Today, video poker enjoys a prominent place on the gaming floors of many casinos, and the game is especially popular with Las Vegas locals, who tend to patronize off-Strip properties for the better odds offered by those establishments. There are different type of video poker games offered at land based casinos. The latest one with a large success have been the Multi-Hand Video Poker Games, where the player starts with a base hand of five cards, and each additional played hand draws from a different set of cards with the base hand removed. (Multi-hand games are offered in "Triple Play", "Five Play", "Ten Play", "Fifty Play" and even "One Hundred Play" versions.)

The earliest models appeared at the same time as the first personal computers were produced, in the mid-1970s, although they were rather primitive by today's standards.

Video poker first became commercially viable once it was economical to combine a television-like monitor with a solid state central processing unit.

Video poker became more firmly established when IGT (now a market-leading provider of gaming devices) brought out Draw Poker in 1979.

Throughout the 1980s, video poker became increasingly popular, as people found the devices less intimidating than playing at the tables.

The Multi-Hand Video Poker Games created a lot of excitement to regular casino goers and this is one of the main reasons why our sponsoring casinos are offering Multi-Hand Video Poker "As Seen In Vegas" to target land based players.

One more time, our sponsoring casinos are taking another set of popular land based casino games and offer the same excitement offered in Vegas.

Their popular multi-hand video poker games are:

• Aces and Faces -- $ 80,000 Max Jackpot
• Deuces and Joker -- $200,000 Max Jackpot
• Deuces Wild -- $ 80,000 Max Jackpot
• Double Joker -- $ 80,000 Max Jackpot
• Jacks or Better -- $ 80,000 Max Jackpot
• Joker Poker -- $100,000 Max Jackpot
• Tens or Better -- $ 80,000 Max Jackpot
• Mega Multi Deuces Wild -- $100,000 Max Jackpot

The increasing popularity of video poker can be traced to several factors and characteristics it has in common with many of the more popular casino games. For instance:

• video poker is fast (like craps).
• video poker gives players the opportunity to make decisions and a reasonable control over the results (like blackjack).
• video poker is similar to poker (like many of the newest casino games).
• video poker gives the possibility of a large payoff and is not intimidating (like slot machines).

Poker is a game all about the cards, and getting the right cards in your hand so you can win the pot. Video poker is similar as you will see cards on the screen when playing this game, and you will be giving the chance to throw cards out that don’t meet your needs in making a winning hand. To make a winning hand you will be given one opportunity to change out your cards one time so you should be careful in picking what cards you want to start of your game with.

The winning hands in video poker are similar to that of poker, actually they are the same! Video poker winning hands will consist of a pair of any two cards, three of a kind, two pairs, or four pairs. You can also win in video poker with the entire same suit, or all cards in order. When playing video poker you can win more money when you have all the cards in the same suit and in order, but the biggest jackpot is hit when you get the entire same suit and your cards are in order, starting with the Ace down through the ten. This is the royal straight flush and can give you the highest payouts when you have this hand.

Video poker is a game that is growing ever more popular because you are not risking your money against others in the poker game, but you are playing against the software which is programmed to payout specific odds, which otherwise to control when you are playing against other poker players.

Video poker is available for use in the free games so you can try it before betting online if you like. Some video poker machines had been used in bars and clubs offline, as well as in casinos so you may be surprised at just how much you already know about playing video poker. You can download the program and play on your computer or you can play video poker online, on the casino site without having to download anything. The choice is yours, but in making the decision to play video poker you are making the choice to have fun!

Video Poker Strategy

The odds

The odds on a given hand vary from game to game, of course, but generally speaking the house edge on Video Poker games is pretty small, even 0% in some cases. Where the Video Poker games get an edge is with players who do not follow an optimum strategy. In other words, winging any given game based on a loose understanding of Poker is going to lose you money. Each Video Poker variation has its own quirks when it comes to the odds and optimum player strategy. In the next section we'll give you a rough guide to the most popular games, but detailed strategy guides would take pages. If you're serious about Video Poker, try some of the material in our reference section. Smart players can do pretty well at Video Poker. Jacks or better Jacks Or Better strategy can get a little complicated. For a full analysis check our references below, or follow this rough strategy guide:

• Hold four card Royal Flushes to make Straights or Flushes.
• Four card straight flushes, inside or outside.
• High card Pairs rank here.
• Three card Royal Flushes.
• Four card Flushes.
• Low Pairs rank here, trying to build Three Of A Kind.
• Four card Flushes.
• Four card Straights. Hold inside Straights only if you've got three or more high cards (J, Q, K, A).
If you've got nothing worth money, here's a general strategy, in order of preference:
• Keep any two suited high cards. Discard unsuited high cards.
Four mixed-suit high cards:
• keep any three suited, toss the unsuited.
• otherwise, keep them all.
Three unsuited high cards:
• keep all three of K-Q-J.
• with A-K-J or A-Q-J, discard the A.
• Keep any two unsuited high cards.
• Keep any single high card.

Tens or better

• Hold any 5 Of A Kind or Royal Flush.
• Else, if you've got four 2's: keep 'em!.
• Else, if you've got three 2's:
• hold any made 5 Of A Kind or Royal Flush
• otherwise, keep the 2's and discard the rest.
• Else, if you've got two 2's:
• hold any made Straight, Five Of A Kind or Royal Flush.
• hold any 4 of a Kind.
• hold any 4 of a Royal Flush.
• otherwise, keep the 2's and discard the rest.
• Else, if you've got a single 2, keep any made hand EXCEPT:
• hold four card Royal Flushes over made Straights, Flushes and Straight Flushes.
• keep four card Straight Flushes of all types.
• hold three card Royal Flushes.
• pairs: with two pair, keep one, but not both.
• hold four card Flushes.
• hold four card Straights.
• hold three card Straight Flushes, including gaps.
• hold four card inside Straights.
• hang on to two card Q or J high Straight Flushes.
• discard two card Royal Flushes.
• if you've come this low in the list, discard everything and try again.

Jokers wild

• Keep a Joker if you get it. You'll only see in once in ten hands, on average.
• Don't keep an inside Straight.
• Straight Flushes are a good payer and they occur considerably more frequently than in a game like Jacks or Better

All American

• Prefer inside Straights over one or two high cards.
• Prefer 4 card outside Straights and 4 card flushes over pairs, even high ones.
• Hold any three cards to a Flush.