Contents

Video Poker Cards and Hands

Though video poker is unlike traditional poker in that you’re not trying to beat anyone else’s hand, the meanings of the cards and hands are the same.

Card Ranks

In order from lowest to highest, the rank of cards in video poker is as follows:

Though the ace is normally considered a high card, for the purpose of making a straight, it can be considered high or low—meaning that the ace can precede a 2 or follow a king.

Suit

The suit of a card is the set or class to which the card belongs: clubs, diamonds, hearts, or spades. In poker, no suit is ranked higher than any other.

Wild Cards

Some video poker games, such as Deuces Wild and Joker Poker, include wild cards. A wild card is treated as whichever card would be most valuable in a particular hand. For example, in Deuces Wild, all the 2s are considered wild. In that game, if a hand consists of four 7s and a 2, the 2 will be treated as a fifth 7.

In video poker games with wild cards, the computer automatically determines the value of the wild card so that it gives the greatest advantage to you.

Hand Explanations

Cards of different ranks and suits can be combined to form hands. The hands that you can form in video poker are listed in the following table.

Hand	Example	Comments
Five of a kind		Five cards of the same rank of any suit. You can form this hand only in games that include wild cards.
Royal flush		The 10, jack, queen, king, and ace of a single suit. In games that allow wild cards, a royal flush formed without a wild card gets a higher payout than a royal flush with a wild card.
Straight flush		Five cards of the same suit in sequence. An ace may be considered high or low for a sequence. For example, both A2345 and TJQKA are considered in sequence. However, an ace cannot count as both high and low in a single hand, so QKA23, for instance, is not a straight.
Four of a kind		Four cards of the same rank, regardless of suit. Though the fifth card is usually irrelevant, some video poker varieties, such as Double Double Bonus, give higher payouts if the fifth card is an ace, 2, 3, or 4.
Full house		Three cards of equal rank and two cards of another equal rank—in other words, a combination of three of a kind and a pair.
Flush		Five cards of the same suit. The ranks of cards in a flush are irrelevant in video poker.
Straight		Five cards in sequence, regardless of suit. As in a straight flush, an ace in a straight can be considered high or low, but not both.
Three of a kind		Three cards of equal rank. The other two cards are irrelevant. In the Deuces Wild video poker game, three of a kind is the lowest hand that receives a payoff.
Two pair		Two cards of equal rank and two cards of another equal rank. The fifth card is irrelevant.
One pair		Two cards of equal rank. The other three cards are irrelevant. Most video poker games award credits only for a pair of jacks or higher. Joker Poker awards credits only for a pair of kings or higher.

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer

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Video Poker Basics

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General Video Poker Strategy

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