With the popularity of video poker come
the different variations of the game,
thought out by the casinos in order to
keep people interested. This is quite
beneficial for the players themselves,
since the more variations of video poker
there are, the more options of winning
when playing. Here we will take a quick
look at the different video poker game
variations, along with pictures of them
and a brief explanation of the
differences between the variants of
video poker. The video poker machines
pictured here are available for play at
Bovada Casino.
We will start with the most common
variant of video poker, which one can
find at ever land or internet casino in
the world:
Jacks or Better
This is the basic variant of the
game on which all other video poker
variations are based. You can learn
how to play the Jacks or Better in
this guide. Next comes the:
Joker Poker
This variation of video poker is
certainly giving the Jacks or Better one
the run for its money. It's basically
the same, but with the addition of a
Joker, which substitutes for any card.
This makes for more options of winning,
but at the same time, the payout of some
hands is reduced. For example, the Jacks
or Better above pays out 2 to 1 for a "3
of a Kind", but when playing Joker
Poker, the payout for the same hand is
only even money, because of the Joker.
At the same time, new hands, such as 5
of a Kind, are added to the pay table.
Deuces Wild
In this video poker variation, the
2s (deuces) take the role of the Joker
from the previous example, i.e. the are
wild cards and can substitute for any
card to make the highest possible payout
hand, effectively giving the player four
Jokers or wild cards to work with. As
such, some of the winning hands are
discarded (for example, you can see
there is no Pair or 2 Pairs on the pay
table above) and other winning hands pay
smaller percentage than you'd get with
variations such as Joker Poker or Jacks
or Better.
The three video poker variations
are the most popular ones. All other
variants of video poker games stem from
one of the three above and usually
involve tweaking the pay table in
certain way. Here are some other
examples of variations of video poker:
| Double Bonus
Video Poker |
Bonus Video
Poker Deluxe |
 |
 |
You can see that in the "double bonus
poker" variation, it's basically a Jacks
or Better video poker machine, but
certain 4 of a Kind pay out more, i.e.
four Aces pay out 800 coins, while four
Kings will pay only 225 coins. The same
idea applies with the "bonus poker
deluxe" example, there a 4 of a Kind
pays out more than a Straight Flush, but
2 Pairs pay the same as Jacks or Better.
And finally, we will close the
video poker variations guide with a
twist - the multi-hand video
poker. While it's not really a variation
of video poker, more like an option,
it's still worth mentioning. Some
variants of video poker games have the
option of multi-hand play, most often at
the internet casinos, than at the
offline casinos. This option let's you
play multiple identical first-draw hands
of poker at the same time. Here is what
a 10-hand Jacks or Better looks like:
|
First Draw |
Second Draw |
 |
 |
As you can see from the examples above,
when playing 10-hand poker in the first
draw you hold the cards throughout all
10 hands, while in the second draw each
hand is drawn individually. Some
multi-hand variations could have as many
as 100 hands.
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