The Lowdown On Video Poker

video-pokerVideo poker is just a slot game with a poker face, right? Think again…

What if you could play a digital spin on poker that skips the slow play, ditches the opponents, but still rewards a tight strategy? If that sounds appealing, keep reading.

In this essential guide to video poker, we’ll be pulling back the curtain on this fascinating part-casino, part-poker game. We’ll dive into what it is, how it works, and why it’s way more skill-based than you might expect. Seriously, video poker is an underrated online gambling gem—but great poker players in the know have been quietly obsessed with it for years.

So, let’s dive in!

Breaking It All Down

Let’s begin at the beginning… what exactly is video poker?

The game itself is a hybrid, fusing slot-style mechanics with poker gameplay. Unlike most of the poker variants you’ll be used to in the digital space, it’s a solo game, so you’re not competing against other players, but you are playing a legit five-card draw variant.

When played online, video poker works much like the in-casino version—only with a tad more flexibility. The game deals you five cards, you choose which to hold and which to discard, then it replaces the rest. Outcomes are decided by poker hand rankings, so if you rack up the best hand, you’ll win.

Sounds pretty easy, no? Well, not quite, as there are hidden layers of complexity. For instance, every decision matters when you play (it’s a bit like classic Texas Hold’em in that respect), so you really need to bring your best strategy.

Plus, since there aren’t any other players involved in a game to read or beat, it’s got that whole self-mastery thing going on. Can you play at your best consistently over time?

Oh, and did we mention the house edge can be as low as 0.5% if you pick the right format?

Player-friendly house edge aside, another major appeal of video poker is just how many variants are out there.

Okay, so it’s not exactly hard to find an abundance of online poker formats and tourneys here in the digital age, but it’s good to know that you don’t even need to head to a specialist poker site to get your hands on a great selection. Hit up a reputable online casino and you’ll get to take your pick from some cutting-edge online video poker games. Jacks or Better is the most iconic, but you can also expect to run into Deuces Wild, Double Bonus, and more niche versions like Joker Poker. Each one has its own quirks, so you’ll need to adapt your playstyle along with them.

What’s Different?

The number one difference is that in this game, you’re playing against the machine, not other opponents. For a traditional poker player, that might sound like a downside, but it’s actually one of the top features of the game. No more worrying about losing to someone who got lucky on the river. The odds are always fixed, as is the pay table, so it’s a matter of solving the poker puzzle before you, rather than trying to outthink an entire table.

Naturally, all this has an impact on the pace. We’ve all been stuck in online poker games that drag on and on, especially those multi-table formats. In contrast, video poker is rapid fire: get a hand, hit, draw, collect (or don’t), and move on.

Let’s Talk Numbers

Intrigued? Time to dive a bit deeper, then.

Now, it’s important to state that the house edge in any online video poker game will vary depending on the variant and the paytable. Having said that, it’s known among gambling experts that the key Jacks or Better (aka 9/6 Jacks or Better) shrinks the casino’s edge massively. The player can have a potential RTP of 99.54%—that’s higher than almost every other game on the digital casino floor, except for certain blackjack variants.

Compare that to your top-performing online slot, where even the most volatile spinners come in at somewhere between 94 and 97%, and you can see why it appeals to gamblers on both sides of the table. Crucially, as a poker nut, strategy matters here far more than in any other RNG-based game.

Time To Pay Attention?

It’s unlikely that video poker will ever replace No Limit Hold ‘em in the annals of digital poker. But, if you’re serious about cranking up your edge, it can pay off to diversify. Especially when a game gives you low-variance hands with a high RTP—translation: more consistent wins, provided you nail your strategy.

Basically, if you’re a bit worn out from coming up against unpredictable opponents or losing faith in online tournaments, this might just be the game to bring you back from burnout. It offers a handsome potential boost to your bankroll too. Video poker’s not going to set your world alight, but, like many other retro strategy games, it will reward your focus and know-how.

So, are you in?

Justin Bonomo

Justin-Bonomo-1024x684

Like several of his fellow professionals, including Bryn Kenney, Justin Bonomo graduated to poker from ‘Magic: The Gathering’ at any early age. He frequently played poker online in his teenage years, but first came to worldwide attention when, in 2005, age the age of 19 – that is, still not of legal age to play live poker tournaments in the United States – he finished fourth in the European Poker Tour (EPT) French Open in Deauville, making him the youngest player to make the final table in a televised poker tournament.

