Managing Your Money
Before you begin to play video poker, you need to start by setting a budget and your top and bottom threshholds. This is as much of a strategy as the way you play the game. You should decide exactly how much money you will spend at the casino or deposit at the online casino.Then you should decide how much you will let yourself win before you decide to leave with your winnings. You should also decide how low you will let your balance get before you decide to quit for the day. By deciding all of this before you play, you make your chances of finishing the game with extra money much higher.
Hold Your Pairs
Since video poker is based on five card draw, the most important part of the game is knowing which cards to hold. First and foremost, always hold any winning combination. Even if it’s a pair of jacks in jacks or better, and you have four for a flush, you should hold the pair. It’s better to take a sure thing than to risk getting nothing. Remember, too, that if you hold only a pair, you have a decent chance of getting three of a kind or two pairs, either of which will make you have a good hand. If you hold a pair that doesn’t win anything, then you should hold it only if you don’t have any chance of getting anything better. For example, if you have four for a straight or a flush, it’s worth dumping a non-winning pair, because the chance of it becoming three of a kind or part of two pairs isn’t amazing.
Other Cards to Hold
If you don’t have a pair in your hand or four for a flush, then you’ll need to look closer to figure out what to do. If you have three for a flush, you can try it, but your chances are not so good. When it comes to trying for a straight, only try for it if you can get the straight by getting a card on either side. If you have to get a card in the middle, the chances are not good enough. You should only try for a straight like this if it is for a royal flush. If you hold just one face card in a game where any pair of face cards is a prize-winner, then you should hold it. If you have more than one face card, then you should hold two. If there are two of the same suit, hold them. If there are not two of the same suit, then hold two that have numbers close together. If you don’t hold any face cards, and you don’t hold three cards of one suit, and you don’t hold three cards in a row, you should not hold any cards. Just draw a whole new hand. Good luck.
