Introduction

Finding A Safe Casino

Different Casino Software

Depositing And Withdrawing

Casino Bonuses

Essential Player Tips

Miscellaneous

TIPS FOR VIDEO POKER PLAYERS AT ONLINE CASINO

Tips For Video Poker Players

You may already know that video poker comes in way more tan one variation these days. The original "Jacks Or Better" video poker is still a popular ever-present, offering the best odds too at many places, but it's not what I call an exciting game. You don't get quite the same adrenaline rush as you might on Joker Poker or Deuces Wild fro example, where wild cards provide you with a more interesting paytable and some less frequent yet higher returns.

The most important tip one can offer a video poker player is to always play maximum coins. You'll see when you look at the paytable for each video poker game, that you can play between 1 and 5 coins per hand (generally). If you look at the payouts for wins playing on 5 coins, almost invariably one or two of these yield a higher relative return than when you play 4 coins or less. For example, a Royal Flush played at 5 coins ("max") will usually pay 4,000 coins as opposed to 800 at 1 coin, 1600 at 2 coins, 2400 at 3 coins or 3,200 at 4 coins. You can see the jump between 4 and 5 coins is proportionatley bigger ythan the jumps below. The "expected return" for each game is calculated based on a player playing 5 coins. So if that is advertised as 99.58% (Jacks Or Better on Microgaming software), were you to play at 4 coins, this would be reduced significantly, perhaps paying nearer 98% - or a "house edge" of 2%.

On the subject of expected returns, you should also bear in mind that this is based on a player playing to the correct strategy for the video poker game, and of course, every variant of video poker requires a different strategy. For example, in Jacks Or Better, if you are dealt with three "2"'s and two Aces, you'd hold the lot. However, the payout for 4 "2"'s (2's are referred to as "deuces") in Deuces Wild is a significant one, so in Deuces Wild, you'd drop the two aces and go for the 4th deuce. Even a slight deviation from the normal strategy will reduce the expected return significantly. Therefore, if you do not know the strategy, you are probably best of playing at a Microgaming software-based online casino which has an "expert mode" and does the strategy for you, rather than a Cryptologic software-based casino which doesn't.

Another thing to be aware of is the differences in payouts between the different software providers. Cryptologic casinos have different paytables for each game to Microgmaing and RTG and Playtech (etc) again all have their own paytables. RTG based casinos (iNetBet, Bodog etc) are also able to set their own paytables for video poker games, where the other (reputable!) casino software providers do not allow that. This can be a plus ("Joker Poker" on iNetbet is set at over 100% expected return when played max coins to optimum strategy), but in many instances is not something I'm particularly keen on.