Yesterday, I was having a pint at my local bar when I noticed a small guy in a dark suit. Sitting to the far-right corner of the bar and away from all of us, this short man was crouched over a glowing video poker screen. Huh?

It was just a few months back that casinos all over the world and especially in Las Vegas were removing poker, baccarat and blackjack tables and adding more and more slot machines instead. But then something peculiar took place. Casino owners and employees noticed that one corner of the machines was more crowded than the rest. A short examination revealed that the games allocated to the slot section was none other than video poker. So why are so many interested players preferring video poker?

Here, I will try and answer some of the more practical reasons why this has happened and will happen even more and more:

1) The Odds: While slot machines offer odds that are pretty difficult to win on (and by that I mean the real big bucks), video poker machines are much easier when it comes to accumulating a large sum because it is somewhat based (even though loosely) on poker. This makes each player think that it is based on his skill more than just on luck.

2) More Choice: By this I am not referring to the pick of different slot machines, but rather to the fact that you have the choice of selecting the row to play with it whereas in slots, you have no real control after you press the button or pull the lever. It is not a secret that the principle of both these two games is to try and hit the money jackpot whether it is by getting the appropriate numbers or symbols aligned or whether it is by getting a royal poker flush. To do this in video poker, you have to pick from a number of five-hand cards.

3) Sitting Out: When playing at a slot machine, you have to play each and every time. If you want to stop, you have to clear the machine so that someone else can get a try. But this is not the case when playing video poker. This game allows you to simply sit out a round or two and then continue whenever you feel like.

4) Higher Money Ratio: Because of the chance that you can sit out any round where your cards are not any good. You have a bigger chance making an overall profit out of the time you spent playing at the casino whether it is an www.gambling-portal.comonline casino or a land one or even whether it is just a small machine in the local diner or bar or regional gas station.

5) It is also said in many video poker circles and plenty of other articles around the web that the statistics of hitting higher paying options while playing video poker are higher in comparison to playing video slot machines.

Conclusion:
Not withstanding all of the above reasons, the fact that poker is very popular and slot machines too only leads me to assume that a game combining the two will be greatly appreciated by any player of either of the two games but more so by those who enjoy the drone of the machine.

Video Poker seems to be one of those games that people are a little dubious about until they give it a whirl, and the concept of it being worth it, of being able to gain an advantage is the biggest cause of this dubiousness.

I was recently assured of a way of gaining the advantage in a progressive jackpot video poker game: Of course strategies vary from game to game, particularly between wild and no-wild games. However, on a machine that pays out 8-1 on a full house and 5-1 on a flush, there is, or so I’m assured, a means of gaining the advantage.

First, locate a progressive jackpot machine whose jackpot is greater that the maximum bet x 1750; the reason that this is important is because it is only once the jackpot gets this high that the game is even with the house, therefore if the game isn’t even there is no way of gaining an advantage. Now, in theory, or at least this is what I’ve been told; with each 350 x max bet addition to the jackpot, the players advantage increases by 1%. Therefore if you come across a progressive jackpot with a jackpot 2100 x the maximum bet, you have a 1% advantage; if you find one with a jackpot 2,450 x the maximum bet you have a 2% advantage.

Unfortunately, getting to this stage of play requires a lot of time and a lot of money; more of both than most people have. Therefore short of building up the advantage as suggested above, it might be best to simply be familiar with the frequency of video poker hands, and from that determine the likelihood of gaining an advantage. The following statistics were given to me a by a guy in the industry, who claims they are the average frequency of video poker hands:

A royal flush, which is of course what we all want appears once ever 32, 680 hands; a straight flush every 10, 163 hands; four of a kind every 425 hands; a full house every 87 hands; a flush every 90 hands; a straight every 89 hands; three of a kind every 14 hands; two pair every 8 hands; and a pair every 5 hands. Now, in terms of timing, based on these statistics the average video poker machine will therefore produce a royal flush ever 60 hours of constant rapid play; a straight will appear every 6 hours or so, as will a flush; whilst a 4 of a kind will pop up on a more or less hourly basis.

Therefore the majority of the time the video poker player is playing at a disadvantage, however this will be somewhat compensated for by the more regular smaller hands. Is it possible to manipulate the outcomes, to create an advantage? In all honesty probably not, but isn’t it fun trying?

There are many out there among you, myself included, that at times simply want to sit down at the computer and play a thoughtless game that has a little kick to it to make my day a little more exciting. These are great days for simple slot machines. If you really want to get fancy you can go from a three reel machine into the five reel machines, or more, and maybe make things a little more exciting.

But for many there is only one answer to a slot machine fix and that is Video Poker. Now you may be wondering what Video Poker has to do with slot machines, but the truth is that the two are very similar. They both have the same type of gaming interface and both are fairly easy to play. But the Video Poker aficionado can certainly tell you that the two are very far from the same.

Video Poker is for the Poker enthusiast that doesn’t really want to get involved in a full blown Poker game but also wants elements of the excitement that goes along with a great Poker game. Let me clarify. In a full on Poker game, be it at a live dealer online casino where there is a real person there dealing the cards, along with real players, or at a computer generated online Poker game there is the expectation that you will have to interact with someone at some point of the game. Most of the time that is a good thing, unless you are just anti-social (which isn’t bad either).

