A Guide to Understanding the Terms in Video Poker

If you are new to our online casino South Africa you may find commonly used terms like edge, payout rate, 9/6 and inside straight a bit bemusing.  Don’t panic!  You can find easy explanations of tricky video poker terms at Springbok Casino.  Your next step?  To learn to play like a pro… and we can help you with that too!

Here is a list of the words that crop up frequently in video poker guides, articles and blogs – including the ones published right here at the best online casino South Africa:

9/6 – in the world of video poker, the 9/6 version of Jacks or Better and other popular variations is the one with the lowest house edge.  The actual numerals refer to the payouts for a full house and flush respectively on a one-coin wager.  The term is usually used in conjunction with full-pay – as in Jacks or Better 9/6 full-pay.  It is exceedingly rare to find any online casino South Africa that offers a 9/6 full-pay game.

Bonus pays – At Springbok Casino we feature several variations of video poker, some of which offer extra ways to win over and above the traditional poker rankings.  These extra ways to win are posted on the paytable as bonus pays aka payouts.  Bonus Deuces Wild for instance has six bonus pays – 4 deuces with an ace, 4 deuces, wild royal flush, 5 aces, 5 x 3,4 or 5 and 5 x 6 to K – all of which are linked to the fact that deuces are wild.

Bet max – when you play video poker the first tip you learn is to bet max.  That means betting five coins in the denomination of your choice on every round.  Why?  You will find all the video pokers at our online casino South Africa offer a 4,000 x jackpot prize for a royal flush … but you have to bet max in order to qualify for the mega-win!

Coin wager – in video poker you can bet one up to five coins per round – hence the term one- to five-coin wager.

Draw – you have one opportunity to create a better poker hand by discarding the cards you do not want and drawing replacement cards.  The phrase ‘holding one, two or three cards to the draw’ means you are discarding four, three or two cards and getting fresh ones from the ‘dealer’.

Drawing hand – the original five-card hand you are dealt at the beginning of a round.  As it stands it is not a winning hand and has to be improved at the draw.

Double or Nothing – in the single hand versions of all the video poker variants at Springbok online casino South Africa you have the option to double the payout after each win.  You either ‘win’ or lose based on the card you select. 

Gamble feature – another term for the optional Double or Nothing feature described above.

House edge – the theoretical advantage the casino has over players.  It is quoted as a percentage, varies from game to game and is the counterbalance to the average return to player (RTP) or payout rate.  It basically refers to what percentage of all the bets placed on a particular video poker variant over the long term is retained by the casino as profit.

Hold – when the initial five cards you are dealt do not create a winning poker hand, you can try and improve your chances by keeping some of the cards and discarding the others.  You do this by clicking on the cards you want to hold.  The dealer – which in the context of the online casino South Africa is really the computer software – deals replacement cards.

Inside Straight – you need just one card in the middle of four consecutive unsuited cards to form a straight, as in 7-8-10-J 

Multi-hand – at Springbok Casino you can play video poker in the single hand and multi-hand modes.  What that means is you can play up to 52 hands at the same time.  Your total stake obviously increases but so do your chances of winning at least something on every game round.

Odds – the payouts in video poker may appear as single numbers on the paytable but they are actually a representation of the odds.  In Jacks or Better, for instance, a high pair pays 1:1 – or even money – while a royal Flush pays 250:1… that is a win of 250 coins in exchange for a one-coin wager!  The odds are a reflection of the probability of hitting a particular poker hand and that obviously means it is a lot easier to get a high pair over a royal flush.

Outside straight – the opposite of inside straight.  The required card is at one or other of the ends of a potential straight run.

Probability – the chance that a particular event will occur based on the number of possible outcomes.  The odds posted on the video poker paytables at our online casino South Africa imply probability.  The higher the odds, the less likely it is to achieve that particular outcome – be it hitting a four of a kind or a royal flush.

Payout rate – the portion of all the wagers that is paid out to players over time.  It is diametrically opposed to the house edge and differs from one video poker variant to the other.  Payout rate is used interchangeably with the average return to player or RTP.

Strategy – you can lower the house edge in video poker when you learn how to play the game in the theoretically perfect way.  You will find there are defined strategies available online that correspond with all the video poker games featured at Springbok Casino.

Volatility – an expression of the expected fluctuations in fortune in a particular video poker game.  The higher the volatility the greater the swings are between hot and cold streaks and the greater your bankroll has to be to weather the swings.  Variance is almost identical in meaning but it actually measures the volatility of a game and assigns a statistic to it.

Now that you know the lingo associated with video poker, why not read our gambling tips and guides.  When you do register a real money account at the best online casino South Africa – and we encourage you to sign up at Springbok Casino right away – you will be more than prepared to play video poker online… and win!