Video Poker Strategy ( With Charts and The Basics)

by Dan

January 25, 2022

STRATEGY FOR VIDEO POKER

Table of Contents

You've learned how video poker began and grew thus far in this guide. You've mastered the fundamentals of video poker, such as return, house edge, and variance. While playing at the casino, you've learned about how chance works. You now know how to calculate the size of your bankroll. You can even have a specific video poker game (or games) in mind. If you don't, you at least have a basic understanding of how different video poker games operate and their key qualities.

This chapter will teach you everything you need to know about video poker strategy. You'll discover what it is, how it is created, and, most crucially, how to use it to get the most out of the casinos.

It is expected that you are familiar with the various poker hands. For example, you must understand what a flush, a straight, a straight flush, a full house, and other poker terms mean. Check the glossary of this guide to learn or refresh your memory if you don't know or are unsure.

Are you ready to delve into the world of strategy?

WHY SHOULD YOU USE A STRATEGY?

The popularity of slot machines is enormous. The fact that they are simple to play is one of the reasons for their appeal. The only skill required is the ability to insert money into the game and start play by pressing a button or pulling a lever. That is all there is to it. Everything that happens after that is based on luck. The outcomes of slot machine spins are completely random. The result of a spin is locked in the moment the slot player clicks the spin button. It has already been decided whether the winner is (most likely) a loser, a minor winner, a moderate winner, or a jackpot winner. There is nothing a slot player can do to influence the odds in their favour or against them.

Some slot machines have a stop button that stops the reels from spinning and displays the result immediately, but pressing that button has no effect on the outcome of the spin. Whatever was decided at the time the spin began will remain the outcome.

Video poker games, unlike slot machines, allow users to choose the game they want to play. Randomness is also present, just as it is with slot machines. The five cards to be dealt are decided by a random procedure as soon as the “Bet Max Credits” or “Deal / Draw” buttons are pushed. After the video poker player selects the cards to be held, a random mechanism determines the cards that will replace those that are not held when the “Deal/Draw” button is clicked.

However, the resemblance to random slot machine play ends there. The first five cards dealt to the video poker player are completely under his or her control. It's up to him to decide what to do with the five cards. They have complete control over whether they keep all of them, discard all of them, or do something in between. It is, in fact, all yours. After all, it is you who is reading and absorbing information from this tutorial.

You could discard the entire hand in the hopes of being handed a royal flush. You might also choose to keep only the ace and discard the four 3s, hoping for a royal flush once more. With this hand, it should be evident that saving the four 3s and collecting the rewards for a four of a kind will get you the maximum money.

Another example that may not be as evident as the previous one. Assume you've been dealt four spades royal flush cards and a diamond ace.

You have a high pair of aces as well as four cards from a royal flush in this case. What do you put away? Do you save the high pair in the hopes of a certain win and a four-of-a-kind? Or do you want to try your luck at the royal flush? This isn't as simple as the last hand.

Here's another example in the same vein as the one before it. Assume you've been dealt a spade flush. Your hand is as follows: Ks Qs Js Ts 3s.

While you have complete control over the five cards dealt with you, not every decision you make will have the same outcome.

What would you do in this situation? Would you be willing to risk the straight flush of the 9 spades through the king of spades? Or would you save the four cards of a royal flush and wait for lightning to strike once more?

A straight flush pays nicely, but a royal flush pays out significantly more. This is a really difficult decision to make.

Once again, the decision is entirely yours. Do you store the flush for a certain victory? Or would you rather save the four cards of a royal flush in the hopes of winning big? Because a flush pays significantly more than the top pair in the previous example, making a decision with this hand is even more difficult.

Let's see if we can get one more hand. You've been handed the following cards:

It should go without saying that holding the two kings is the best play. In the hand, there isn't much else worth saving. This is true for the majority of the hands you are dealt.

But what about hands in which there are multiple feasible options? So, what are your options?

The majority of video poker players rely on intuition or hunches to decide what to keep and what to discard. 4c 5c 6c 7d Ts in this hand.

They “believe” that having three straight flush cards is a better play than holding four straight cards. Every hold decision is made by this type of video poker player based on what he or she believes is the best play.

Other video poker players enjoy keeping track of the game's “flow.” Is there a large number of high pairs? How about straights – how common are they? Have there been any complete house or flush streaks?

Technically, both holding cards based on what you believe is proper and holding cards depending on the flow of the cards are tactics. The video poker game manufacturers, on the other hand, create pay tables based on the game's math, ensuring that the casinos make a profit. As a result, in order to get the most out of your video poker experience, you'll need to employ a strategy based on the same logic.

Playing on a hunch or a streak may work for a hand or two (or perhaps a session or two), but these strategies are significantly more likely to fail. In fact, using these types of betting techniques will result in you handing over even more of your hard-earned cash to the casino than is necessary. Only by employing mathematically derived video poker playing strategies will you be able to extract every last penny from your long-term video poker play.

