* Start small on the lowest denomination machine, especially if you haven’t played in awhile or you’re totally new at video poker. Some pros like the smaller machines as well just because you’re able to play for fun, longer, and not risk a serious amount of money.

* Take your time to study and analyze each hand. You’re playing against a machine, so it doesn’t really matter how long you take per turn since nobody is being forced to wait on you and you’re not under pressure from anyone else.

* When playing video poker, it’s easy to get ahead in the game at least some of the time by following some time-tested strategies.

* Use machines that pay 9 coins for a full house and 6 coins for a flush.

* If you opt for a progressive game that only pays out 8 coins for a full house, pick a machine where the jackpot is more than $250 on a nickel machine or $10,000 for the dollar.

* On a progressive video poker machine, make it a point to always bet the maximum number of coins. This will ensure you’re in the right position to win on royal flushes.

* If you can, use a casino slot card so that you get credit for all of the games you’re playing. You’ll earn some comp benefits even if you’re losing the hands. Finding out ahead of time what the comp value is always wise as well.

The table below gives you a list of the probabilities of each hand in video poker, it is very handy to keep your mind on realistic goals and know where you stand in terms of getting the winning hand.

The way in which you need to look at this chart is that first, there are different pairs. Then, there is the number of different combinations that can be found on those hands. Finally, you can see the probability of the hand coming up. Consider that these can be altered depending on the casino you are playing at

Poker Hand                       Nbr. of Hands     Probability
———————————————————–
5 of a kind                                            0      0.00000000
Royal straight flush                              4      0.00000154
Other straight flush                            36      0.00001385
4 of a kind                                        624      0.00024010
Full House                                     3,744      0.00144058
Flush                                              5,108      0.00196540
Ace high straight                           1,020      0.00039246
Other straights                               9,180      0.00353218
3 of a kind                                   54,912      0.02112845
2 pairs                                        123,552      0.04753902
One pair >= Jacks                      337,920      0.13002124
One pair <= Tens                       760,320      0.29254779
Ace high                                     502,860      0.19348509
King high                                   335,580      0.12912088
Queen high                                 213,180      0.08202512
Jack high                                    127,500      0.04905808
Ten high                                       70,380      0.02708006
Nine high                                     34,680      0.01334380
Eight high                                     14,280      0.00549451
Seven high                                      4,080      0.00156986

I hope this table helps you improve your video poker strategy a little more. In future posts I will try to discuss some other factors that can put you on the winning side of the video poker equation.

Some online casinos do offer French Roulette but as a single game and this has a lot to do with the house edge and the average return of the game. The three variants of roulette offer very different returns. For those who are not familiar with the term house edge, the simplest definition is that it is the percent of each wager that the casino expects to get as winnings. From this concept you can understand that the higher the house edge, the more the casino profits.

Whereas American and European roulette offer a 5.26% and 2.70% house edge, respectively, French roulette only offers a 1.35% house return on even money bets and a 2.70% on all other bets. However, if we think about it, some casinos offer some variants of Blackjack and Video Poker with house edges of less than 1%.

The difference is that Roulette is a game purely based on luck and so, in the long run, the house will always get its return. In blackjack and video poker there is a skill factor and the issue is that even though the house edge is only 0.5%, this involves that the player uses perfect strategy and that is rarely the case. As a result, the house can expect returns of almost 10%.

There lies the issue why French Roulette poses the least attractive option for casino owners and they prefer to keep it away from the players as much as they can. However, I encourage you t try the game as it is a lot of fun. I will try to post more information on it later on the week. Happy grinding!

