Expert Video Poker Guide – Rules, Strategies & Playing Style

If you’ve ever played five-card draw poker, you already know 90% of how video poker works. Let me clarify something for those of you who haven’t played video poker before: the game can look a bit old-school at first (because it is), but the mechanics are simple, and you’ll learn everything in a few minutes.

Here’s a step-by-step explanation of how video poker works:

1. Place Your Bet

Every round starts with your bet. The betting range is usually from A$0.10 up to A$100, but it depends on the game. The bet size depends on several factors, like how many hands you intend to play per round, your bankroll size, etc. As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t wager more than 2% of your total bankroll per hand.

2. Get Your Initial Five Cards (Deal)

The second step is to press the Deal button and get your initial five cards. You’ll receive 5 cards, and you can then choose which cards to hold, based on the cards you’re dealt and your strategy.

3. Choose Which Cards to Hold

Once you receive your first draw, you get to choose which cards to hold and which cards to fold. Just click on the cards you want to hold, and they’ll be highlighted and get Hold written on top of them.

4. Draw New Cards

Now that you have decided which cards to hold, you can click on Draw for the second draw. Note that you can fold all cards from the first dealing, or hold 1, 2, 3, 4, or all 5 cards, so it’s all your choice.

5. Get Paid According to the Paytable

You’ll be automatically paid according to the paytable. In the standard Jacks or Better video poker variant, payouts start from a pair of Js, and the stronger your hand, the higher the payout. In most video poker variants, the highest payout is 800x your wager for a Royal Flush (suited 10-J-Q-K-A).

After you choose your bet size, you need to make one of the most important decisions in this game: How many hands do you want to play? In most video poker games, you can play with multiple hands. So, what does that mean?

It means that the game deals you one initial hand, but then duplicates the cards you choose to hold across several hands at once. For example, there are 5-hand, 10-hand, or even 50-hand video poker variants.

So let’s say you choose to play 10 hands, you’ll get:

• One main hand (the cards you see first)
• 10 separate draws based on that hand

To clarify: if your wager is A$1 and you decide to play 10 hands, the total wager is A$10. Each hand draws its own replacement cards, and each hand is evaluated separately according to the paytable. It’s important to point out that the hold cards stay the same across all hands, and only the new cards differ.

Now, let’s see how video poker is played in different hand scenarios:

Let’s say you want to play the simplest mode with just one hand. You select the bet size (in this case, we bet A$1) and click Deal.

We were dealt 5 cards: Q of clubs, 8 of clubs, 3 of hearts, 6 of clubs, and 3 of diamonds. The rules of the game state that we need a pair of Jacks or better to break even (get our wager back), and any hand better than that pays accordingly.

However, in this case, we don’t have a pair of Js or better, so out options are to choose to Hold the Q only, choose to hold the Q and our pair of 3s (and hope for Two Paris or Three or Four of a Kind), hold the pair of 3s without the Q, or draw new 5 cards and hope for the best.

For the sake of our example, let’s say we choose to hold the pair of 3s.

Our risk paid off, and we hit another 3, so our hand was Three of a Kind, which pays out 3:1.

Let’s have another 1-hand example, but this time we have a winning hand from the first draw:

As you can see, we already have a pair of Js and 4s, which means that we have Two Pairs even before the second draw. This is the best situation you can be in. Now, we can choose to hold the Two Pairs and hope for a stronger hand like Full House, but even if we don’t get another J or 4, we know that we already have a winning hand from our first draw.

Now, let’s see how to play with 10 hands. If the bet size per hand is A$1, the number is multiplied by the number of hands, so if we play 10 hands, we wager A$10 per round. This mode exists to speed up the game and the potential for bigger wins, but it also carries a higher risk.

In my example above, you can see that I’ve hit Two Pairs (two As and two Ks) in the first draw. Obviously, I choose to hold the Two Pairs, so whatever happens after the draw, I know I’ll win at least A$20 (my wager is A$10 across 10 hands, and all 10 hands will have a hand of at least Two Pairs or stronger).

