Are you a video poker junkie? No? I am. When I walk into a casino, I can hear the video poker machine calling me. How about you? There are so many selections, how can anyone get bored with video poker? I really don’t know. One reason why I love video poker so much, is because I’ve won so much money playing them. Once I was waiting for a friend to get out of the bathroom at an old, now gone, Las Vegas casino. I decided to put in 5 shiny coins into this little slot and bam! I scored a Royal Flush and a cool $1,000. He should go to the bathroom more often.
Video Poker machines come in all flavors. The traditional version is Jacks or Better. I still play this version, but not as much as I used to. These are your typical 9/6 machines, which means that a full house pays 9 coins and a flush pays 6 coins. They are great payers and one could make a good deal of cash by utilizing optimal strategy on them.
That’s not just me talking. Video poker experts will gladly tell you that the 9/6 video poker machine is the one to start on and to play for the best results. Whether playing for nickels or dollars, the 9/6 is great. I play other versions, like More for Four, because I want big payouts and don’t mind giving up cash on the little stuff. It’s a tradeoff, but it’s fun.
When stepping up to any video poker machine to show it who is boss, you first need to find out what the payback percentage is. Do you know what this means? The payback percentage is the amount of money that’s returned to players each cycle. The cycle is tons of plays over time, so don’t assume this means that you’ll be guaranteed to get X% back during your playing session, which is really short compared to a cycle.
There’s also another version of cycle. Imagine you put $100 into the machine and play $5 hands. After you’ve played 20 hands, that’s one cycle. If the machine pays back 95%, in theory you’d have $95 left.
Just keep in mind that payback percents aren’t per session or per dollars entered. In any case, do yourself a favor and know the payback percent before playing any video poker machine. Obviously, the higher the better. Anything under 96% is pretty terrible. Machines can vary from machine to machine, not section to section, too. If you play online video poker, knowing the payback percentage is pretty easy enough.
Don’t limit yourself to just one style of video poker. There’s an exciting world of video poker out there. Try to at least sample some of it.