• 86: The action of a casino barring a player.
• Bank: A row of video poker or slot machines.
• Bonus Poker: a variation of Jacks or Better video poker.
• Carousel: a bank or multiple banks of video poker machines.
• Coin in: the amount of money played through a machine.
• Cycle: the hands it will take to win the jackpot on a video poker machine.
• Deuces Wild: A variation of video poker in which the 2s in the deck are the wild card.
• Face Card: Jack, King or Queen.
• Hopper: The container that holds your coins underneath a video poker machine.
• Inside Straight: a straight that can only be filled by hitting a card on the inside of a 5-card sequence.
• Joker Poker: a variation of Jacks or Better which uses a 53 card deck that includes the joker.
• Payoff: the amount a video poker machine pays off for a particular hand.
• Push: when the player neither loses or wins money, a tie.
• Short pay: a video poker machine with less than a full pay.
• Wild Card: a card that can substitute for any other card in order to make a hand.

I hope that you can use some of these definitions while you are at the video poker machines and that they helped you understand the game better.

First of all, keep in mind that the only thing that is the same for video poker and online poker is the ranking of the hands (which can be seen in the image attached to this post). In both games you want to get the best hand but the dynamics are different in each game.

In video poker you are playing by yourself on a machine that resembles a slot machine. You are dealt five cards and can choose to dispose those that do not help you get the winning hang, then you press the ‘Deal’ button again and receive a payout if your final combination was a winning hand.

In online poker you are at a table with other players, you are dealt hole cards (the number varies depending on the poker variation you are making. Your objective is not only to form the best hand, but to also bet your competitors out of their hands in order to win the pot.

The main difference is the fact that in video poker it is you and your bets combined with the results in the machine trying to form a winning hand, whereas in online poker it is you betting against your competitors in order to win the pot.

The strategy for both games should be different as the odds and the objective of both games differ. Later this week I will go into video poker strategy a bit more in detail as it was the main topic last week and hopefully I will also look over some online poker strategy in the near future if our readers show interest.

In video poker it is important to keep an eye on the odds but it is also important to focus on the game rules as there are several variations of video poker games that offer different rules for the bonuses and jackpots and tell you the hands you need in order to win.

If you are playing Jacks or Better video poker then the average return you can expect is 99.52 percent, however the best video poker odds are on full pay Deuces Wild video poker but this are a little bit harder to find because they offer a return of 100.71 percent with simple strategy and if you have perfect strategy your returns are increased to 100.77 percent.

With that being said, today we are going to look into specific odds in video poker and how to increase your chances of winning. In video poker you need to focus on the hands that you can actually get. For example, you would normally have a ratio of 42 percent on pairs. However, this is on any pair, not the specific pair that you need to win but this means that you still have the odds on your side when trying to get the cards you need.

Some strategy to keep in mind while playing video poker is that when you have a pair of two’s for example, you should keep that pair and try to go for a three of a kind or other type of hand. Even though the chances of winning with a non-winning pair are very low, this is better than just throwing away the entire hand, in my opinion.

I will try to talk about more specific video poker strategy in the next couple of weeks so that you can get the highest returns on your gaming.

Before playing any type of game you should be aware of what your chances are of winning. In poker what we need to look at are the chances for the poker hands. The odds in poker vary depending on whether there is a wild card or not and on whether you can have a pair be the winning hand or not. We estimate that about 1/3 of video poker games requires you to have two pairs or three of a kind to win and so the odds of these games do not favour the player at all.

In order to get two pair or three of a kind you might want to choose video poker games that come with a wild card. This is because without a wild card you are expecting to actually get three of the same card, which happens about 11% of the time in standard games. In video poker, for strategy purposes, you might want to stay with the games where the odds favor you more.

Tomorrow I will talk about what the specific odds are in video poker and how you should find your way around them. I will also discuss how good video poker is for those players more interested in making money than just the fun of the game.

Lots of people have become very famous by starring in popular reality shows: Richard Hatch from Survivor, all those Kardashian sisters from their self-named show, Heidi & Spencer from The Hills, Rob & Amber from every single reality show on TV, even Paris Hilton from The Simple Life (with an assist to her self-shot, night-vision slice of reality, of course).

And yes, we can all agree that most of those semi-lebrities don’t really have any talent. But one thing we can say is that at least they were forced to do some interesting stuff on their assorted reality shows. Whether it’s cat-fighting in the Hollywood hills, eating giant bugs or running around naked in Samoa, the shows that made them famous had some pretty good entertainment value. But what about a reality show that just points a camera at people as they engage in some online gambling?

