Contrasting Video poker and slots
At first glance, video poker machines may look and act like most other traditional slot machines. You often find video poker machines in the same location in the casino as regular slot machines. Furthermore, both slot and video poker machines have a coin slot or bill acceptor, a slot-club card reader, and a payout hopper. That’s about where the similarities end.
People sometimes describe video poker as the thinking man’s slot machine because you actually need some skill to play. Your understanding of poker strategy improves your odds of winning. Instead of mindlessly pulling a handle and praying for three cherries to line up, you call the shots.
What separates video poker from other slot machines is your ability to choose - both the cards you want to play and the types of machines you play on - because different versions of video poker offer different payouts. Your fate in slots lies in the cold, calculating microchip called the random number generator, or RNG. Although the RNG determines your five starting cards in video poker, your outcome has more to do with which of the starting cards you choose to hold or discard than the whims of a microchip’s brain. This decision distinguishes video poker from slots. Your choices make video poker a game of skill — a game that gives you more control over your destiny.
Not only are your choices in playing your cards critical to your success in video poker but also your choice in machines affects your odds. Some machines have better payouts than others — so you definitely want to know how to identify machines with higher payouts and stick with them. (The section “Putting Your Money on the Best Machines,” later in this chapter, spells out how to choose the optimal machines.)
Best online casinos propose to play video slots including video poker.
