PlayGuidePro

How to Play Video Poker

Video poker deals you five cards, lets you keep any number of them, replaces the rest once, and pays you according to the hand you end up with. There is no dealer to beat and no opponent — the only thing deciding the outcome is the pay table and the hand in front of you.

That single decision is also where the game's whole skill lives, unlike a slot: the correct hold for a given hand and pay table is a real, provable answer, not a matter of taste.

One deal, one decision, one draw. The whole game is choosing which of your five cards to keep — everything else is the machine settling what you chose.
PlayGuidePro Team
PlayGuidePro Team

A Hand, Step by Step

1. Bet. Choose how many credits to stake, from one up to the machine's maximum — usually five. Betting fewer than max changes only one payout line, the royal flush, from a smooth multiple of the others to a jump; the rest of the pay table scales evenly with your stake.

2. The deal. Five cards appear face up. This is the only card that comes from the deck without your say — everything from here is your choice.

3. Hold or discard. Mark any of the five to keep. You can hold all five, none of them, or any number in between; nothing about the machine forces a minimum or maximum.

4. Draw. Every card you did not hold is replaced, once, from the same deck minus the cards already dealt. This is the only randomness left in the hand.

5. Settle. The final five cards are scored against the pay table on screen, and any win is paid. Some machines then offer a double-up screen — a side wager on the win you just made, always optional.

Video Poker Terms You Will See on Screen

1

Hold

Keeping a dealt card for the draw instead of discarding it. Marked on screen before you draw; there is no penalty for holding zero, one or all five.
2

Draw

Replacing every card you did not hold, once, from the remaining deck. The only step in the hand you do not fully control.
3

Kicker

The fifth, unpaired card held alongside a four of a kind. On variants like Double Double Bonus, which specific card it is can raise the payout well above the ordinary rate for that four of a kind.
4

Natural Royal

A royal flush made without any wild card. Pays the same as any other royal on a game with no wild cards, and the same top line on a wild-card game as a Wild Royal pays less.
5

Wild Royal

A royal flush completed with at least one wild card, on a game like Deuces Wild or Joker Poker. Pays less than a Natural Royal on the same machine.
6

Sequential Royal

A rare bonus on some machines: a royal flush dealt with its five cards already in on-screen left-to-right order. Not offered everywhere — check the paytable.
7

Quads

Four of a kind — four cards of the same rank.
8

Full Pay

The best publicly known pay table for a given variant. The 9/6 Jacks or Better schedule is the reference example.
9

Short Pay

Any pay table below full pay — the same game, a lower return, usually on one or two specific lines rather than the whole card.
10

Max Coin

Betting the full five credits. Required for the royal flush's top payout (800 for 1) — betting less pays the royal at the same rate as every other hand rather than the bonus multiple.

Before Your First Hand

None of these are strategy — they are the mechanical things a first-time player finds out the slow way.

Max coin changes one payout, not the whole table

Betting five credits instead of four raises only the royal flush line, usually from a smooth 4x jump to a flat 800 for 1. Every other hand pays exactly five times what one credit pays either way.

The pay table is a screen away, and it is the only thing that matters

Every video poker game shows its full pay table before you play. The pay tables page explains what to look at first — for most variants, that is one or two lines, not the whole card.

You are never forced to hold anything

Holding zero cards and drawing a fresh hand is a legal, sometimes correct, move. The machine never requires a minimum number of holds.

The double-up screen is optional

Declining it banks the win exactly as it paid. It is a separate wager on top of a win already settled, not a required step to collect it.

A wild card changes the whole hand, not just the odd card

If the pay table names a wild card — a joker or a deuce — the correct hold changes for the entire hand, not only for cards that could become wild.

How to Play Video Poker FAQs

No. A slot's reels are watched, not chosen — nothing you do changes the outcome. Video poker's hold decision is a real choice with a mathematically correct answer for every hand and pay table, which is what the strategy page is about.

Yes. A wild card changes what a card can count as, and sometimes the deck size (Joker Poker adds one card, the joker), but the deal is still five cards and one draw, exactly as in Jacks or Better.

All five cards are discarded and five new ones are drawn in their place. It is a legal move, and on a genuinely weak hand it is sometimes the correct one.

No. The bet is placed before the deal and is fixed for that hand; only the hold decision happens after you see your cards.