I love playing casino games online. And I love reality TV. But I really, really never thought anyone would try to put the two together. And yet, things are just about to start rolling in The Rounders House. It’s a Big-Brother-esque idea, where people live on-camera in a house 24/7. And what do they do to entertain viewers? They play online poker. And…well…that’s it. We get to watch a bunch of people sit at their computers and click their mouse every now and then. I’ve done lots of online gaming, and let me tell you, there is not a whole lot of entertainment value there. I might eat some chips and salsa or have a beverage now and then and that is about it.

Of course maybe there will be some interesting extracurricular stuff going on in the house. The first person to qualify for a spot in the house earned it by winning a tournament on a site called “Reefer Poker”. Which might tell you something about the types of people who will be on the show. Which is just another reason why I think I’ll pass on the Rounders House qualifying tournaments, and just stick to video poker right here at Silver Oak.

When the Borgata casino in Atlantic City recently hosted a women-only poker tournament, things didn’t quite turn out the way the casino planned. A man defied tradition, if not the law, and entered the tournament as the only man in the 270 player field. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, he won.

The party-pooper’s name is Abraham Korotki and he’s a pretty experienced and skilled player, having previous victories on the WSOP circuit. On that fateful day, though, he’d busted out of an earlier tournament at the casino. But instead of playing a cash game, or waiting for another open tournament to come around, he decided to forgoe general decency and tradition, and play against the ladies.

After several hours of poker, Kortki wound up heads-up against one last player, a woman named Nicole Rowe. She asked him to “chop” the pot, meaning they wouldn’t finish the tournament, but instead split the 1st and 2nd place prize. Her reason? She needed every cent she could get to help pay her living expenses while she recovers from cancer. The chivalrous Korotki refused her request and when he eventually beat her, took the entire winner’s pot all for himself.

It does raise the question of whether casinos are actually allowed to offer gender-specific tournaments. And, according to the law, they can’t. Despite it being unenforceable legally, in the vast majority of cases players respect the women-only rule and don’t play where they’re not welcome. But not Mr. Korotki.

Hey, looking for some exciting poker action without any rules about who can and can’t take part? Then choose one of our online video poker games and play a few hands. And if you’re not already a Silver Oak player, take a second and download our free software. Just hit the blue button to get started.

They’ve come tantalizingly close, but so far no professional poker player has taken the top prize on a major reality TV show. On the new season of The Amazing Race, premiering September 27th, poker pros Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho will try to be the first to take their profession to the top of the podium…and win themselves a million bucks while they’re at it.

As reported right here at Silver Oak a couple months ago, rumors leaked out during shooting that pro poker players would be taking part in the 15th edition of the hit show. But their participation has now been officially confirmed, along with the identities of the rest of the teams. And Ho and Michelle aren’t the only competitors with some name brand recognition. A pair of Harlem Globetrotters, Nathaniel “The Big Easy” Lofton and Herbert “Flight Time” Lang, will have a chance to prove their globetrotting skills aren’t just useful on a basketball court.

But the real question for gambling fans is whether the poker skills they’ve developed, like the ability to read opponents, to bluff, and to know when to go all-in on a huge gamble, will help Ho and Williams in their quest. In recent years, other poker pros have tried, and failed, to win a big reality show prize. Annie Duke was runner-up to Joan Collins on Celebrity Apprentice, while Jean-Robert Bellande wasn’t able to finish in the money on Survivor.

This season of The Amazing Race promises some new twists. The new “Switchback” challenge will force the players to go back for another attempt at the most difficult “Roadblock” from earlier in the game. And another task will force the contestants to lead a tour group through the streets of Tokyo, with the first team to get their entire twenty person group across the finish line winning the challenge.

If you’ve got some poker skills of your own then check out our huge selection of online video poker machines. Just download our free software and start playing now!

If you are a fan of video poker, Silver Oak Casino is your new best friend.  Over the last few weeks we have posted several video poker strategy cards that show you how to play with flawless strategy, no thinking required!