Video Poker takes away all of these elements, yet provides the player with the exact same game. In fact, in many ways it is much better than a traditional Poker game because it can be played much faster. There is absolutely no wait time while the new hand is dealt. A player has to really be on their toes if they are trying to play quickly because it can be overwhelming if someone isn’t paying attention.

For example, the online Poker world is one of convenience in and of itself. You never have to wait in line to play, or wait for a dealer to sit down to begin playing. Or even worse, wait for some inexperienced player to figure out what they are doing. Even in a live dealer online casino a player is at the whim of the online dealer and all of the real players that join. Video Poker is at the whim of the player playing the game anytime, anywhere, and any place.

There are those that will always love their slot machines, but if the urge strikes Video Poker, even just a little, is a great distraction-and you might never go back.

Using Poker Odds Calculators: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Poker players are always looking for ways to improve their game strategies, or little hints and tips they might be able to apply to their own games to make them more successful. One thing that can be very useful is to know the true odds of the particular game you are playing. Knowing your chances will sometimes prompt you to make changes in your game that you ordinarily might not make that could be the difference between winning and losing. Many players adjust their betting methods as well, so that they can better optimize their winnings. More experienced poker players can do this by observing the other players and making guesses as to what their odds of winning are against those particular players. They change their hands or playing styles according to what they determine their odds are. Some players are very experienced with calculating their odds in this method, but there is a more exact way to determine your poker odds. Poker odds calculators can be found as free downloads and for sale on the internet, and many poker players are starting to use these to get more exact odds.

Some poker players opt to use hand odds calculators by entering the player and the board cards, then hitting a calculate button to get the odds for that particular player. The calculator will list how often that player will win the game, tie with other players, or lose altogether. These calculators can also be used to compare different hands with each other to help you determine the best poker hands. The only downside to using these calculators is that they dont factor in the fact that some players will inevitably fold, and that extra money will be added to the pot with each round of bets.

Many poker players who play in poker tournaments have also begun to use tournament equity calculators. These calculators are used to determine the average amount of prize money each participant should win based on the number of chips each player has during the tournament. The value of these chips will be less as the game progresses and players earn more chips. Some players will decide to sit out a tournament is they decide the prize pool isnt large enough for them. The only bad thing about using this type of calculator is that it automatically assumes all players are of equal skill levels, and it doesnt account for size and position of the blinds in the game, so it isnt always one hundred percent accurate.

Odds calculators are used by many poker players today, and are increasing in popularity. They can be very helpful in making decisions when it comes to many aspects of game play. It is important that players who use these calculators keep in mind that these calculators do have limitations and that the information they offer should never be the sole basis of how you play your game. There are too many variables to be factored in to make any calculation be totally accurate, and sometimes you just cant beat good ole human intuition.

It is easier to play Texas Holdem then some of the other poker games because everyone is using the same cards with the exception of their hole cards to make the best hand. Seeing the cards lined up on the table allows you a better perspective on the cards then if they were in your hand.

Texas Holdem makes bluffing much harder by placing all the cards you can use to make your winning hand in a communal pile for everyone to use. The only thing you have to make a different hand from everyone else’s is 2 hole cards dealt at the beginning of the hand. The game is harder to bluff because you are able to watch the eyes of the other players as the communal cards are exposed. Without lots of practice you can watch and get a feel fro who has what cards by watching them look at the cards. Even if their faces do not give their hands away their eyes will. Someone will tend to focus on cards they may be able to use. You can also tell what they have by their lack of reactions to other cards, if a player dismisses a card immediately you can determine what kind of hand he may be holding.

Because of the way the betting is structured in Texas Holdem Poker it is easy for the pots to grow very large and you can eliminate other players and win big money in a short period of time. The game is broken down into 4 rounds and after each round is the opportunity to bet again, this is how the pots grow large very fast especially in a no limit Texas Holdem Poker game.

Many people may think that playing the most popular poker game may not be cool and that the true poker fans play draw or www.online-casinos-707.netcaribbean-stud.htmlCaribbean Stud Poker but they would be wrong in my opinion. The advantage about playing the most popular game is that it is easier to find people who play that game and you will have a bigger selection of players to choose from to find good players. Playing against people who play at your skill level or better makes the game more of a challenge and therefore more exciting.

I can not even begin to tell you why Texas Holdem is so popular, but I can explain its continued popularity and growth. It is simple really, the more people who play the more interest in the game grows. Now we have many Texas Holdem based TV shows spreading the game to many people who would never have otherwise learned the game. Texas Holdem has more professional players then any other casino game played today. Some pro’s even get very lucrative sponsorship deals when earn them millions of pounds every year just for having a sponsors name on his shirt while they play the game.

The longer Texas Holdem poker is the most popular poker game the more people that are going to start playing it, making its popularity and its number of players infinite. This means that Texas Holdem is going to be around for a long time.