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The world has been introduced to video poker as early as in the 70’s, and its acceptance was made difficult by the competition with poker machines. The reason is that the latter are easy to use, involving a computer instead of a human opponent and obviously there is no need for dealers since the machines automatically mix the cards and deals them randomly.
Despite all this, video poker online had one important thing that machines are lacking – human control over the different stages of the game. When using machines, all possible combinations are known in advance, so calculating the odds and adapting you game accordingly is easy. This is why it took machines some time to be re-legalized in some states.
It turns out that in some internet poker games, a talented player can retain 99.5% or even 100% of his investment in the long run.
You must be asking yourself what casino would want to offer a game that can be beaten so easily. The answer is that most people just don’t know the rules and the right way to play, so they don’t reach such high winning percentages. For the casino, this arrangement pays off as long as there as 4 players who don’t get it right for every 2 players who do get it right.
So how can you beat video poker?
The first thing that you have to learn is the structure of video poker. Most machines nowadays are based on a five-card draw poker distribution and winning is simply decided by the hand that you are dealt.

The road to victory is simply to follow a couple of simple rules of retaining the cards or replacing them according to the dealt hand. When you get a royal flush, a straight flush, four of a kind, full house, or two pairs, the cards should be retained. If, on the other hand, you get three of a kind, the two spare cards should be replaced, in an attempt to reach four of a kind, while leaving the door open for a full house. A straight flush or a plain flush should only be broken when there four out of five cards needed for a royal flush.
Following those simple rules will substantially increase your chances of winning.

When you sit down to a full-to-bursting online poker table, you may be excited at the possibilities presented, but you need to be aware of how the game changes when so many cooks are involved in the soup. There are four progressive categories of preflop hands that you should play in limit holdem games with many players and this piece will go into the reasoning behind each one.

Category One: The Generals
If you’re holding AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, go wild. Raise and reraise with them preflop. Have AA? Put as much money in the pot as you can and keep going. The Big Boys should aways be played with the only exception being if you’re holding JJ or AK and someone is matching you beat for beat, especially if they’re normally a tight player.

Category Two: The Lieutenants
TT, 99, AQ, KQ are all stalwarts of the poker game, but they need help from the board. In general, these hands work better with fewer players in the pot, so you might have to raise to knock people out. Don’t go after these pots too aggressively, mind: jamming the pot can lead to your hemorrhaging chips that you can’t afford to lose, but you want to have an advantage going into the flop. Call one raise in late position unless you know the person who raised is a good player and is likely holding The Big Boys.

Category Three: Enlisted Men
88, AJ, AT, KJ, QJ, JT, QT are all good hands but you want to be careful when you deploy them in play. These are good cards, but you should play these hands more often when they are suited and you’re in a late position that allows you to read the board. If there’s been a lot of action before your turn, you should consider folding because there’s probably a better hand out there, but if everyone has holded to you or there’s just a limper or two sitting there? Don’t be afraid to raise.

Category Four: Back At Base
The fourth category of cards (Ax Suited, K7 Suited, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22, and Suited Connectors like T9, 98, 87, 76, T8, 97, 86) are very different. You want to play these with a large multi-way pot because these hands are likely to miss the flop but these hands can lead to hitting a straight, flush, or trips and you want to get paid, right? With a lot of peep in these pots, you can limp in a bit and stick with them until the turn and river without losing a lot of your chips.

Hopefully, these notes about the different card categories will help you go into longhand tables with a clearer head! Playing in longhand games can help you a lot more than jumping straight to smaller, more intimate tables as you experience a lot of different playing styles and personalities.