Out of the 10 hands, 9 didn’t draw an A or K, but one drew an A, so I had 9 Two Pairs wins and one Full House win for a total of A$27.

Some video poker games allow you to play with up to 50 hands, and while it can be fun for a hand or two, I don’t recommend it in general. It’s just too risky for a game that’s supposed to be low risk, and you lose track of what’s going on.

Let’s take this hand as an example: I got a J, 7, 10, 10, 5 on the first draw. Now, one little decision affects all 50 hands. Should I choose to hold the J and leave out the pair of 10s? Should I fold all cards and hope for the best in the second draw? Should I fold everything but the J?

Say that I only decided to keep the J. My total win was A$22, but since my wager size is 50, my net loss in this hand was A$28. So, the more hands you play, the more important your initial draw is.

There aren’t many side bets in video poker like in Baccarat or Blackjack. The only popular side bet is the ‘Gamble’ bet, which can only be played if you win a hand.

You’re presented with the ‘Gamble’ option, and if you choose to do it, you can multiply your prize by 2x or 4x.

• For 2x your prize, you need to guess whether the card is Red or Black.
• For 4x your prize, you need to guess the exact suit of the face-down card.

Note from Australian Gamblers: I don’t recommend using the Gamble feature. It turns a high-RTP game into a 50/50 or 25/75 coin flip, which instantly lowers your long-term RTP. If you’re playing video poker for the good odds, skip the Gamble bet.

For my 200-hand test of video poker, I played the standard Jacks or Better variant with a 6/9 full paytable and an RTP of 99.54%. I started with a $10 bet and just 1 hand to see how it goes.

I immediately turned on the Auto Hold option that holds any made hand, like a pair of Js, Qs, three-of-a-kind, or any stronger hand. I continued playing, and by hand ~70, I had A$950 in my bankroll, so I wasn’t losing much, but I wasn’t winning much either.

I decided to increase the hands to 10 to see how JoB performs in a more volatile scenario. The optimal strategy for playing multi-hand video poker is not to change your strategy, so you’re still making the same decisions on when to hold and when to fold. However, it is recommended to lower the bet size, so I lowered it to A$5.

Admittedly, the game did feel more volatile, and by hand 120, my bankroll was sitting at ~A$700. What I realised is that unless the first draw is a good one, like a high pair or stronger, in all other hands, you’ll likely lose more than you’ll win.

For example, a natural high pair (in this case, a pair of Qs) usually ends up with a total win of 170-200% your bet (my bet was A$50, so a win of around A$80-A$90) is very common. But a bad hand usually ends with a loss of A$30-A$40.

In this scenario, you’re losing a bit more than you’re winning, so essentially, you’re hoping for one strong hand (like a Straight Flush or a Royal Flush) on any of the 10 tables to win big.

For the sake of this test, I tried playing with 50 hands, which resulted in an even more volatile scenario. It almost feels like playing a jackpot game. Note that the I was playing wouldn’t let me play 50 hands at once with a wager size of A$1 or higher.

With 50 hands, you can’t really monitor each hand, so just monitor how much you’ve won/lost in total, and you’re just hoping that you win big.

By hand 190, I finally hit an all-5 winning hand, in this case, a straight, which paid A$200 (50 hands x A$1 x 4x for the Straight). That moment sums up my entire video poker test. Even with its high RTP, video poker is still a risky casino game, and at the end of the day, it’s still driven by luck.

The more hands you play at once, the riskier it gets. Your decisions definitely matter, but whether you finish in profit or loss usually comes down to a handful of lucky hits, especially when you’re playing 10, 20, or 50 hands at a time.

Video poker is one of the few casino games where your decisions influence the actual gameplay, and that’s why I rate it so highly. If you like strategy-based games with high RTPs, I can recommend any video poker variant.

Still, my recommendation is to stick to the basics and choose a 9/6 paytable Jacks or Better if you’re a beginner, or choose Deuces Wild if you’re a more experienced player.

It’s simple to learn, fun to play, and if you follow the optimal strategy, it offers some of the best long-term odds you’ll find in any Australian online casino game.