The 10 Video Poker Mistakes to Avoid to Increase Odds of Winning
Video poker often offers players one of the lowest house edges at the casino, benefits it requires both patience and persistence. Unfortunately, beginning and intermediate gamblers frequently make the task even more difficult by committing one or more mistakes. This has a major impact on your long-term expected return, and it can mean the difference between winning and losing during a period of play. Here are the The 10 Video Poker Mistakes to avoid.
In order to help you fight these annoying video poker errors, we have compiled a list of the most frequent blunders and offered solutions for how to avoid them.
Video Poker Mistakes to Avoid
1. Not joining the Slots Club
Whether you’re playing in Las Vegas, Macau, or one of the numerous other casinos around the globe, it’s likely that a player’s club card will be available to you. All you have to do is sign up, get your free card, and then insert it into the machine just before playing.
This allows the casino to track your wins and losses, as well as your overall playing preferences. It also helps them decide who might be a valuable long-term customer, which often results in coupons and comps being delivered through the mail.
Video poker players experience lengthy dry spells while waiting for the next royal flush payout, so promos and freebies have a major impact on their overall success.
2. Not ready to grind
If you’re serious about winning at video poker, you’ve got to be willing to play thousands upon thousands of hands. It is grinders who are going to stand the biggest chance of making a profit. This is one of the The 10 Video Poker Mistakes.
Just remember a royal flush usually turns up about every 40,000 hands. Are you willing to play through the other 39,999 in order to get it? If you can wait up to this time, you are the best fit to play this game, or else video poker isn’t the game for you. In fact, you might want to quit the casinos entirely and just start buying lottery tickets.
3. Drinking at the casino
Casinos are more than happy to offer free alcoholic beverages to their patrons. Why? Because when players start drinking, they make more errors than usual. Even if you’re not feeling the effects of the alcohol, you can rest assured that it’s working internally to slowly dull the effectiveness of your brain. Stick with sodas, coffee, and water; your bankroll will thank you in the long run.
4. Not checking the pay table
The pay table tells the player what to expect from the game in terms of potential prizes, and it’s the most vital piece of available information. It also happens to be free, assuming, of course, that you bother to look at it.
It is strange at the number of players who put money into a machine without searching the information staring them in the face. Casinos often put seemingly identical machines in a bank, although their pay tables can differ a great deal from one game to the next.
When you’re playing a specific game, you always want to choose the machine that offers the largest possible winnings. You should not do this without examining the pay table, so always make this your first order of business before sitting down.
If you do decide to partake in a few mixed drinks, always wait several hours before getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. I know this isn’t really related to gambling, but it’s hard to enjoy video poker if you get blind stinking drunk and subsequently get killed on the highway.
5. Improper bankroll management
Bankroll management is a necessary skill for the serious gambler, and failure to guard your money can result in devastating losses and a quick exit from the casino.
Before you play, always decide on how much money you’re willing to lose. If you reach that level during the session, stop playing immediately. The worst thing you can do is continue, especially if it means dipping into money that’s earmarked for essentials like rent and insurance.
6. Fail to practice
Once you’ve started committing the proper plays for a game to memory, you’ll need to give your brain some help through the time-honored tradition of practice.
The best option is to make a series of flashcards. Put a certain hand on one side of the card, then list the proper play on the back. Consult these cards whenever you have some free time, always striving to commit their details to memory.
The second option needs a modest investment, but it’s well worth it in the long run. Buy yourself a video poker trainer, which is a product that allows you to play through an unlimited number of VP hands. You’ll also be graded on your overall accuracy, and it’s suggested to stay away from the real thing until this number has surpassed 95%.
7. Failure to risk maximum coins
The ultimate objective in most video poker games is the royal flush, and you’ll usually need to risk the highest possible number of coins to be eligible for the bonus payout. You may have to miss a decent payment if you decide to play four coins instead of five. This is one of The 10 Video Poker Mistakes to avoid.
8. Not playing the most lucrative machines
Before taking a trip to a casino, you should do some serious online research and locate the most potentially profitable video poker machine on the premises. Once you’ve located the game, learn the ropes and find the corresponding strategy for perfect play.
Once you’ve accomplished the tasks above, either make yourself a strategy card or set about memorizing the proper plays for every possible hand. When you arrive at the casino, this combination of preparation and scouting should place you in the best possible position for success.
9. Avoiding Progressives
Some gamblers play only progressive machines, while others avoid them like the plague. The smartest move lies somewhere in the middle of these two schools of thought.
In most cases, progressives do tend to pay out at a lower rate than other video poker or slot machines. However, if you encounter two otherwise similar machines and one of them offers a progressive jackpot, you’d be wise to give it a try. Just wager the maximum number of coins per hand.
10. Failure to learn the right strategy
The proper strategy is the core of long-term success at . By making the best possible moves based on your initial draw, you put yourself in the strongest position to complete with a winning hand. It doesn’t matter if this is done with memorization or a strategy card, just as long as you do it.
Synopsis
Making a consistent profit at the casino is not easy. Most gamblers unwittingly make things more difficult for themselves. The most common video poker mistakes can usually be corrected. These are The 10 Video Poker Mistakes.
Even if you’ve been committing the same video poker errors for years, it’s never too late to make a change for the better. So, avoid the above mistake and you should experience more wins and a greater sense of enjoyment.