Obviously, you won't come across hands like these every day, but they do make a point. That is an important factor to remember: each hand is different. The way you handle that situation could have a significant impact on the outcome of the hand. Every hand is dealt with the same circumstance, albeit at a much lower level of excitement.

To be honest, the best strategy to play most video poker hands leaves little room for doubt. When you're handed a hand like Ks Kd 3h 6c 8s, it doesn't take much talent or intuition to figure out what to do.

TAKEAWAYS IMPORTANT

Video poker players, unlike slot players, have a say in the game's outcome.

Because the player has a choice in video poker, he or she can play the hands in the most advantageous way possible.

The majority of video poker players rely on hunches or playing streaks.

Only a video poker playing strategy based on math can help you get the most out of your game.

BASICS OF A STRATEGY CHART

You learnt in section 6.1 that the best way to get the most out of your video poker play is to use a statistically derived video poker playing strategy.

What is the definition of a video poker strategy? What is the source of it? What does it resemble?

Section 6.2 answers all of these questions and more.

HOW VIDEO POKER STRATEGY IS CREATED.

A video poker playing strategy can be developed in a variety of methods. It might be tweaked to make royal flushes more likely. This type of technique could be effective in video poker tournaments where the player only has a limited amount of time to achieve a high score in order to win. This method would result in a higher number of royal flushes. However, because smaller winning hands would be surrendered in favour of holding for a royal flush, the player's return would be reduced.

Another strategy would focus on winning as many hands as possible, regardless of the stakes. For example, even if there were decent chances of a royal flush or other higher paying results in the same hand, a high pair would be saved. This method may result in the player winning more hands, but the amount won each hand will be much lower.

MOST WINNING HANDS SIMPLY ALLOW FOR THE PLAYING OF ADDITIONAL HANDS.

Consider how a typical game of video poker works. You begin playing hand after hand after depositing your first sum. The majority of the time, you will lose your wager. The second most common outcome is simply having your wager repaid by hitting a high pair (or occasionally two pairs) that pays 1 to 1. You'll also come across some higher-paying but less common hands. Unless you get a royal flush or another extremely high-paying hand, such as four aces with a kicker, the amount you win is not enough to cash out and be deemed a good victory for the day in each scenario. Instead, all of these smaller winnings are really bonus funds that allow you to play a few more hands in the hopes of hitting the jackpot (s).

With this in mind, the best strategy is to win as much money as possible from the first hand dealt. As a result, the player will be able to play as many hands as possible in order to chase down the coveted jackpot-sized hands.

The process of creating strategy charts is time-consuming. In a 52-card deck, there are 2,598,960 possible five-card hands. For a non-wild card video poker game, here's a table with all the potential video poker hands.

Every single one of the 2,598,960 hands must be scrutinised. Then, for each of these hands, every conceivable hold combination must be investigated to find all possible resulting hands and returns. Consider the following hand: 3s 4h 5c Kd as 3s 4h 5c Kd as 3s 4h 5c Kd as

All conceivable hands and payouts for merely holding the ace of hearts must be computed. The identical procedure must be used for a save consisting solely of the 3 of spades, 4 of hearts, 5 of clubs, and the king of diamonds. Then repeat the process for each conceivable two-card hold. The same procedure is followed for three-card holds. The same is true for four-card holdings. Finally, the return on a five-card hold is determined. After that, the returns are compared to determine the best possible hold (in terms of money returned). To build the strategy, the results for each of the approximately two and a half million possible hands are summed up.

As you can see, this is not a simple task to complete by hand. It's not something that can be accomplished by sitting at the dinner table with a pad of paper and a pencil. It can only be done with the help of a computer software.

THE LAYOUT OF A VIDEO POKER STRATEGY CHART

All non-wild card games' strategy charts are organised in the same way. On the strategy chart, the hand with the highest average return is at the top. The royal flush is the winning hand on most video poker pay tables. In order of decreasing return, it is followed by lesser paying hands and partial hands. Keep in mind that partial hands that aren't winners will occasionally be featured above winning hands since they have a better average return (for all conceivable outcomes) than a dealt winning hand. Because of the likelihood of a full house converting into a royal flush, four cards of a royal flush are put above a full house in most games. However, that isn't the only hand that may be constructed from a royal flush of four cards. With the correct cards drawn, the hand could become a straight flush, a flush, or a straight. Consider the following examples.

The practise of listing hands with lower average returns continues until the hand's average return is lower than the average return for a completely new hand. At this stage in the strategy chart, the word “Redraw” or words to that effect are written. This means that completely replacing your hand will yield a larger return than attempting to make something out of it. The strategy diagram is now finished.

Now that you've learned the fundamentals of video poker strategy charts, you're ready to understand how to use them effectively. What you need to know is in Section 6.3.

