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Video Poker History and Rules
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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
produced, in the mid-1970s,
although they were rather
primitive by today's 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.
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Game play begins by placing a
bet of one or more credits, by
inserting money (or in newer
machines, a barcoded 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 which the machine
evaluates the hand and offers a
payout if the hand matches one
of the winning hands in the
posted pay schedule.
On a typical video poker
machine, payouts start with a
minimum hand of a pair of jacks.
Pay schedules 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.
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Video poker machines operated
in state-regulated jurisdictions
are programmed to deal
random card sequences. A
series of cards is generated for
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.
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Newer video poker machines
may employ variants of the basic
five-card draw. Typical
variations include: Deuces Wild,
where a two can serve 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 (gamesile a player
may play for many days or weeks
before receiving an extremely
rare royal flush.
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Full pay video poker machines
are games which offer the
typical maximum payback
percentage for that game type.
The payback percentage on a full
pay game is typically close to
and sometimes over 100% when
played with perfect strategy.
Full pay Jacks or Better, for
example, offers a payback
percentage of approximately
99.5% when played with perfect
strategy.
Casinos often place full pay
machines alongside other
machines with pay schedules that
offer less attractive payback
percentages, leaving it up to
the player to identify which
video poker machines offer full
pay schedules.
Most full pay machines are
configured with a pay schedule
that is only full pay when the
maximum amount of credits is bet.
(See the pay schedule tables
later in this article for
details.)
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"Jacks or Better" is the most
common variation of video poker
available. Payoffs begin at a
pair of jacks or better. Full
pay Jacks or Better is also
known as 9/6 Jacks or Better;
the 9 refers to the payoff for a
full house and the 6 refers to
the payoff for a flush. Full pay
Jacks or Better has a
theoretical return of 99.54%
when played with perfect
strategy.
|
Hand |
1 credit |
2 credits |
3 credits |
4 credits |
5 credits |
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Royal
Flush |
250 |
500 |
750 |
1000 |
4000* |
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Straight Flush |
50 |
100 |
150 |
200 |
250 |
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Four of
a kind |
25 |
50 |
75 |
100 |
125 |
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Full
House |
9 |
18 |
27 |
36 |
45 |
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Flush |
6 |
12 |
18 |
24 |
30 |
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Straight |
4 |
8 |
12 |
16 |
20 |
|
Three
of a Kind |
3 |
6 |
9 |
12 |
15 |
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Two
Pair |
2 |
4 |
6 |
8 |
10 |
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Jacks
or Better |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
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Theoretical Return |
98.05% |
98.05% |
98.05% |
98.05%% |
99.54%* |
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*Notice the gap between
the payoff for a Natural
Royal Flush played with 4
credits vs. one with 5
credits. The payoff schedule
for most video poker
machines has a gap like this,
such that players who do not
play with the maximum number
of credits at a time are
playing with a negative
theoretical return.
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"Deuces Wild" is a variation
of video poker in which all
two's are wild. (Wild cards
substitute for any other card in
the deck in order to make a
better poker hand. In Deuces
Wild, the payout for a four of a
kind makes up approximately 1/3
of the payback percentage of the
game, and a four of a kind
occurs on average once every 15
hands or so. Deuces Wild can be
found with pay schedules that
offer a theoretical return as
high as 100.762%, when played
with perfect strategy. It is
also available with other pay
schedules that have lesser
theoretical returns:
|
Hand |
1 credit |
2 credits |
3 credits |
4 credits |
5 credits |
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Natural
Royal Flush |
300 |
600 |
900 |
1200 |
4000* |
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Four
Deuces |
200 |
400 |
600 |
800 |
1000 |
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Wild
Royal Flush |
25 |
50 |
75 |
100 |
125 |
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Five of
a Kind |
15 |
30 |
45 |
60 |
75 |
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Straight Flush |
9 |
18 |
27 |
36 |
45 |
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Four of
a Kind |
5 |
10 |
15 |
20 |
25 |
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Full
House |
3 |
6 |
9 |
12 |
15 |
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Flush |
2 |
4 |
6 |
8 |
10 |
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Straight |
2 |
4 |
6 |
8 |
10 |
|
Three
of a Kind |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
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Theoretical Return |
99.679% |
99.679% |
99.679% |
99.679% |
100.762%* |
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*Notice the gap between
the payoff for a Natural
Royal Flush played with 4
credits vs. one with 5
credits. The payoff schedule
for most video poker
machines has a gap like this,
such that players who do not
play with the maximum number
of credits at a time are
playing with a negative
theoretical return.
