How Online Video Poker Games Work and What Makes Them Popular
Last Updated on 30 June 2025
Casino games where you can find a less than 1% house edge are a rarity. Well, you’ll be happy to hear that video poker is one of them. Sure, these games are generally classified with slots machines in terms of playing, but are very different. Different and much more lucrative for your chances of winning.
Of course, finding this much less house edge involves some real work from you. You’ll have to become quite adept at the basic strategy for the game. But these are still solid, lucrative games to play, even if your strategy is a little off.
Want to try your hand at some video poker? Whether at a casino or online, I’ve put together this complete guide to get you going. By the end, you’ll know all about the rules, variants, strategies, odds, and playing online.
What Is Video Poker?
Video poker uses this same idea as Five Card Draw, with players dealt five cards and then the option of getting rid of one or even all of those cards in the hopes of drawing better hands. The video poker machines pay out more for ‘better’ hands, and some of the premium and rarer hands, like royal flushes, straight flushes, and four-of-a-kind, pay out huge sums of money.
The Jacks or Better video poker games can pay out as much as 4,000 credits for a royal flush when betting maximum credits. These payouts can be found on a game’s pay table. What makes video poker stand out from other machine-style gaming is that players’ decisions can influence outcomes, but using standard poker hand rankings.
Wild cards can be used just like in many of the games I would play with my dad and his mates. These add to the interest and variety and change the strategy slightly. Video poker has evolved over time, with numerous variations being created and introduced, and there are now loads of different versions with different rules, payouts, and wild cards at the best online casinos.
How Do Video Poker Games Actually Work?
The Role of a Random Number Generator
Video poker games, just like slot machines, use a random number generator (RNG) with a virtual 52-card deck with Jokers to generate results and outcomes. Hand-ranking is programmed into the game’s software to identify hands and their corresponding payouts. It’s not as complex as it sounds whether traveling in person or playing online.
How to Bet
Like slots, video poker machines allow you to bet different denominations. Of those levels, the more coins you bet on hand, the more you have a chance to win. For example, Jacks or Better has a full house payout is nine times the bet, and a flush pays six times the bet.
This is the game with the best available payouts. If I play one coin on this machine and get a full house, I get back nine coins. Another benefit to playing the maximum number of coins is that the full payouts for top hands are unlocked. And that can increase in ways you may not expect. For example, here are the payouts for a royal flush on the same machine we’ve been talking about above:
Holding and Discarding
Look and decide which cards you want to keep and which you want to discard in an attempt to improve your hand. At a machine in a live casino, there are typically five Hold buttons in front of each dealt card. Press the hold button for each card you want to keep. Games may also be equipped with touch screens to touch the cards you want to keep. Online, there is typically an icon to click or tap when you hold a card, or you can click or tap the card itself.
The Top Video Poker Games
Video poker continues to evolve thanks to AI tools and gaming developers like Pragmatic Play. Even with the new variants, these are the classic options that are a joy to play:
Jacks or Better
Jacks or Better is extremely similar to Five-Card Draw, except that you win one extra point for each pair of Jacks or Better that you’re dealt. You can also play more hands in Jacks or Better, meaning that players have more opportunities to win with this variant.
Deuces Wild
One important fact you should know about Deuces or Wild before we explain anything else is that it has one of the highest RTP of all video poker games! Because of this, it’s not only a very interesting video poker variant to play but also one of the most rewarding, alongside the other video poker games on this list.
Deuces Wild video poker enables you to replace any card with a deuce, and so 2s become wild cards. As a result, the paytable for a game of Deuces Wild is much more enticing when the potential returns are taken into account.
Let it Ride
A bit different from the rest of the games on this list, Let It Ride is played with seven players, even though you don’t actually share the game with them. You build your winning hand with three cards dealt face up, and two cards face down. You then make your decisions based on whether you believe in your playing hand or not.
Final Thoughts
If you are not in a place where real money casino games are available, or if you simply want to practice your online poker without risking real money, there are a few social casino websites and mobile apps that offer free online poker, including some of the biggest names in the online poker world.
In addition to the websites listed below, some real money casinos also let new players register to either play games with a no deposit bonus or to use a demo option to play games for free. So it’s always worth checking out some real money casinos if they are available to you to see what is available.