[ English ]

Video Poker is a popular game that can be played in casinos throughout the world, or alternatively at home on your personal computer, using a net connection. The game rules are absolutely simple and consist of the player trying to get the greatest combination of cards achievable in order to acquire money. In this respect it is very similar as a classic game of poker, apart from the line of contact with any other players. Of course, methods used in a real-life game of poker, like bluffing, will be irrelevant in Video Poker.

The game of Electronic Poker starts when the player inserts credits (either tokens, tickets or cash) into the machine and presses the play button. A hand of 5 cards will then be "dealt" on the video screen.

The Electronic Poker game also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and gamblers should now pick which cards to hold and which to discard. For the cards the gambler would like to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can choose to keep any amount of cards they want, from all to none.

After the player has selected which cards he or she wishes to keep, they should press ‘deal’, at which point any new cards will be needed they will be given out. The hand is now finished, with the Electronic Poker machine scanning the hand to see if it matches any of the winning hands shown on the payment schedule.

Typically, the lowest winning hand on an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money getting larger for each better hand. A list of common winning hands starts with jacks or better, and moves on to two pairs, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It goes without saying that the payout schedule can change from machine to machine, so that experienced bettors are able to select the most beneficial machine every time.

Once the first round has played out, the player can either decide to continue on in an attempt to increase their earnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any money that might have been won. Further, a few styles of the game give the enthusiast an opportunity to double their wins, in which case another round is played. There are also variations between individual machines, with some virtual decks including wild cards and other varying elements to increase playability.