Strategy Tips for Playing Online Video Poker

| Published on March 6, 2008

While online video poker does not have the same strategic elements as traditional online poker, there is video poker strategy involved that can reduce the house edge to almost nothing.

Fortunately, these elements are not hard to follow, and your memory of them can be refreshed at any time since you are playing at home with the entire Internet at your disposal.

Strategic Online Video Poker Tip No. 1: Play 9/6

If you are playing jacks or better, the standard video poker machine where you need at least a pair of jacks to win any money, you want to make sure you are getting the best odds you can. The optimal machine you can expect to find is one where six coins are paid for one if you hit a flush, and nine coins are paid for one if you hit a full house (payouts for other hand strengths will be listed on the payout table and should be standard for all machines that pay six on a flush and nine on a full house). These machines are called 9/6 machines and you should keep scanning the online casinos until you find this type of machine (or one with better payouts if you can find them).

Strategic Online Video Poker Tip No. 2: Keep Made Hands

In general, you should keep a made hand in video poker. This means if you are dealt a pair or better you should hold onto it. You shouldn’t be breaking up pairs in order to try to hit straights or flushes, even if you are only one card away. You definitely shouldn’t be breaking up trips and full houses to try to improve. You also should not be keeping ace “kickers” (holding onto an ace to improve the value of your hand) because an ace has no particular added value in video poker (if you have no pair and you pair aces, you will get paid, but this is also true of jacks, queens and kings).

Strategic Online Video Poker Tip No. 3: Be Aware of Progressives

Many online video poker machines have a progressive jackpot. Many machines pay into the same progressive jackpot pool, so it can become extremely high. You win it by hitting a high hand, usually a royal flush, with the maximum allowable coins played. If you aren’t playing the maximum coins, you can’t win the progressive jackpot even though you are contributing to it, so make sure to play max coins on these machines.





Another way of lowering the house’s advantage is to play with a good online casino bonus. This is true in all games you find in the virtual casino, not only video poker.

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