POKER, THE Video VERSION How video poker offers a proficient player the opportunity to acquire the most beneficial break at any wagering machine… Video poker is not stay poker, and outside of how you evaluate the hands, it bears little resemblance to the table game. Video poker is a fairly current phenomenon, dating back to only the mid Seventies. Although early slots used cards and poker hands as payoff symbols, players had no choices to generate; the reels stopped wherever the appliance determined they would. The increasing popularity of video poker could be traced to a number of factors and characteristics it has in common with many of the far more popular casino games.

For instance:

� It’s fast (like craps).
� It provides players the chance to generate decisions along with a reasonable control over the outcomes (like pontoon).
� It is comparable to poker (like several of the newest gambling den games).
� It offers the possibility of a big payoff and is just not intimidating (like slots).
� You may play it for a low minimum, an investment as tiny as a nickel.

Perhaps what tends to make it even far more popular is that it returns your investment for a pair of Jacks to Aces, in effect, this makes the player really feel like a push (a tie) is actually a win. This is an essential psychological factor that can make it seem like you’re winning much more than you really are. Perhaps it is really because whenever you drop a coin into the appliance, you consider that a lost Coin, so that when it reappears on an even-money payoff, you feel like you are a winner. It can be a subtle point, but a powerful one.

STRATEGIC Mistakes The next step is to use expert strategy. Do not expect to play flawlessly the initial time you sit down. Because the distinct machines all have their own special tactics, you ought to stick with one sort of device until you have thoroughly understood and mastered its specific knowledgeable strategies. Once once more, Jacks-or-better could be the most basic selection, and by mastering its expert technique, you will have a greater likelihood at the far more complicated techniques of other video poker machines. The following techniques might be used for progressive Jacks-or-better and even bonus poker with out losing substantially of an edge. The most vital concept to grasp in the beginning is the require to eliminate pricey mistakes. Most of those blunders are made by confusing video poker with stay poker, and can be generalized as follows:

� Really don’t hold a kicker. A kicker is an unpaired good card that you’d hold along with a lower pair. When wagering stay poker, that bet on can be created occasionally to throw your competitors off the trail, but you can’t bluff a machine. Holding a kicker reduces the odds to enhance the pair which is additional valuable.

� Do not draw to an inside straight. This is very good advice regardless of whether you are betting are living or electronic poker. It appears to be a particular failing of electronic poker players.

� Never bet on two-card connectors.

MAKING IT COUNT With over twenty five varieties of high-pair machines-Tens, Jacks and Kings or better-documented in the past five years, it’s hard to designate an overall professional method, but there are several frequent suggestions which will maintain you in the casino game substantially longer than in the event you simply "fly by the seat of your pants". These are applicable to most of the Jacks-or-better and bonus poker games, and will give you the very best opportunity to walk away a winner.

� Hold any pair, great or low, as opposed to keeping one or two good cards, even if they are suited.

� Should you never possess a pair, hold any card above a Ten to a maximum of two.