Blackjack strategy cards the size of credit cards may be found in almost any casino gift store. This little little card includes all of the information you'll need to play blackjack flawlessly. It would be wonderful if the same could be said of strategy charts for video poker games. Regrettably, this is not the case.

What's to stop you?

Knowing when to execute one of four possible actions based on the two cards dealt to you is part of blackjack strategy. “Stand” (play the two cards dealt to you as they are), “hit” (take another card to try to improve your two cards), “pair split” (if you have two cards of the same rank, break them into two distinct hands by adding another bet of the same size), or “double down” (or simply “double”) (add a bet equal to the original bet and take just one additional card). Your two cards and the card the dealer deals face up are the only pieces of information you have to make this decision.

Everything needed for great blackjack play can be readily contained in a very short space by constructing a grid with the dealer up card across the top, the two player cards on the left, and filling each slot with an abbreviation signifying the player action.

The layout of a video poker strategy chart differs from that of a standard strategy chart, as you learned in section 6.2. The list comprises the card(s) you should keep in your first five-card hand. The top line shows which cards to hold for the best average return. The cards to hold on the lines below will offer the next highest average return. This continues until the player would be better off throwing away the entire first hand rather than holding anything.

Consider the following example of a video poker strategy chart. A strategy chart for a full pay (9/6) Jacks or Better game is shown below.

As you can see, there are a plethora of potential card combinations that can be held. There can be as many as 60 or 70 lines of strategy depending on the sort of video poker game. To make the strategy easier to understand, lines are occasionally mixed. The first few lines of the following strategy chart might alternatively be expressed as follows:

STRATEGY CHARTS FOR VIDEO POKER #2

The number of lines in the diagram above has been decreased from eight to four. However, the outcomes of those four lines are identical. If possible, most strategy charts will merge many lines on a single line.

It's crucial to understand the difference between an open straight (or straight flush) and an inside straight before using these strategy charts (or straight flush). The term “open” is a colloquial expression for “open ended.” And an open hand is precisely that. To be classified as an open straight / straight flush, the hand must:

There should be no gaps in the card sequence. Examples:

There are no gaps in the sequence 4 5 6 7, hence it could be an open straight / straight flush.

Because there is a gap between the 4 and 6, the sequence 4 6 7 8 is an inside straight / straight flush rather than an open straight / straight flush.

It must be possible to finish the straight / straight flush from either end, i.e. it must be open ended. Examples:
- it's an open straight / straight flush since 4 5 6 7 has no gaps and can be completed with a 3 or an 8.
There are no gaps in Ace 2 3 4, however it can only be completed on the top end with a 5. It's a straight flush from the inside.

There are no gaps in 3 4 5, and it can be finished with an Ace 2, a 2 6, or a 6 7 on the bottom end. It's a straight flush with an open straight.

There are no gaps in 2 3 4, thus only an Ace 5 and a 5 6 on the high end can fill it. It is an inside straight / straight flush since it can only be completed with two cards on the bottom end.

I'm devoting this time to this subject for a very good reason. Because open straights and straight flushes can be filled in more ways than an inside straight/straight flush, they are always ranked higher in a strategy chart. As a result, it's critical to understand the difference when playing so you don't mistakenly view an inside straight/straight flush as an open hand.

There's one more piece of information you'll need to use a strategy chart correctly: the sequence of hands from highest to lowest payout. You'll need this fact to figure out if you have a “or Better” hand. Is the straight you have in your hand, for example, “better” than a three of a kind?

The paytable for the game you're playing contains this information. The paytable for 9/6 Jacks or Better looks like this:

Jacks or Better “Full-Pay” – Payback: 99.54 Percent, Variance 19.5

Yes, a straight is better than three of a kind in the scenario above.

Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes higher-paying hands are listed below lower-paying hands. The straight flush, which pays 50 for 1, is placed above all of the four-of-a-kind hands on the Double Double Bonus Poker paytable. Four-of-a-kind hands in Double Double Bonus Poker, on the other hand, pay between 50 and 400 times its value.

Rules For Using a Strategy Chart

These payouts can range anywhere from the same as a straight flush to much more.

As a result, look at the payments, not the pay table position, to properly assess the rank of the paying hand.

Let's look at some instances of how to use a strategy chart now that you know what it looks like and how to use it.

The following is the hand you've been dealt: Td 6c 7h 8s 9d

A straight is present in the hand (the 6 of clubs through the 10 of diamonds).

Let's give it another shot, this time using Strategy Chart One. You've been given the following cards: Kd 4h 6h 8s Kc

Begin with the strategy's first sentence.

When you compare it to the hand you've been dealt, you'll see how similar they are.If you have the cards specified in your hand, hold them and press the Draw button.

Check the strategy's next lower line if it doesn't include the cards listed.

Carry on like this until you've found all of the cards in your dealt hand.

Do not hold anything once you reach the conclusion of the strategy; simply press the “Draw” button.
Take a look at the first sentence. “Four of a Kind or Better,” it says.