Video Poker is a Great Teacher and It’s Fun, Too!

One of the top reasons many players like to play video poker here at Springbok Casino is that it involves no bluffing.  There are a lot of poker fans who enjoy watching YouTube videos of poker but if they then try to practice on their own, they have no idea what the opponents might have if they can’t see the cards.

Real poker is a very hard game.  Of all the hardest games people play, poker may be the most difficult because so much is hidden.  Even in chess and GO the entire game is in front of you; in poker so much information is hidden even though five of the seven cards are open to all to see in games like Texas Hold‘Em.

In this article we’ll talk about how you can use video poker at an online casino as a major practicing tool for the time when you’ll be ready to enter the wild world of real poker against real opponents.

Springbok Makes Practice Easy

You can play on our free play platform for as long as you like.  If you prefer putting a wager down, we have become a top no deposit casino because we offer a substantial no deposit bonus to new players.

Quick Thinking

Video poker has one of the highest return to player rates of all online casino games.  Many gamers love to be able to play for a long stretch of time and the total amount they win or lose is quite minimal.  In other words, they play for real money and get a lot of pleasure doing so at very little if any cost.

The best return to player rates come about when we follow all of the top strategies.  This sometimes means giving up a winning hand.  In video poker, you might give up a winning hand in order to try for a really big win as for a straight flush or more.

You need to learn to see quickly what the cards you were dealt mean.  In real poker, there may be seven or more players around the table.  You need to be able to evaluate their behavior even if you can’t see their cards.  Quick observation may pay off an hour or even more later.  It’s the observation that counts.

So, video poker helps you observe.  In real poker, players take their time making decisions.  You might not see other players’ tendencies because they aren’t involved in a pot.  In video poker, you have to evaluate your cards and your options on every deal.  This sharpens your overall awareness for the time when you’ll need to draw on an observation made far back in the past to help you decide what your opponent is doing right now.

Tells

A tell in poker is a complete giveaway of the relative strength of your hand.  It tells your opponents what you are hiding in your closed cards.  Video poker is a great way to practice eliminating tells from your poker game.

Whenever you are dealt a good hand in video poker, your natural tendency is to react physically.  You’ll move in your seat, smile, or otherwise relate directly to your hand.  In video poker that’s totally fine.  In real poker, such reactions are a tell as big as the ocean is wide.

If you want to play real poker, you need to see a fantastic hand and show no emotion whatsoever.  This is very hard to learn.  Some pros such as Daniel Negreanu talk a lot.  Others wear sunglasses because they feel that they have not fully learned how to show no emotion through their eyes.  Others act the part of the victim or the spoiled brat; this is the modus operandi of Phil Helmuth.  In his case, it is often as real as the cards he was dealt.

Play as Practice

We suggest that you set aside a period of time each video poker session to practicing showing no emotion.  It would detract from the enjoyment you get from playing video poker to devote an entire session to working on your tells.  But you can use some of your video poker time to work on them; it will pay off big time if you then move into real poker against live opponents.

Simulate Bluffing

There is absolutely no bluffing in video poker so if you want to get some practice at bluffing or at reading a bluff, you have to pretend.  This is called a simulation.  Simulations are very important in many areas of life.

When we learn to drive we drive with a parent or instructor.  He or she tells us what to look out for, what to look for, and in many cases what to do.  Astronauts simulate flying the space vehicle.  They simulate being at zero gravity.  Airline pilots simulate flying the aircraft and experiencing every imaginable problem that might arise.

We are talking about simulation at a much less serious level.  But if you want to play real poker as well as video poker, you need to simulate bluffing.

The Dealer is Bluffing

Let’s say that you have a good hand and you take a little while—really just a few seconds—to imagine that the dealer has a hand as well.  Now imagine that the dealer has made a bet.  You have to decide if the dealer is bluffing.  It sounds impossible but that is exactly what the top poker players do all the time: they imagine that the opponent who has just bet is bluffing.

Then, if they conclude that the opponent could not be bluffing and has a good hand they fold.

You Are Bluffing

When you bluff, you need to focus on a single object in the room or at the table in order to sell the bluff.  You can’t do this when you’re watching television, cooking dinner, or bathing your kids.  You can only do it when there is no other distraction around you.  Video poker is the perfect medium for practicing bluffing.  Naturally, it will seem odd at first but after you get the hang of it, you’ll see the benefit in imagining a situation and then analyzing it in light of your imagination.

Coming Back to Video Poker

Of course, you might just want to play video poker for the sheer fun of it.  That’s the real reason we offer it.  So have fun playing video poker here at Springbok Online Casino.