Video poker games entered into the casino rooms long back in the 70s and have since then giving tough competitions to most other traditional slot games. Though video poker games have many things in common with slot games, the main difference lies in the payout percentage and the players’ engagement with the games.
Video poker games like Jacks or Better require players to know the game strategies quite well as they are the ones who will make decisions that will also affect the outcomes. So, the players’ skills influence the outcomes of the games. Video poker game variants like Jacks or Better or Double Bonus also offer some of the highest odds in casino gambling, which are not found elsewhere. Video poker also brings into a profitable mix of Low House Edge that gives the players fair chances to win Jackpots.
How to play video poker games?
Video poker games have many variants like Jacks or Better, but all the variants have one thing in common- they are all based on the simple mechanics, five-card-draw-poker. A video poker game uses the usual 52-cards deck, and after a player makes his wager and presses the “deal” button on the console, the machine gives him five cards . This is the most crucial time for the players to decide which cards to keep and which cards to discard. The decision at this point affects the outcomes of the poker games. Therefore, the players are required to have a thorough understanding of the basic strategies of how to play video poker bonus games.
To start with the poker, you need to first select the denomination of the poker bonus game that you want to give a try. Tap the proper areas on the video screen to select your preferred game. Start playing a hand by clicking on the “Play Max Credits” button on the screen.
Next, select the cards that you want to keep by either clicking on the Hold/Cancel button appearing on the screen or by selecting the picture of the cards that you want to keep. If you want to cancel the hold, you need to click on the button below the card that you want to cancel. Once the players are done picking their preferred cards, they need to press the “draw” button on the machine, and the machine will start replacing the discarded cards. There are higher chances to win the bets if the players end with a poker hand like Straight, Flush, Two Pair, Double Bonus, or a Royal Flush. After you finish one Double Bonus round, the game asks you whether you want to “Double Up” the win and pay again.
However, this is always to be remembered that the amount of win per hand of the Double Bonus depends on the poker value of your hand and the video poker pay table that you are playing in. If you want to beat video joker poker, it is very important that you make a wise decision about which of the five cards to keep and which are the ones that need to be discarded.
Another most important thing that affects the win rates at casinos is the thorough knowledge of mathematics and statistics (especially Probability). Therefore, playing every hand most requires years of practice and understanding of statistics. Then again, joker poker games involve pay tables based on which the cards need to be drawn or held by the players. Thorough mathematical knowledge is also required to crack the joker poker codes of the pay tables and to play out the cards . Cracking the pay tables’ codes also helps the players to get an idea of which versions of the game variants (like Double Bonus Poker, Aces & Eights, Bonus Poker, etc.) might offer the best expected ‘rate of returns.’
Video joker poker calculators help players solve these complex calculations, thereby helping players to call the cards . There are numerous online calculator templates available that are designed to reproduce the original video poker payout tables by inputting the exact poker bonus payouts that your preferred machine can offer. A Video Poker Calculator also allows players to select the cards that are already dealt (either 3 of a kind or 4 of a kind) and then predict the optimal play. With a single click of your mouse, these calculator templates will spit back precise data on the expected rate of return of any pay table. Video poker players can use these calculators to compare dozens of competing video poker pay tables within minutes before they choose their best possible odds (either 3 of a kind or 4 of a kind).
Some of the video poker calculators are discussed here in detail:
- Basic video poker calculator
As the name suggests, the basic video poker calculator is the simplest one that gives out the best possible rate of returns. It helps in searching for the best option from all the possible outcomes by helping the players to decide on which cards to hold and which cards to discard (either 3 of a kind or 4 of a kind).
It uses special algorithms and real-time research tools to compute the best possible options for the given cards. In this calculator, players can always see the actual pay table value for a given a hand, along with the EV (expected value) of the proposed cards.
- Video poker odds calculator
Odds video poker calculator analyses any pay table for any type of video poker variants and house edge. To use this calculator, players first need to select a category of the poker game (Full House or Full Pay) that they want to play and then adjust the pay table as desired by clicking on the ‘Analyze’ button. The calculator will show the probability and rate of returns for each hand for Full House or house edge. All the calculations are based on ‘optimal strategy,’ except for certain specific game variants like Ultimate X games or Straight Flush that yield the results of the ‘optimal single strategy.’
- Video poker strategy calculator
In this calculator, the extra coins feature includes special modes played with more than five coins that include Level-Up, Quick Quads, Multi-Strike, Straight Flush, and Ultimate X, to name a few. Here, the players can play video poker by making their card selections either by clicking on the deck of small cards or by entering their preferred cards by inputting them in the text boxes. Players need to click on a large card to replace that card. For resetting all the five cards, you need to press the “Clear” appearing on the screen, thereby entering in a new hand. However, the “Clear” tab does not reset the pay table. This calculator returns the strategy decision with the highest Expected value (EV), with the 2nd best alternative of all possible hands.
- Video poker payouts calculator
A video poker payouts calculator calculates the rates of return for different video poker variants like Full Pay or House Edge. Almost all video poker allows you to bet between one and five coins per hand. If you want the payouts for one coin, two coins, three coins, four coins, and five coins, they all increase . However, the Royal Flush increases out of proportion from the four coin bet to five coin bet.
After entering the payout values in coins, players need to click on the “Calculate” button appearing on the calculator template, and the return percentage along with the standard deviation value will appear on the screen. After a player selects a Full Pay poker of his choice from the drop-down menu and enters the pay table, the extra coins feature apparent on the screen showing special modes that are played with more than five coins, including Quick Quads, Super Times Pay, Level-Up, Multi-Strike, and Ultimate X. After this, the video poker payouts calculator will return the house edge along with the standard deviation value with an optimized strategy for that pay table. It also returns the house edge with the default strategy (Jacks or Better), which is generally the strategy based on the standard payout.
Therefore, this calculator estimates the return percentage as if the players always play with standard strategy (Jacks or Better). However, the return can be improved by using the optimizing strategy for the poker play as per the modified payout. For example, if the calculator lists 97.29% for 8/5 Jacks or Better, it can be increased to at the best 97.30% if the strategy (Jacks or Better) is optimized.
How to use the video poker calculator?
The Video Poker Calculators, like many other online poker news websites also offers, allow the players to enter the five cards that they want to draw and show the ideal way to play the hand. The Video Poker Calculator helps the players to get the most optimum playing strategies after they select the type of Poker play that they want to try based on the corresponding payout table.
Cracking the codes of the various payout tables ensures players that they are getting the best possible odds. So, players are allowed to use Video Poker Calculators while actually playing Poker games in the casino with real money.
To start using the video poker calculator, follow these steps mentioned below:
- First, select the type of video poker game that you want to play from the screen of the video. Some calculators default to Jacks or Better or Royal Flush or any other variants like the Double Bonus Poker, Aces & Eights, Bonus Poker, Joker Poker, or All America Poker, etc.
- The next step is to select the payout table that corresponds to the poker game (Jacks or Better or Joker Poker, etc.) that you are playing. In some calculators, the payout may default to 9/6, which means that for a Full House, the payout ratio is 9:1. For a Royal Flush payout ratio, 6: 1. Therefore, if players play five max credits, they will win 45 credits while hitting a Full House or 30 credits when hitting a Royal Flush.
- Now click on any card to select all five cards.
- In the final step, click on the “process” button to receive the best hand. Calculators also show the Expected Value (EV) at the end, along with the less favorable values to enable players to draw the comparison.
