All American

Hand Description: Royal Flush Ace - King - Queen - Jack - 10 of the same suit Straight Flush Five cards in sequence of the same suit Four of Kind Any four cards of the same value Full House Three of a kind and a pair Flush Five cards from the same suit Straight Any five cards in sequence but not of the same suit Three of Kind Three cards of the same value and two unmatched cards Two Pair Two cards with the same value with another two cards of the same value Jacks or Better One pair of Jacks, or Higher

Joker Poker

Hand Description: Royal Flush Ace - King - Queen - Jack - 10 of the same suit Five of a Kind Any four cards of the same value plus a Joker Wild royal Flush Ace - King - Queen - Jack - 10 of the same suit but with a Joker replacing one with the 5 cards Straight Flush Five cards in sequence of the same suit Four of a Kind Any four cards of the same value Full House Three of a kind and a pair Flush Five cards from the same suit Straight Any five cards in sequence but not of the same suit Three of Kind Three cards of the same value and two unmatched cards Two Pair Two cards with the same value with another two cards of the same value Kings or Better One pair of Kings, or Higher

The odds of winning video poker differ from hand to hand and from game to game. For the experienced player the house edge on video poker games is fairly small, and in some cases the odds are even. The house edge increases when the player does not follow a strategy – so if your beginner don't look to win big. In other words, if you are playing on a fundamental understanding of poker you can expect to lose your money rather quickly.

Each particular variant of video poker will have its own optimized strategies, though each may follow a standard of playing. Below we have shown basic strategies for two of the more popular games: deuces wild and jacks or better. If your serious about video poker you should make an effort to learn as much as possible about game strategies so that you can substantially increase your odds of winning.

General Tips

Play Carefully - Take your time and make wise decisions. It's you against the machine and there is no need to rush things.

Know the Paytables - This is one of, if not the most important keys to success in video poker. You need to understand the paytables for each machine - understanding these will potentially allow you to maximize your winnings.

Play each hand like a new game - Since you are playing a machine try and forget about the last hand played. The machine has no memory of the last hand - the random number generator assures this, so don't fret over what happened last hand - focus on the next.

Practice makes perfect - the more you play the better you will be. Learning which cards to keep and which cards to discard is very important if you are to take full advantage of the payout tables. If you use your knowledge consistently i.e. utilize a strategy, it will help assure that you will meet the payout percentages of a particular machine.

General Strategies

Never keep a kicker with any pair. Holding a kicker to any pair reduces your return by 5%. Never draw four cards if you can draw three to a royal flush.
Always keep five-card winning pat hands with on exception: if you can, draw one card to a royal. Don't break a flush even if you can draw one to a straight flush, but always break a flush to draw to a royal.
Never break a straight to draw to a straight flush. Never draw five if you have a jack or better. Don't keep a ten for a four card draw.

Deuces Wild Strategies

It should go without saying you should always hold any 5 of a kind or royal flush.
If you are dealt four 2's: hold them.
If you've got three 2's keep them.
If you are dealt two 2's ...
hold any made straight, five of a kind or royal flush.
hold any 4 of a kind.
hold any 4 of a royal flush.
otherwise, keep the 2's and discard the rest.

If you've only been dealt a single 2, keep any made hand as follows ... hold four card royal flushes over made straights, flushes and straight flushes.
keep four card straight flushes of all types. hold three card royal flushes .
pairs: with two pair, keep one, but not both. hold four card flushes.
hold four card straights.
hold three card straight flushes, including gaps.
hold four card inside straights.
hang on to two card Q or J high straight flushes.
discard two card royal flushes.

Jacks or Better Strategies

Hold all initially dealt hands that pay - potential exemptions may include...

Hold four card royal flushes to make straights or flushes. Four card straight flushes, inside or outside. High card pairs rank here. Three card royal flushes. Four card flushes.
Low pairs, trying to build three of a kind.
Four card flushes.
Four card straights. Hold inside straights only if you've got three or more high cards.

If you were not dealt a paying hand here's a general strategy ...

Keep any two suited high cards. Discard unsuited high cards.
Four mixed-suit high cards - keep any three suited, toss the unsuited - otherwise, keep them all.
Three unsuited high cards - keep all three of K-Q-J - with A-K-J or A-Q-J, discard the A.
Keep any two unsuited high cards.
Keep any single high card.

MORE ON Deuces Wild Video Poker Strategies

Video poker and especially Deuces Wild Video Poker is one of the most exciting casino games, if you like to play poker.

In poker you can make your own decisions and control the results, but what is the best decision ?. In video poker only 21% of the dealt hands are winners, so you have to make the best out of the remaining 79%.

Basic Strategy

The following basic strategy for Deuces Wild Video Poker helps you make the best decision for a given hand and improves your odds of winning.

It´s a bit complicated, but try it out on one of the casinos listed below, where you can play both Deuces Wild Video Poker and Progressive Video Poker.

1. Hold any natural winning hand.
2. Draw one card to a straight flush.
3. Draw one card to a royal flush.
4. Draw two cards to a royal flush.
5. With two pairs, discard one pair and draw three cards.
6. Draw one card to a flush.
7. Draw one card to a straight.
8. Draw to cards to a straight flush.
9. Draw three cards to a Queen-Jack, Ten-Jack, or Jack-Ten suited.
10. Draw one card to a three-card royal and one Deuce.
11. Draw one card to a four-card straight with one Deuce.
12. Hold any winning hand with one Deuce. But break up a flush, straight or three-of-a-kind for any four-card royal flush, or four-card straight flush.
13. Draw one card to a four-card royal with two Deuces.
14. Draw one card to "Four of a kind" with two Deuces.
15. Draw two cards with three Deuces.
16. Hold any royal flush with three Deuces.
17. All other hands - discard everything but Deuces

WINNING PROBABILITY FOR "8/5" MACHINES

The video poker strategy discussed here is for the common "8/5" machines (called 8/5 because of the 8-for-1 payoff for a full house and 5-for-1 payoff for a flush). "Joker's Wild" and "Deuces Wild" machines will require a much different strategy.

In order to have an advantage over the house, you must find a machine with a progressive jackpot that is larger than about 1750 maximum bets. ($8750 for $1 machines, $2200 for $.25 machines, $440 for $.05 machines). This level only makes the game even with the house. The jackpot must be higher than this in order to gain an advantage. The player's edge increases by about 1% for each addition of 350 maximum bets into the progressive jackpot.

In order to have a 2% edge, the jackpot must be about 2500 max. bets. ($12,500 for $1 machines, $3125 for $.25 machines, $625 for $.05 machines).

The main difficulty with playing video poker is that it takes an average of 60 hours of rapid play to hit a royal flush, and it takes a _huge_ bankroll to survive long enough to win. During this time, the casino enjoys an advantage of approximately 5%. Straight flushes can be expected about once every 6 hours on average, but these contribute only about 0.5% to the player's return. 4-of-kind hands occur only about once per hour, and these hands account for about 5% of the player's return.

What this all means to the video poker player is that you will be playing with about a 10% disadvantage while waiting for an occasional "boost" from a 4-of-kind or straight flush. On average, it will take a bankroll about as large as the progressive jackpot to survive long enough to hit the royal flush (and this assumes that the jackpot is large enough to give the player a reasonable edge over the house).

You can expect to get nothing back about 55% of the time, and hit either a high pair, two pair, or three of a kind another 41% of the time. Hands of higher value occur only about 3.6% of the time. This means that the house has a whopping 31% edge most of the time.

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