If you've always been unsure about sitting down at a card tale with other poker pros and trying your hand, you'll enjoy playing video poker. This is a game that's designed for those who want the fun of poker without the ubiquitous card shark. Since the interaction in video poker is mainly between you and your computer, there's no risk of getting cheated.

Video poker has its origins in the Liberty Bell slot machines that Charles Frey introduced in 1899. These machines had playing card symbols replaced by horse shoes, bells etc. It was 1970, before the first Video Poker game as we know it, was introduced. The very first video poker machine called the Poker-Matic machine became a popular fixture across casinos in Las Vegas. As gaming became big business in the eighties, the popularity of video poker increased dramatically. Those who found the earlier players-around-card-table astrosphere suffocating reveled in the freedom of playing with a machine.

Today, there are many different versions of video poker and the game itself has had its playing quality highly enhanced by the use of technology. The Internet made it possible for people all over the world, to have access to video poker, and it has been online that the growth of the game has boomed.

How to Play Video Poker

Video poker pits man against machine, so basically you have to gain the winning hand over the machine.

First up, chose the poker game that you want to play and decide the number of coins that you want to enter into the slot. The minimum number of coins is one and the maximum is 5.
Make your choice and then press the "deal, draw" button.
The machine will then give you the first 5 cards for your draw. Decide which ones you want to keep, and select that card by pressing the hold button. You can choose to hold as many or as few number of cards as you wish. It is recommended that you hold all the good cards and get rid of the others.

Select the "Deal" button again to get replacements for the cards you decided not to hold. This is the last time your cards are replaced. The payout screen is updated to let you know how much you've won. How much you win depends on how high you decide to wager.

Like its card table version, video poker is a game of skill mixed with a little luck. Stick to a couple of variations of game and learn them inside out to excel at them and increase your winnings.