Video Poker is a favored game that usually will be gambled on in casinos around the world, or alternatively at your house on your home computer, through a web account. The rules are very simple and involve the player attempting to achieve the greatest combination of cards achievable in order to acquire money. In this respect it’s much the same as a regular game of poker, minus the involvement with any other players. Of course, techniques employed during a real-life game of poker, such as tricking, will be useless in Video Poker.

The game of Video Poker starts when the bettor puts credits (whether it’s tokens, tickets or money) into the video poker machine and presses the deal button. A five card hand will be "given out" on the video screen.

The Video Poker machine also has buttons with ‘hold’ written on them, and bettors will need to now pick which cards to keep and which to throw away. For the cards the enthusiast would like to retain, the ‘hold’ buttons need to be pressed so that they light up. The player can decide to keep any number of cards they want, from all to none.

After the player has decided on which cards he wishes to keep, the player will then press ‘deal’, which will mean that any fresh cards are needed they will be given out. The game is now finished, with the Video Poker machine analyzing the cards to see if it is the same as any of the winning hands shown on the payment schedule.

Generally, the lowest succeeding hand on a Video Poker machine is a pair of jacks with the award money increasing for each and every better hand. A list of common winning hands begins with jacks or better, moving on to 2 pairs, 3 of a kinds, straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kinds, straight flushes and finally royal flushes. It definitely goes without saying that the payout schedule can change from game to game, so that discerning gamblers are agile enough to choose the most profitable ones each time.

After the initial round has finished, the player can either choose to remain on in an attempt to increase their earnings, or they can press the ‘collect’ button to retrieve any money that might have been won. Further, a few styles of the game give the player a chance to increase their winnings, in which case a further round is played. There are also differences among individual machines, with some decks of cards including wild cards and other differing characteristics to enhance playability.