Online video poker was one of the first casino games to be played online – and actually, the first to be played on any computer. Video poker was available on some of the very first personal computers sold all the way back in the late 1970s. Today, the popularity of online
Video poker has long been a fixture among video poker is exceeded only by online casino games such as slots and blackjack.
The Origin of Video Poker
Besides being the oldest of the online casino games, poker is perhaps the most ancient of all card games. The Persian game of nas is quite similar, and was played in present-day Iran by the Medes and Persians as long ago as 3,000 years. Historians who study casino games believe that the game of nas came into the United States by way of New Orleans, where it was introduced by Persian sailors during the 1820s.
As New Orleans was the major port of entry to the central and western U.S. for decades, it was inevitable that the game that would one day morph into modern online video poker would spread northward along the Mississippi and to the major river ports of Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Saint Louis, Kansas City, Davenport and all the way to Minneapolis. From there, poker traveled westward with settlers and eastward along the rails.
Video Poker Today
casino games and other brick-and-mortar establishments that allow gambling. Thanks to Internet technology, card players were actually able to play online video poker against real opponents in real time via Internet Relay Chat, or IRC.
You actually have some choices when playing the cyber version of this venerable card game. You can play against other people in virtual card rooms, play against the house, or download versions of online video poker that you can play alone for entertainment purposes. Aside from the fact that all aspects of play – deals, discards, placing bets, etc. – are done in a virtual electronic setting however, there is really no difference between online video poker and the “real thing.”
No Card Sharks Here!
Those who run websites that offer online casino games such as video poker understand full well that reputation is everything. In addition, the largest online video poker sites are now publicly-traded companies that must be accountable to shareholders as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission. Therefore, online video poker is one of the cleanest forms of wagering on the Internet – a game you can play with trust and confidence.
If you enjoy being involved in live poker games then you will love video poker. The rules for video poker are normally the same as the rules for a live table game but in video poker you are playing against a machine rather than a group of people.
Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television monitor with a central processing unit. Early models appeared in the mid-1970s around the same time the first personal computers were introduced. However, these machines were rather primitive compared to the technology available today.
To play you must first deposit your money and, if given an opportunity screen, choose your game of choice followed by choosing which poker game variation you would like to play. You are then dealt a five card hand. You choose which cards you want to hold and which ones to discard. The new cards are dealt and you either win or lose.
A lot of people who are intimidated in a live poker game actually prefer to play video poker. The game is growing in popularity online as well because there isn’t that much of a difference in the online type and the bricks and mortar casino versions.
Newer video poker machines employ variants of the basic five-card draw but the best return on your money is often found on the “Jacks are Better” variation of the game because you are paid twice the amount of your bet for a pair of Jacks or better and usually the payout for three of a kind is three times your bet.
Some of the video poker machines offer a bonus feature at the end of the hand. You might have a double down or a high / low opportunity to double your winnings. Please exercise caution when playing this feature because this is usually a side bet designed to take back more than it pays out.
Video Poker is one of the best games online or off for the player if you give yourself the advantage by learning how to play the hands correctly. Always remember when playing any machine to bet the maximum coins allowed for maximum payouts.
One of the worst things that can happen to a video poker player is to play the minimum coins allowed and hit a Royal Flush. If you play the maximum number of coins in, you stand to win several thousand dollars.
If you have visited a casino, there are good chances that you have seen or even played with a video poker machine. Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television-like monitor with a solid state central processing unit. The earliest models appeared at the same time as the first personal computers were created, in the mid-1970s, although they were rather primitive by modern standards.
Video poker became more firmly established when SIRCOMA, which stood for Si Redd’s Coin Machines, and which evolved over time to become International Game Technology introduced Draw Poker in 1979. Throughout the 1980s, video poker became increasingly popular in casinos, as people found the devices less intimidating than playing table games. Today, video poker enjoys a prominent place on the gaming floors of many casinos. The game is especially popular with Las Vegas locals, who tend to patronize locals casinos off the Las Vegas Strip. These local casinos often offer lower denomination machines or better odds, although this was more common in the 1990s as casinos across the country have recently been cutting their paytables and/or only offering 25 cent machines or higher.
Game play begins by a player placing a bet of one or more credits, by inserting money (or in newer machines, a bar-coded paper ticket with credit) into the machine, and then pressing a “Deal” button to draw cards. The player is then given an opportunity to keep or discard one or more of the cards in exchange for a new card drawn from the same virtual deck. After the draw, the machine evaluates the hand and offers a payout if the hand match one of the winning hands in the posted pay schedule.
On a classical video poker machine, payouts start with a minimum hand of a pair of jacks. Pay tables allocate the payout for hands based partially upon how rare they are, and also based upon the total theoretical return the game operator chooses to offer.
Some machines offer progressive jackpots for the royal flush, (and sometimes for other rare hands as well), thereby spurring players to both play more coins and to play more frequently.
Video poker machines operated in state-regulated jurisdictions are programmed to deal random card sequences. A series of cards is generated for each play; five dealt straight to the hand, the other five dealt in order if requested by player. This is based upon a Nevada regulation, adopted by most other states with a gaming authority, which requires dice and cards used in an electronic game to be as random as the real thing, within computational limits set by the gaming authority. Video poker machines are tested to ensure compliance with this requirement before they may be offered to the public. Video poker games in Nevada are required to simulate a 52 card deck (or a 53 card deck if using a joker).
It is unclear whether all video poker machines at Indian gaming establishments are subject to the same Nevada-style regulations, as Indian casinos are located on reservations that are sovereign to the tribe which holds the gaming license.
Newer versions of the software no longer deal out all 10 cards at once. They now deal out the first five cards, and then when the draw button is pressed, they generate a second set of cards based on the remaining 47 cards in the deck. This was done after players found a way to reverse engineer a random number generator’s cycle from sample hands and were able to predict the hidden cards in advance.
Types of video poker game
Newer video poker machines may employ variants of the basic five-card draw. Typical variations include Deuces Wild, where a two serves as a wild card and a jackpot is paid for four deuces or a natural royal; pay schedule modification, where four aces with a five or smaller kicker pays an enhanced amount (these games usually have some adjective in the title such as “bonus”, “double”, or “triple”); and multi-play poker, where the player starts with a base hand of five cards, and each additional played hand draws from a different set of cards with the base hand removed. (Multi-play games are offered in “Triple Play”, “Five Play”, “Ten Play”, “Fifty Play” and even “One Hundred Play” versions.)
In the non-wild games (games which do not have a wild card) a player who plays five or six hundred hands per hour, on average, may receive the rare four-of-a-kind approximately once per hour, while a player may play for many days or weeks before receiving an extremely rare royal flush. Just similar any poker game, you are advised to take some time to study the hand dealt by the video poker machine before you act. Enjoy!
