Best way to play your chances with a video poker casino bonus
Video poker is sadly overlooked by online casino fans. Everyone loves slots! We understand that slots are bright, shiny, easy to understand and come in a million different shapes and sizes.
And so does video poker!
Most of us already have a decent understanding of the game from its enormous cultural footprint. And, if you don’t, I can explain it in a sentence or two now – you’re dealt five cards out of 52, you get a chance to change as many cards as you want in a second random deal, and you’re paid for completing winning poker hands.
It couldn’t be simpler!
And play online is also simple, with a slot-like set-up that’s second nature to any online casino player.
Looking for a video poker casino bonus
The best thing for players is that video poker offers the best value of any game in the online casino world. Some machines – usually deuces wild – offer a theoretical return to players of over 100%.
Standard games are close to that figure – often more than 99% – with only the blackjack really rivalling the long-term potential of these games for skilful players.
That makes online video poker casino bonuses hard to find.
Casinos want your bonus to be spent on games with a much lower RTP, and you might well find restrictions on your bonus funds that stop you from playing video poker, limit your stakes, or restrict the amounts of your play that can be counted towards your wagering requirements.
Play Video poker bonuses with no wagering restriction
That’s why – if you’re onto the good news about video poker – you need to spend some time looking for bonuses targeted specifically at video poker players.
These are much less likely to have terrible wagering requirements on your favourite game.
You’re also less likely to have strict limits put on your wagering.
Once you’ve found one of these bonuses, you should grab it, because they’re rare.
Making the most of it should be relatively easy. Video poker is – in casino terms – relatively low risk, and does actually repay some study in order to work out a coherent wagering strategy.
Keep your stakes low when you start out and make sure you learn the game inside out before you up to them and you should get good value out of your video poker bonus.
Why Claim Online Video Poker Bonuses & Promotions
If you are someone that is interested in video poker, then you should pay attention to the various video poker bonuses and promotions. These bonuses give you additional cash when gambling online.
About Video Poker
Video poker is basically a game of 5-card draw poker. This was the most popular style of poker back in the days of the Wild West in the US. Each player is dealt 5 cards. The players then get to throw away 1 to 5 of their cards and replace them with new cards. The best 5-card hand wins the pot.
The 5-card draw is exactly the same on video poker machines. The difference is, you are playing versus the house instead of versus other players. In order to beat the house, you will need to make a minimum poker hand to win the game. Some video poker machines allow a pair of tens or better, while more commonly you will see jacks or better video poker games. This means you need a minimum of a pair of jacks to win the hand.
Depending on the variation of video poker you play, you will also be given wild cards such as deuces wild or joker poker. In deuces wild, the 2 is the wild card and can count as any card in the game; while, in joker poker, there are 2 jokers added to the pack that can count as any other card in the game.
Why are bonuses & promotions a ‘must have’ in Video Poker
The most important thing to know about casinos, whether they are brick-and-mortar or online, is that they operate to make money. If casinos didn’t make a profit, they wouldn’t exist.
This profit comes from something we refer to as the ‘house edge’. The house edge guarantees (over the long term, mathematically) that you will lose money. For instance, if the house edge is 2.5%, then, in theory, you will lose $2.50 for every $100 that you make.
Rule no.1 for any casino player is to make sure that the house advantage is as low as possible. One of the ways to do this is to use bonuses and promotions. With free cash, you can afford to lose 2.5% for every $100 thanks to topping that up with a bonus.
This slight advantage might seem immaterial over the short run, but in the long run, it diminishes the house advantage enough to make using bonuses and promotions worthwhile.
Video Poker Bonus Offers
There are numerous online casinos that have video poker on offer. Make sure that the bonuses they give away, allow you to also play video poker.
It is worth noting that there are many different kinds of online bonuses that can be used to play video poker. Below we have broken down some of the most common video poker bonus types.
| Rank | Casino | Bonus Offer | Number of Games | Payout Speed | Win Rate | Play Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#1
|
Casumo Casino
|
C$ 1,800
|
630+
|
1-2 days
|
97.84%
|
|
|
#2
|
Jackpot City |
C$ 2,000
|
700
|
2 days
|
97.59%
|
|
|
#3
|
Royal Vegas
|
C$ 1,200
|
650
|
1-2 days
|
97.49%
|
|
|
#4
|
Jackpot Village
|
C$2,300
|
3500+
|
0-1 day
|
97.61%
|
|
|
#5
|
Dunder Casino
|
C$ 600
|
300
|
1-2 days
|
98.91%
|
Deposit bonuses
Deposit bonuses can function in one of two ways, either the casino can provide you with additional funds based on your original deposit, or the casino can provide you with free funds without requiring an initial deposit.
No Deposit Bonuses
The no deposit bonus is a bonus awarded to people that sign up for a new account without making a cash deposit. This is much like a betting site that offers a free $5 bet when you sign up for an account. These no deposit bonuses are a great way to test out whether or not you like the online casino’s interface.
Welcome Match Deposit Bonuses
Match deposit bonuses require you to make a deposit and come after the no-deposit bonus. If you have signed up for a new casino account, then you can take advantage of it. These are the highest match deposits you can get from an online casino. Some casinos will match up to $500. Therefore if you deposit $500, then you will be given an additional $500, therefore, your starting balance will be $1,000. Not a bad video poker bonus!