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"Double Bonus" video poker is
a variation of Jacks or Better
with a bonus payout for four
aces. This variation offers up
to a theoretical return of
100.1725%, when played with
perfect strategy. It is also
available with other pay
schedules that have lesser
theoretical returns:
|
Hand |
1 credit |
2 credits |
3 credits |
4 credits |
5 credits |
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Royal
Flush |
250 |
500 |
750 |
1000 |
4000* |
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Straight Flush |
50 |
100 |
150 |
200 |
250 |
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Four
Aces |
160 |
320 |
480 |
640 |
800 |
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Full
House |
10 |
20 |
30 |
40 |
50 |
|
Flush |
7 |
14 |
21 |
28 |
35 |
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Straight |
5 |
10 |
15 |
20 |
25 |
|
Three
of a Kind |
3 |
6 |
9 |
12 |
15 |
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Two
Pair |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
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Jacks
or Better |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
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Theoretical Return |
99.1079% |
99.1079% |
99.1079% |
99.1079% |
100.1725%* |
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"Double Double Bonus" video
poker is a variation of Jacks or
Better which offers bonus
payoffs for different four of a
kinds, as seen in the payout
table below. Full pay Double
Double Bonus can be found with
pay schedules that offer up to a
theoretical return of 100.067%,
when played with perfect
strategy. It is also available
with other pay schedules that
have lesser theoretical returns:
|
Hand |
1 credit |
2 credits |
3 credits |
4 credits |
5 credits |
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Royal
Flush |
250 |
500 |
750 |
1000 |
4000* |
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Straight Flush |
50 |
100 |
150 |
200 |
250 |
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Four
Aces w/2, 3, or 4 |
400 |
800 |
1200 |
1600 |
2000 |
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Four 2,
3, or 4 w/A-4 |
160 |
320 |
480 |
640 |
800 |
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Four
Aces |
160 |
320 |
480 |
640 |
800 |
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Four 2,
3, or 4 |
80 |
160 |
240 |
320 |
400 |
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Four
5-K |
50 |
100 |
150 |
200 |
250 |
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Full
House |
10 |
20 |
30 |
40 |
50 |
|
Flush |
6 |
12 |
18 |
24 |
30 |
|
Straight |
4 |
8 |
12 |
16 |
20 |
|
Three
of a Kind |
3 |
6 |
9 |
12 |
15 |
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Two
Pair |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
Jacks
or Better |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
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Theoretical Return |
98.9154% |
98.9154% |
98.9154% |
98.9154% |
100.067%* |
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Other kinds of video poker
only have positive theoretical
returns when the
progressive jackpot is high
enough. Many establishments
advertise with a billboard when
the progressive jackpot is high
enough.
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Although positive expectation
and full pay video poker
machines are found in many "locals"
casinos (located off the Strip)
in the Las Vegas market (and in
a few
Reno casinos), most Strip
casinos and casinos in other
markets offer less attractive
video poker pay schedules.
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Many casinos offer free
memberships in "player's clubs"
or "slot clubs", which return a
small percentage of the amount
of money that is bet in the form
of "comps" (complementary food,
drinks, hotel rooms, or
merchandise), or sometimes as
cash back (sometimes with a
restriction that the cash be
redeemed at a later date). These
clubs require that players use a
card that is inserted into the
video poker machine to allow the
casino to track the player's
"action" (how much the player
bets and for how long), which is
often used to establish a level
of play that may make a player
eligible for additional comps.
Comps or cash back from these
clubs can make a significant
difference in the theoretical
return when playing video poker
over a long period of time. In
some cases, usage of a club card
can even add enough value to the
pay schedule of a video poker
game with a negative theoretical
return to make that same game
have a positive theoretical
return.
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