Festival Casino - Video PokerOrigins of PokerThere are some opinions as to the origins of the game of poker. Many believe it comes directly from a similar game played in Persia called As Nas and others point to the French game of “Poque”. Another possibility is with the German card “Pochspiel” which incorporates the concept of bluffing your opponent. But whatever its exact origin or possible mixture of origin, we can be sure of its modern day popularity since it first arrived in America. The game of poker changed into a number of different variations, which include Straight, Draw & Stud. I’m sure that today, poker is surely the most played card game in the world. Even being considered a top-sporting event, many games are televised and tournaments arranged by the World Poker Series. The game’s transfer to the computerIt was only time until the game also crossed with the computer revolution. As many are aware, today poker can be played online with players across the globe. But with the initial invention of computer chips in the 1970’s, the first version of poker that could be played alone on a machine similar to a slot machine was Video poker. It incorporates aspects of draw poker accept you are now playing against the machine rather than other opponents. So in this case there is no “bluff” that can be made with the machine, but you are still trying to get the best possible hand. Because of the fixed odds incorporated in any possible hand, video poker soon became extremely popular. How to PlayWhen you begin to play video poker, you put your coins or tokens into the INSERT COINS slit and then proceed with the button TO PLAY (DEAL). If you are playing online the actions are extremely similar except coins are deposited at the click of a mouse! The video poker machine will then display five cards. You can then choose to keep as many or as few of the cards. Remember, the goal is the best possible hand, so keep the ones worthwhile for a good hand and reject the rest. The only action then required is to click the HOLD button under any of the cards you wish to keep. The machine will indicate the chosen cards but you can change your mind before receiving the new cards. Once depressed, the HOLD button will change to RELEASE in case you decide to reject the card or a different hand combination. Once you are happy with your choices, press TO PLAY (DEAL) and you will receive new cards in place of the ones discarded. The combination of the held cards & the new cards received constitute your playing hand. You will now be paid if your five cards correspond with winning hands listed on the machine, usually at the top. Check the payment against the amount of coins wagered. Betting in Video PokerYou can normally choose to insert as many coins as you wish for your credit, although some machines have a maximum limit of coins per play, which is normally around five coins. The amount of coins wagered in the game is normally displayed in the COINS BET section. By default this is normally set to only one coin. To increase this depress the BET ONE button, which will increase your total of coins bet one at a time, up to the maximum allowed. For a short cut to this, you can use the BET MAX button, which will automatically change the machine meter to show the maximum allowed bet. The bet amount registered on the machine remains the same on each wager until manually changed. As already mentioned, the payment tables are listed at the top of the machine. These show the various payment lines & the amount you will win according to the number of coins wagered. For instance, imagine you bet a single $5 chip in a video poker machine and were lucky enough to get a Royal Flush, you will then win 250 chips for a total of $1,250. But if you had used the maximum of five chips for the same hand, you would get 4000 chips for a total of $20,000. As you can see, many machines encourage you to bet the maximum amount & reward you with a stronger multiplications of your winnings. Finally, when you decide you have played enough, click the button CASH OUT to transfer your chips back into money. Below is a table with the winning hands in video poker: Winning Hands in Video PokerThis is two cards the same (a pair)- a Jack or Higher.
Two Pairs.
Three of a Kind - Three cards of identical value.
Straight - Five cards in succeeding order of any suit (Ace can be 1 to 5 or 10 up to A).
Flush - Five cards of the same suit.
Full House - Three cards of identical value and one pair.
Straight Flush - Five cards of the same suit in a succeeding order.
Royal Flush - Five successive cards ending with Ace, all of the same suit.
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, 4 
, J 
, J 
, A
