Although it often takes place within the walls of casinos or at online sites, poker is an entirely different kind of game. Poker is played in competition against other people, and involves elements of strategy such as probability, hand reading, and psychology. Every decision impacts your edge.
Video poker, on the other hand, is played against the house. It is a casino game that is based on the rules of Draw. But video poker is not all about luck. Your decisions do count for something and playing optimal strategy will reduce the house edge to a tiny amount.
Although it by no means offers the same level of depth, video poker is the closest casino game to real poker in terms of both rules and strategy.
What is Video Poker?
For poker players who are new to the game, let’s take a quick look at the video poker rules. Players place their bet and are dealt a starting hand of five cards. You can then choose which cards to discard and replace with new ones.
The aim is to make the best hand possible according to the standard poker hand rankings. You’ll then be paid out according to the game’s paytable. The lowest qualifying hand for payouts is usually a pair of jacks, whereas the highest possible hand is a Royal Flush.
You’ll be paid out huge amounts for making rare hands, whereas hands like high pairs have lower payouts but a much higher chance of hitting. Your decisions in video poker revolve around whether to stick with the hand you already have or redraw to try to make a monster.
There are several popular types of video poker online, such as Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Double Bonus, and Aces and Faces Multihand. They all have slight twists when it comes to the rules and payout tables, so make sure you pick a site that gives you access to a decent choice of favorable games.
What Strategy Does Video Poker Involve?
Outside of game selection, your only decision in video poker is which cards to discard and redraw. This may sound simple, but it’s crucial that you get it right if you want the best odds of winning.
Video poker strategy is based on the odds of making certain hands compared to the payouts on offer. By making this comparison, it’s always technically possible to work out which cards to draw, although it involves a lot of math.
Inexperienced players tend to make costly mistakes like drawing too often to rare hands in the hope of a big payoff, massively reducing their win rate and RTP.
Thankfully, the optimal strategy for video poker has been simplified into a set of rules that can guide your decisions.
Video Poker Optimal Strategy
Optimal strategy in video poker involves redrawing the right cards to give yourself the best return based on the odds and payouts. This changes slightly based on the variation of video poker that you are playing.
The rules below outline optimal strategy for 9/6 Jacks or Better. Go down this list and check your hand against the recommendations. Stop when you reach your hand and take the decision given:
- Always hold two pair or better.
- Hold four to a Royal Flush.
- Hold a high pair of jacks or better.
- Hold three to a Royal Flush.
- Hold four to a flush.
- Hold a low pair (to try to improve to trips or better).
- Hold four to a straight.
- Hold two high cards.
- Hold three to a straight flush.
- Hold one high card.
- If you have no high cards, discard and redraw all five.
In essence, the list of rules functions as a hand ranking system for starting hands, while showing you which cards to redraw.
For example, if you four cards to a Royal Flush, you can break a high pair, but you should always keep your high pair over three cards to a royal or four cards to a flush. If you have four to a flush, you should break a low pair, otherwise, you should keep the pair, and so on.
Using optimal strategy can reduce the house edge to as little as 1% or even 0.5% depending on the variation, giving a generous RTP of over 99%.
What Strategy Does Video Poker Not Involve?
Given that it’s played against the house, as defined by the odds and payouts, video poker is not a competitive card game. Compared to cash games or tournament poker strategy, video poker lacks the human elements of strategy.
Real poker involves reading other player’s hand strengths, using bets to extract value or make bluffs, awareness of position and stack sizes, as well as table dynamics and psychology.
You can think of video poker more like a personal puzzle to solve. You’re dealt a hand and have to decide, based on your understanding of probability or knowledge of optimal strategy, which cards to keep or discard. You don’t need to think about anyone else’s cards, only the odds and payout tables.
What’s the Appeal for Poker Players?
Poker players gravitate towards video poker and other part-skill casino games over pure games of chance like roulette. The appeal is that decisions ultimately still impact your expected value from the game.
Although the house always maintains a small edge, video poker is one of the few casino games that gives some of the control back to players. If you play badly, your results will suffer. If you play well, your edge improves.
