcome bonus that allows you to play in this genre is best.

• Are the rules for video poker easy to learn?

  For the most part, they only take a few minutes to pick up.

• What are double up poker rules?

  You get a chance to go double or nothing on a win by choosing a card from four face-down that's higher than a fifth card displayed face-up.

• Which game has the best odds of winning?

  We like the Double Bonus variation with the All Aces rules for the best pay table.

• Can a no deposit bonus be used to learn video poker rules?

  Some no deposit bonus offers can be used to play.

• Which titles have a progressive jackpot?

  Jackpot Deuces and SupaJax are two of the most popular progressives in this genre.

• Can I play for free in demo mode with no download or registration?

  Yes, and this is the recommended approach for most players to get started.

• Can strategies help to boost my chances of a win?

  You can increase your chances to come out ahead with certain strategies.

• Which game has the highest RTP percentage?

  You can get 99.92% online with the All Aces variation of Double Bonus.

• Which software provider has the best games?

  Games Global, previously known as Microgaming, has a huge selection of titles in this genre.

Written by

Amanda Evans - Chief Editor

Amanda has been involved with all aspects of the content creation at Top10Casinos.com including research, planning, writing and editing. The dynamic environment has kept her engaged and continually learning which along with +15 years iGaming experience helped propel her into the Chief Editor role.

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