5 Steps to Winning Your First Video Poker Wager

Video poker is 1 of the best alternatives the casino offers for slot machine players. Slot machines usually have a high house edge and when you combine this with the ability to play hundreds of spins every hour it drains your bankroll quickly.

You can play almost as many hands every hour playing video poker, but the house edge is much lower than slot machines.

Here’s a quick step by step guide on how to win your first video poker wager, and how to keep playing with the best chance to win.

1 – Play on a Jacks or Better Video Poker Machine

This step isn’t 100% required, but when you consider everything about trying to win your first video poker wager, a Jacks or Better machine is your best option. Other options that aren’t too bad include Deuces Wild and Pick’em Poker machines.

The reasons why Jacks or Better is your best option are because the machines are popular so they’re easy to find, they’re simple to understand and play, and it’s easy to find a strategy chart for the game.

Just finding a Jacks or Better video poker machine isn’t quite good enough. You need to find a particular Jack or Better machine.

Video poker machines have pay tables that list how much each paying hand is worth. The pay table doesn’t change your odds of winning your first wager, but it does dictate the house edge. The house edge is important because it dictates how much the casino makes and how much you lose every time you play.

The Jacks or Better machine you need to find is 1 that pays 6 coins for a flush and 9 coins for a full house. This pay table gives you the best chance to win and provides the lowest house edge when you use strategy.

You’re going to learn more about Jacks or Better strategy in the next section.

2 – Get a Strategy Chart

Jacks or Better uses playing cards, just like other video poker machines. Because it uses playing cards, it’s easy to determine the best way to play every hand.

Some of the hands you start with are easy to play, and others are a little more difficult. For example, if you have 2 pair, like a pair of 7’s and a pair of 9’s, it’s easy to see that you should keep them and draw for a full house.

If you wanted to take the time to do it, you could work out all of the possibilities for every hand you can start with to determine the most profitable long term play. But the good news is that you don’t have to waste your time doing this.

You can simply use a strategy chart for Jacks or Better that someone else has already worked out.

A strategy chart has been developed using the odds and probabilities of improving each hand in combination with the amount you can win for each paying hand. When these 2 things are combined, the most profitable long term play can be determined.

Every decision you make when you play Jacks or Better creates an expected long term average value. A strategy chart simply shows you which decisions offer the best long term value. Every time you make a decision that doesn’t agree with the strategy chart it cost you money.

This is why you need to always use a strategy chart.

3 – Find a Promotion

The odds in Jacks or Better video poker show that you’re going to win your first video poker wager soon after you start playing. You might win your first hand, but even f you don’t you’re going to win 1 of your first few hands.

You’re going to learn more about this in the last section on this page, but there’s something you can do to improve your chances other than use a strategy chart. And this is something that most video poker players either don’t know about or ignore.

Casinos use promotions to get players in the door. Online casinos use bonuses and sometimes free spins. Land based casinos use free spins and things like coupons or free play vouchers.

The list of possible promotions is long and varies from casino to casino and the promotions change over time. For this reason I can’t tell you what specific promotions to look for, but I can tell you to look for promotions before you play video poker.

If you can find a free play promotion of some sort it’s the best way to get started. But even if you can’t find a free play promotion you can probably get a bonus of some sort to play video poker with.

4 – Use the 5 Coin Setting

The truth is that the odds of winning your first video poker wager, or any video poker wager, don’t change with the number of coins you use. But you still need to use 5 coins every time you play real money video poker.

The reason why this is important is because most video poker machines, including Jacks or Better, give you a bonus on certain hands when you risk 5 coins instead or 4 or fewer coins.

This might not seem like it’s important because the hands that have a bonus aren’t hit often. In Jacks or Better you get a bonus when you hit a straight flush. But this extra bonus helps make up for previous losses the few times you do hit it.

In other words, the reason why you risk 5 coins every time you play is because it reduces the long term edge of the machine. If you don’t like to risk as much, look for a machine with a lower per coin amount. Look for a Jacks or Better machine with a nickel or quarter coin amount to get started.

5 – It’s Just a Matter of Time

No matter what you do, you’re just a few hands away from winning your first video poker hand. You might not win the first hand you play, but if you keep playing you’re going to win a hand soon. As long as you’re using your strategy chart like the 1 I linked to earlier, you’re going to win a lot of hands.

I’m not going to dive too deep into the odds and math, but I’m going to give you some basic math about Jacks or Better video poker.

You know that the game uses a deck of cards and what cards are in the deck. You also know that any hand that includes a pair of jacks or better is a winning hand. Here are some basic numbers using this information.

The deck has 4 jacks, 4 queens, 4 kings, and 4 aces. This means that the very first card you receive in your starting hand is going to be a jack or higher happens 16 out of 52 times. And the odds of the second card matching the first card are 3 out of 51 times.

This continues with the odds of the third card matching the first card being 3 out of 50, and the fourth card matching 3 out of 49, and the fifth card matching being 3 out of 48.

This might not seem like good odds, but let’s say the first card is a jack and the second card is a queen. The odds of the third card being a jack or a queen are 6 out of 50.

The point is that all of these odds stack up to help you win hands.

You also have a chance to try to improve your hand 1 time. So even if your first hand only has 1 high card, you can exchange the other 4 cards for 4 new cards. This increases your odds of receiving a paying hand.

The way Jacks or Better is designed, even when you follow the strategy chart; you’re going to lose a little more than you win in the long run. But you’re going to win a lot of hands as you play.

Conclusion

You’re going to win your first video poker wager soon after you start playing. With a little luck you can win your very first wager. But even if you don’t win your first wager, you’re going to win soon.

You can improve your odds of winning every video poker hand you play by using the steps on this page. It starts with using the right machine, like a Jacks or Better machine, and includes using a strategy chart.

Find and use promotions as often as possible, use a 5 coin wager, and keep playing. Your first video poker win is at hand.