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Video Poker Tips
Video
poker is the only game in the casino where players can
occasionally play with a slight advantage over the
house. If players choose the right game with the right
pay tables, and play the maximum number of coins, and
play with perfect strategy, and use their player's card,
they can achieve a return of just over 100%, meaning
that they are actually at a long term advantage.
This article will teach you how to recognize profitable situations, and how to capitalize on those situations when you find them at a video poker machine. Read on for all of our profitable video poker strategies.
Choosing a Video Poker Game
The first step towards finding a profitable video poker machine is to select the right game. Only a few games can offer a 100%+ return, and those games include:
- Deuces Wild
- Double Bonus
- Double Double Bonus
There are other games that can be profitable, but the three above are the most common.
Evaluating the Pay Table
After you have selected your game, the next step is to find a machine that not only offers the correct game, but offers it with a "full pay" pay table. "Full pay" means that the machine uses the best pay table available. For example, here is a full pay Deuces Wild pay table:
| Hand: | 1 Coin: | 2 Coins: | 3 Coins: | 4 Coins: | 5 Coins: |
| Royal Flush (no wild card) | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Four Deuces | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1000 |
| Royal Flush (w/ wild card) | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Five of a Kind | 15 | 30 | 45 | 60 | 75 |
| Straight Flush | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Four of a Kind | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Full House | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Flush | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Straight | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Three of a Kind | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
The above pay table offers a maximum payout percentage of 100.76%, meaning that for every dollar you put into the machine, you get $1.0076 back. This means the game can be profitable if you play with perfect strategy, and play five coins per hand (discussed later).
However, many casinos choose to use a "low pay" pay table. What this means is they will cut the payouts for certain hands. For example, a casino may choose to pay out only 8x for a Straight Flush instead of 9x like the full pay table. This reduces the maximum payout percentage to below 100%, and makes the game a guaranteed loser.
If you would like to see the full pay pay tables for all major video poker games, along with their respective maximum payout percentages, check out this list of video poker pay tables.
Play Five Coins/Hand
If you look at the Deuces Wild pay table above, you may notice that the Royal Flush pays out 4,000 coins if you wager five coins. However, if you look at the payouts for a Royal Flush for 1-4 coin bets, the five coin payout should only be 1,000 coins. The payout is 4,000 coins because the casino adds a bonus to encourage players to wager more money per hand.
As long as your bankroll can afford it, you should always play five coins per hand because the Royal Flush bonus makes up a big part of the 100.76% max payout percentage.
Perfect Video Poker Strategy
Once you have located a video poker game that can pay 100%+, and confirmed that the game is using the full pay pay table, and decided to wager five coins per hand, your real work is just beginning. Even though you now have a scenario where you can beat the casino, you still have to learn the proper strategy needed to return the maximum payout.
Video poker strategy is a topic of its own, but if you head over to VideoPokerBaller.com you can find tables with exact video poker strategies for the highest paying games.
Use Your Player's Card
If you play video poker at a live casino, you will be able to sign up for the player rewards program. After you sign up you will receive a player's card which you can swipe in whenever you sit at a video poker machine.
Every dollar you wager on the machine will automatically credit your player's card with rewards points, which can then be used to earn cash back. This increases your total return even higher, and can make the difference between a 99.9% return and a 100%+ return.
Ready to Play Video Poker?
If you are ready to take these video poker tips to the machine, make sure to check out our list of the best online video poker casinos.
