Online Video Poker - Fun Single and Multi-Hand Poker Game

In online video poker the objective is to end with as high ranked a poker hand as possible. The usual poker hand ranking sequence applies. You first select the number of coins and the coin size. You should always go with five coins because of the advantage it offers in the royal flush payout. Your bet is deducted from your balance.

You will be dealt five cards to start with. You have the option of replacing as many cards from these as you want to. It is in this decision that online video poker strategy is involved. Almost in all cases you should retain the cards that already give you a winning combination. You click on the cards that you want to hold. The remaining cards are then replaced. If your hand matches with one in the payout table then you are awarded the corresponding payout and it is credited to your balance.

The basic variant of online video poker is Jacks or Better. The lowest paying hand ranking is a pair of jacks, which is known as jacks or better. This pays even money. The highest ranking is royal flush. For 5 coins wagered the royal flush payout is 800 times the bet. For less than 5 coins the payout is 250 times the bet.

Some variations of video poker have been created by introducing wild cards that will be considered as that card which helps make the highest possible hand ranking. One such game is Joker Poker. It is played with a 53-card deck, the extra card being a joker. Since the joker makes it easier to form poker hand rankings, the payouts begin with kings or better. There is a five of a kind ranking, which is made with four like cards and a joker. The payout table also differentiates between a natural royal flush and a joker or wild royal flush. Deuces Wild has all 2s acting as wild cards as well.

Some variations in online video poker have been created by expanding the four of a kind hand ranking. Aces and Faces is a game of this kind. It has different payouts for four aces, four jacks, queens or kings and four of any other card.

Microgaming offers four sub categories of online video poker variants. The Standard games are the normal single hand games of popular video poker variants. Power Poker video poker has the multi hand games. Common video poker variants can be played with four, ten, fifty or hundred hands at the same time. Level Up is a unique Microgaming format in which you play four hands in sequence with doubled payouts each time. Reel Play Poker is a cross between online pokies and video poker.

Microgaming video poker offers some interesting functionalities. In the initial hand, the cards that should be held as per the optimum strategy are automatically marked as Held. This ensures that players wager using the optimum strategy. After every win you have the option of staking your payout in s double or nothing type of gamble game. Expert players can disable these features if they so desire and increase the speed at which the game is played as well.

Playtech also offers a similar set of online video poker games in single hand format. Some of them are offered as 4 hand, 10 hand, 25 hand or 50 hand games. Jacks or Better Multi Hand allows you to choose the number of hands from within the game. Playtech offers two unique video poker variants in its portfolio. Two Ways Royal awards the royal flush payout for the usual suited ten to ace and also the suited two to six. Pick’em Poker has a completely different format. You are dealt two cards and two stacks of three cards each in which only the top card can be seen. You have to choose one of the stacks to make your five-card hand.

Playtech video poker also allows the gamble opportunity on wins. But you can stake either your full payout or half your payout in the gamble game. The second option ensures that you will not lose everything.

Net Entertainment offers four of the most popular online video poker variants in its portfolio. The games are Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker and All American. All American has the same hand rankings as Jacks or Better but with more volatile payouts. Some of the higher hand rankings have larger payouts and the lower hand rankings have smaller payouts.

All Net Entertainment online video poker variants are multi hand games with the option to select the number of hands within the game. You can choose from 1, 5 10 and 25 hands. This facility is very convenient because you do not have to load another game if you want to change the number of hands. In Net Entertainment video poker, only those cards are marked as Held which are already part of a winning combination. You would need to manually hold other cards as well. All Net Entertainment video poker games have the gamble feature, which is called Double Up.