Bonomo won his first of his three World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets in 2014, but his second and third in 2018, a year in which he won nine tournaments and over $25 million in prize money. Highlights of his ‘annus mirabilis’ included a Super High Roller Bowl China event at the Babylon Casino in Macau, worth HK$37.8 million, or $4.8 million, to the winner and, of course, the WSOP Big One for One Drop event at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas, worth a staggering $10 million. Bonomo has definitely benefited from the rapid increase in the number of ‘high roller’ poker tournaments in the last decade but, even so, his unprecedented winning streak in 2018 took him to the top of the all-time money list, ahead of Daniel Negreanu, with just over $45 million in live earnings alone.

Formerly a frequent and successful online poker player, under the moniker ‘ZeeJustin’, Bonomo has courted his fair share of controversy over the years and was, in fact, banned by PartyPoker for operating multiple accounts at the same time. However, in recent years Virginia-born Bonomo, 33, has focussed solely on live poker tournaments and, if 2018 and the early part of 2019 are anything to go by, appears to have made a wise decision.

 

Frozen Gems Slot by Play n Go

frozen-gems-300x169Introduction

For Let It Snow from Hacksaw Gaming, players will need cold-weather gear instead of board shorts and flip-flops. In a cold, snowy mountain covered with pines, a wardrobe change is prompted by the change of environment from the tropical island to the cold mountain.

Metrics

We’re looking at a variance rating between medium and high. This slot can turn grinding sessions into blockbuster payouts in an instant. 96.36 % is the RTP and 10,000x is the top payout.

Playing cards from 10 to Ace represent the low-value symbols here. A premium icon is a gemstone in a green, red, purple or orange colour.

W is also the Wild, which can substitute for all symbols to form a winning combination. Also, if five lines are selected, the wager will be multiplied by 2.5 times. For the free spins round to be activated, there must be Scatters on the reels.

Features

You’ll need free spins, expanding reels, and multipliers if you want to get close to that top 10,000x payout. The Cascading Reels feature is activated after every winning spin, so winning icons are removed from the reels, and new symbols fill in the blanks. Each successive win in the Cascading Wins feature increases the multiplier by 1x.

There are 2x and 3x Splitting Scatters, which split the symbols on the reels beneath, and the frozen horizontal Bonus Wheel Symbols, which represent Bonus Wilds. In splitting reels, more symbols appear on the reels, so there are more paylines. Three winning symbols or scatter symbols must land on the reels below to activate the Bonus Wheel modifiers.

Three Scatter symbols must appear simultaneously on the reels for the Frozen Spins feature, 9 free spins are awarded here, along with a 5x bet win. Free spins are awarded for every additional Scatter that lands during the feature.

In the Frozen Spins feature, any multipliers active on the spin are carried over. Each winning spin increases the win multiplier by 1x during free spins.

 

 

Fedor Holz

Fedor_Holz-683x1024Still only in his late twenties, Saarbrücken-born Fedor Holz has already enjoyed an extraordinary poker career. So far, he has won just one World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, in the High Roller for One Drop event in 2016, but collected $5 million for his trouble and enjoyed his biggest payout yet, $6 million, when finishing runner-up to Justin Bonomo in the WSOP Big One for One Drop event in 2018. In his short, but highly lucrative, career, Holz, who specialises in high roller tournaments, has pocketed seven-figure earnings on five other occasions. Currently ranked sixth on the all-time money list, with $32.6 million in live earnings alone, he is, unquestionably, one of the most talented and, arguably, luckiest tournament poker players of his generation.

Holz started playing poker, informally, as a 17-year-old student, before turning to online poker once of legal age. Subsequently, under the auspices of a prominent multi-table tournament (MTT) player, he received the instruction, and stake, required to progress his career as a professional poker player, both online and live. Holz won his first cash prize, €15,320 , or $19,288, for finishing runner-up in the GPT II Deepstack Series Main Event at the King’s Resort Live in Rozvadov in the Czech Republic in 2012. He became a full-time professional poker in 2013, settled in Vienna, Austria – where he still resides – in 2014 and, later the same year, under the moniker ‘CrownUpGuy’, saw off 2,141 other players to claim the $1.3 million first prize at the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event.