Download the Double Bonus Poker Cheat Sheet in PDF

Double Bonus Poker Cheat Sheet

Today, I present to you the Double Bonus Poker Cheat Sheet.  If you have downloaded and used the other video poker strategy cards from the Silver Oak Casino blog, you may notice that the Double Bonus Poker Cheat Sheet is longer than the rest.  Why would that be?

Double Bonus Poker has a little twist the other games don’t have that makes the strategy a little more complicated (and the cheat sheet that much more useful!).  Let me show you what I mean.

Take a look at the order of winning hands in Double Bonus Poker (in order from biggest payout to smallest):

1. Royal Flush
2. Straight Flush
3. Four Aces
4. Four 2–4
5. Four 5–King
6. Full House
7. Flush
8. Straight
9. Three of a Kind
10. Two Pair
11. Jacks or Better

It looks just like the standard video poker pay table until you get to numbers 3 – 5.  Notice that four 2′s, 3′s, or 4′s beats four 5′s through Kings.  Weird, right?

This little quirk makes the strategy a little more complicated because it has to take that twist into account.  Even though this strange rule makes life a little more difficult, have no fear!  Just follow the strategy outlined on the cheat sheet and every move you make will be flawless!

As always, just follow these easy steps to use the strategy card:

1. Place your initial bet.
2. Click on “DEAL” to get your starting hand.
3. Now take a look at the cheat sheet. Based on the cards that you have, find the highest hand on the list.
4. Keep all of the cards listed in the hand you chose in step 3.
5. Click on “DRAW”

That’s it!  You have successfully played perfect video poker strategy.

If you enjoyed this video poker strategy card, you may also enjoy the Deuces Wild Video Poker Strategy Card, the Joker Poker Strategy Card, the video poker strategy exception, the video poker glossary, or video poker risk of ruin.  For a list of all video poker strategy articles, see the video poker strategy page here on the Silver Oak Casino blog.

What’s the difference between playing Joker Poker with perfect strategy and playing Joker Poker with your “gut”?  $93 plus a 4 course steak dinner.

Allow me to explain…

The Video Poker Bet

I have a friend who is a professional poker player.  Let’s call him “Jimmy”.  I’m not exactly sure what qualifies someone as a “professional” poker player, but let’ just say he’s good enough to travel the world playing in poker tournaments for a living.

Last week I was telling Jimmy about the Video Poker strategy cards that I had been making.  I told him how I had figured out a video poker strategy for Joker Poker that allowed me to virtually eliminate the casino’s advantage altogether.

Since Jimmy had finished his poker playing for the day, winning several thousand dollars, and had begun celebrating with several glasses of wine, Jimmy felt a little cocky.  He clearly felt my video poker strategy could never stack up to his poker skills, even if video poker is a completely different game from poker altogether.

He was so confident, in fact, that he bet me a steak dinner that he could win more money in an hour playing Joker Poker than I could using my strategy.

The competition was on.

We each logged in to our accounts at Silver Oak Casino and started playing 25 cent Joker Poker.  I printed out a copy of my Joker Poker strategy card and Jimmy started playing with his gut.

The Results

After an hour of play, I was up $32 and poor old Jimmy was down $59.  Big win for video poker players!  While not exactly a scientific test, it’s a good indication that using this Joker Poker cheat sheet will improve your chances of winning at the online video poker machines.

Here is the exact same video poker card I used to beat Jimmy by $93 and win a steak dinner:

Download my Joker Poker Strategy Card in PDF

Once you have the Joker Poker cheat sheet in hand, download a free video poker game here and give it a shot:

Have you tried this Joker Poker strategy card for yourself? How did it work for you?  Win any steak dinners?  Let me know in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this video poker strategy card, you may also enjoy the Deuces Wild Video Poker Strategy Card, how to double your video poker winnings, the video poker strategy exception, the video poker glossary, or video poker risk of ruin.  For a list of all video poker strategy articles, see the video poker strategy page here on the Silver Oak Casino blog.