Video Poker Strategy

There are two types of video poker strategy you’ll encounter in your African online and land casino adventures. The first comprises simple things you can do to ensure you only play the most lucrative, trusted and affordable variants of this game, and the second determines the card actions (whether to keep or discard cards) you should when playing each variant.

Having some type of strategy in place is crucial when you play land or online video poker for real money. That is, if you aim to get the most out of this high popular game. It can help you lower the house edge (in some cases), and improve your long-term winning potential if you play every hand optimally. A good strategy can even level out lucky and unlucky streaks.

The point is that video poker is one of just a handful of casino games with a low house edge where you can influence the outcome based on decisions you make. In other words, video poker is a skill-based game, and if you choose to hone your skills through practice and using the perfect strategy for each variant, it can yield you worthy pay-outs in the long-term.

Here are some strategic pointers to ensure you only ever play top video poker titles at the best African-friendly online and mobile casinos:

The most important rule to remember when it comes to online casino gambling is that the better the casino, the more reliable, lucrative and worthwhile its games will be. This is why on Gambling Africa we only feature premier online casinos that are licensed, regulated and trusted, and welcome players from selected online gambling-friendly African nations.

If you come across quality online casinos with large and unrivalled game suites (that include the most common and popular video poker games) powered by world-leading online casino software firms with 24/7 player support facilities and a host of globally recognised and used banking methods, you know you’re in the right place to register a new casino account.

Before you click the ‘Deal’ button of any online or mobile video poker game, be responsible and set yourself an affordable and realistic budget and follow it come rain or shine. Even though video poker is an affordable game that accepts a variety of coin sizes - from a few cents up to a few dollars - it’s never a good idea to play with more than you can afford.

Another handy video poker strategy is to set a bet size and stick to it even while you’re in the midst of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ streaks. As tempting as it may be to increase your coin size during winning streaks and decrease it during losing streaks, try to be consistent and stay with one bet size. Similarly, try to always play the maximum of 5 coins in video poker.

This requires little explanation, other than to say that pay-outs in video poker only become worthwhile on a maximum bet. If playing a video poker game for a lengthy period of time will mean you have to choose a smaller coin size at the outset, then do it. An accepted rule of thumb with video poker is ‘only a maximum bet can win a maximum pay-out.’

This may seem overly obvious, but it’s very important to properly understand the rules of video poker (like any other gambling game) before you play. That way you’ll know what the objective of the game is (to try to make the best high-paying hand out of 5 cards) and what special characteristics or pay-outs a variant has (for instance, a Joker or Wild 2s).

Once you’ve read up on the rules of a video poker variant, it’s time to bring out your A-game and you can only do that if you’ve learnt its ‘perfect game strategy.’ If this sounds complex it’s really not. A video poker game strategy is simply a set of instructions that dictates which of your initially dealt cards you should keep or discard based on what they are.

Below we have included the perfect video poker strategies for three of the most popular video poker variants in Africa and beyond...