Regular Match Deposit Bonuses
You can only use the welcome bonus once. However, that does not mean there are no other match deposit bonuses that you can take advantage of. Nearly every online casino offers regular bonus code promotions. Whenever you get the chance to claim another video poker bonus, better take it!
The Basics
Playing with between 1 and 5 coins, a Video Poker machine presents a player with five cards. It is then up to the player to decide whether to hold and which cards to get rid of. The machine will then provide cards in place of their discards, paying according to the win, or moving on if there is a loss. This is truly an easy game to play, and one which can be surprisingly enthralling.
Another basic aspect of Video Poker is that the house rarely holds any significant edge over a player. Some machines, it can be argued, can actually end up giving you the advantage (albeit, a small one).
Standard Video Poker Rules
The vast majority of Video Poker games you will encounter are played with a standard 52-card deck. There are variations on Video Poker games that deviate from this rule, which include titles with Joker Wilds in them. While there are a few differences when it comes to playing such games, there are generally universal rules to how the games operate. For example:
- When you have selected an amount to wager, simply press the “deal” button and the game will provide five randomly selected cards for you
- It is then up to the player to choose what cards to discard and those which they want to keep
- The game will then provide cards in place of those which have been rejected by the player
- If a player is lucky to win, then they will receive money according to the strength of that particular hand
- If there is a loss, then a new game can be initiated by the player
Video Poker Odds and Payouts
| Hand | Odds | 1 Coin | 2 Coins | 3 Coins | 4 Coins | 5 Coins |
| Royal Flush | 649,740 to 1 | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Straight Flush | 72,193 to 1 | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four of a Kind | 4,165 to 1 | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Full House | 694 to 1 | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 509 to 1 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Straight | 255 to 1 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
| Three of a kind | 47 to 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two Pairs | 21 to 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Pair J,Q,K or A | 7.69 to 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Strategy: Finding a Full Pay Machine
Choosing the right machine is the first step toward any seasoned strategy that has any chance of working. This will generally come down to the type of Video Poker machine, and how you play as an individual.
When it comes to choosing the right machine, there are a few hints and tips which we have provided below, which can certainly help you decide:
A full-pay machine
This type of machine is effectively one that offers the best odds, making top payouts for hitting the right hands. On any typical Video Poker Jacks or Better machine – which is one where you need nothing less than a pair of jacks to win – you can find in the machine’s paytable if it pays full or not. Try to identify the machines before you play.
You should always check for the payout a machine grants for a full house or a flush. A full house should pay nothing less than nine times your bet and a flush six times what you wager on a game. 9/6 games, therefore, take their name from this method of paying out on flushes or full houses.
Full payout machines are among the best choices for winning big. Given the fact that the house edge is so much lower in comparison to other games, it is no secret why savvy players shun roulette tables and slots in favour of Video Poker games. If a house edge is less than one percent, it is not difficult to see why this is the case and has been for a long time.
To put this into perspective, a game that holds a 1% house edge effectively pays out 99 cents out of every dollar bet. The House edge is much higher when you do not play according to a learned strategy, however, so doing your homework before you play the game is always the best advice to give any player looking to get involved in Video Poker.
Hints and Tips
| Hand | Cards | Description |
| Jacks or Better | J♠J♡ | Pair of Jacks or higher-ranking cards |
| Two of a Kind | Q♠Q♡ 4♠4♡ | 2x sets of pairs |
| Straight | 6♣ 7♢ 8♠9♣ 10♣ | 5 cards in a sequence that don’t have matching suits |
| Flush | 3♣ 5♣ 7♣ 9♣ 10♣ | 5 cards of the same suit, but are not in a sequence |
| Full House | 9♠9♡ 7♠7♡ 7♢ | A pair of matching cards and three of a kind |
| Four of a Kind | 5♠5♡ 5♢ 5♣ | 4 cards of the same value |
| Straight Flush | 10♣ 9♣ 8♣ 7♣ 6♣ | 5 cards of the same suit and in sequential order |
| Royal Flush | A♡ K♡ Q♡ J♡ 10♡ | The strongest hand has cards A-10 in the same suit |
Always aim to play maximum coins, as this is the best chance you have at hitting a big win. This may be out of the question for some, at least until they have a bankroll large enough to facilitate it.
Don’t ever expect a machine to show any indications prior to landing a good hand, as they are not programmed to do this.
Always do your homework on a Video Poker Machine before you play it. There are subtle differences in many which – if picked up upon – can be the difference between success and failure.
Always practice before you play, as this will give you an idea of how far you can take your strategy and hone it before you invest any real money in playing Video Poker. As with pretty much anything in life, there are different Video Poker machines that respond better to different strategies. What works on one machine may not work on others. The best way to approach this is to take as much information as possible into the game, so practising hands on a demo mode, for example, should be the place to start.
Video Poker Should be Fun
Not many people can ever rely exclusively on gambling as the sole source of income. Despite many strategies and tips floating around in the ether of the internet, it is unlikely that any of them will offer a foolproof way to consistently clean up while playing Poker. In fact, we would wager on none of them being completely provable in terms of success.
Video Poker, like any other game, should be fun. Yes, doing your research into any game before you play it is a great benefit to your chances of winning, but a lot of the time, it is simply too random to have any type of control over. Not lastly, always claim a video poker bonus when you get the chance – it can increase your chances of winning by a lot!