Video Poker is a popular game that can be played in casinos throughout the world, or alternatively at your house on your home computer, using a net connection. The game rules are absolutely simple and involve the player attempting to get the best assemblage of cards achievable in order to acquire cash. In this respect it is much the same as a normal game of poker, minus the line of contact with other players. Of course, techniques employed during a real-life game of poker, like bluffing, will be useless here.

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

The Video Poker game also has hold buttons, and bettors should now decide which cards to keep and which to discard. For the cards the player wishes to keep, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they illuminate. The player can choose to keep any number of cards they wish, from all to none.

After the player has chosen which cards she would like to retain, they should press ‘draw’, at which point any new cards will be needed they will be dealt. The game is now finished, with the Video Poker machine analyzing the hand to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands printed on the payment schedule.

Normally, the lowest succeeding hand on an Electronic Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money growing for each better hand. A common list of winning hands starts with jacks or better, moving on to 2 pairs, three of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, four of a kinds, straight flushes and last but not least royal flushes. It is obvious that the payment schedule can range from game to game, so that knowledgeable enthusiasts are agile enough to choose the most beneficial ones each time.

As soon as the initial round has completed, the player can either decide to continue on and try to to increase their winnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to cash out any cash that they may have won. Additionally, several versions of the game give the enthusiast an opportunity to double their wins, in which case another hand is played. There are also variations between individual games, with some virtual decks including wild cards and other varying aspects to increase playability.