Video poker is a fast paced version of five card draw poker with the possibilities of big pay outs for a small bet as well as offering a high pay out percentage. There are countless varieties of video poker games found online. The most popular are Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild and Aces and Faces.

The game is based on standard poker hand rankings with the royal flush giving the highest pay. On average the royal flush will appear once every 40,000 hands. While the royal is the best pay out you can find games with great pay outs for other wins such as four of a kinds. If you want the biggest non royal wins then try Double Double Bonus Poker where you can win 2,000 credits (half a royal) for quad aces and a 2, 3 or 4.

Standard Poker Hand Rankings
The following are the standard hand rankings for poker. You will find however that different video poker variations have even more different winning hands.

• Royal Flush : Straight flush with the high card being an ace
• Straight Flush : Five sequential cards of the same suit
• Four of a kind : Four cards of the same value
• Full House : Three of a kind and a pair
• Flush: Five cards of the same suit
• Straight :Five cards with sequential values
• Three of a kind: Three cards with the same value
• Two Pair: Two separate pairs of cards with the same value
• Pair : Two cards of the same value

How To Play Video Poker
To play video poker you simply insert credits or load up the game on your computer. You can then choose the credit size. This ranges from 25p to £5 at most online casinos for single hand games and as low as 1p for multi-hand games. You can then choose to bet between one and five credits per game. It is highly recommended that you always play max bet as you will get better pay offs for all wins.

Once you have pressed the bet button five cards are dealt. You can then choose to hold all or any of the cards and press deal to get these cards replaced. You are then presented with the final hand and paid for any wins. At this point most games let you have the chance at collecting your win or trying to double up.

The double up option is not such a bad bet as it has no house advantage. If you select double you will have one card dealt face up and four cards dealt face down. You then need to select one of the face down cards in the hope that the card you pick is higher than the face up card. If you tie the bet is returned if you win you can collect or double up again. Usually there is a maximum of five doubles per win.

Popular Types of Video Poker
The three most popular video poker variations are Jacks or Better, Aces Faces and Deuces Wild. Jacks or Better is named after the fact that any pair of jacks or higher is the lowest win - you get your bet back.

With Deuces Wild all twos are wild and substitute for all other cards. The lowest win is for three of a kind and there is a special win of 1250 for getting four deuces and another win for a deuces royal flush.

Aces and Faces offers higher pay outs for all hands that are four of a kind or better. There are three different levels. Two through ten, jacks through kings and a special higher pay out of 800 coins for quad aces.