If you haven’t played a round of video poker before at non GamStop casinos, we’d like to guide you through a round. For budget-friendly options, you can also explore non GamStop operators with £5 entry before moving on to higher stakes. In the following four steps, you’ll place your bet and hopefully win. A round should last no longer than 20 seconds, depending on your thoughts on the card exchange.

Mission

Before the cards are dealt, you must first place your bet at non GamStop casinos. While the size of your bet doesn’t affect your chances of winning, a higher bet does increase your potential winnings. Betting limits vary depending on the type of video poker.

Flop

In the flop, five cards are dealt face up one after the other. These five cards are your pocket cards and the basis of your hand.

Swap or hold

After receiving your five pocket cards, it’s up to you how you want to proceed. You can now decide whether to keep your cards or exchange them for new ones. Always keep in mind that you shouldn’t risk any potential winnings or pairs too carelessly.

Showdown

Once you’ve made your decision and marked the cards you want to exchange, the showdown begins. During the showdown, your cards are exchanged, and your final winning hand is formed. Any winnings are immediately displayed and paid out based on the payout percentages.

What are the differences to classic poker (Texas Hold’em)?

As you can see from our steps above regarding the game play of video poker, video poker per se has little to do with classic poker, or rather, the Texas Hold’em variant. Classic poker thrives on probability, the excitement at the table, and the competition with other players. All of this is completely lost in video poker.

You are neither able to play your cards face down, nor are you allowed to react to new community cards multiple times. Once you’ve made a decision in video poker, it’s irreversible.

Perhaps the biggest difference from classic poker is the Five Card Draw variant. Video poker is played with only five cards, as opposed to the seven in Texas Hold’em. This makes it all the more difficult and risky to create winning combinations, such as a full house or a royal flush.

On the other hand, this also means that other players and their potential hands do not play a decisive role and you are therefore only competing against the machine.

Important Video Poker Terms at a Glance

What is comparable to classic poker, however, are the terms used in video poker at non GamStop casinos. Especially if you have little experience in any aspect of poker, you may not be able to identify many of the terms. However, to ensure you know exactly what the terms mean before your first round, we have compiled a short glossary below.

Action: In video poker, action refers to the amount of your bet.

Bust: A bust is a hand that does not improve even after the cards have been exchanged and does not result in a win.

Coins: In video poker, your bet and winnings are paid out in coins.

Credits: Credits are more or less your current number of coins, i.e. your account balance.

Draw: If you decide to play a new card, this is called drawing a card.

Deuce: Deuce is the English term for a 2 in video poker.

Face Cards: Face cards are all cards in video poker that have a face on them: K, Q and J.

Full Pay: If you play with Full Pay, you bet the maximum number of coins and thus benefit from the maximum RTP value.

Hold: If you choose to hold, you hold on to the cards in question and do not exchange them for a new card.

Jackpot: The maximum win in video poker. The cards you need to win the jackpot vary between the individual video poker variants.

Kicker: The kicker is the card that does not count towards a winning hand and is therefore considered the deciding card in some video poker variants.

Max Bet: If you play with Max Bet, you place the maximum number of coins as a bet.

Multi Hand: In video poker variants with multi-hand, you don’t just play with one hand, but can play with up to 25 hands at the same time.

Odds: The odds on the paytable indicate the probability of winning for each hand and winning combination.

Payout: The payout is the amount of your winnings for a specific hand or winning combination.

Paytable: The paytable shows all possible winning combinations along with their odds and payouts.

Volatility: Volatility determines the variance of video poker games. A high volatility means higher winnings are possible, but fewer.