Video Poker and Table Poker: What Are The Differences?

Video Poker Pay Tables

Players can check the financial return of video poker titles by checking the listing of the payouts for every hand combination and coin on the particular machine. However, casinos tend to affect the payout odds, making them looser or tighter, primarily by manipulating how many coins one can win on specific pay categories.

This mainly refers to four-of-a-kinds, full houses, and flushes. Straights and three-of-a-kinds also differ from game to game. Generally, the full house/flush numbers are the key to figuring out the machine’s payback percentage and whether you can profit by playing it.

Since each video poker has a different pay table, you must understand and learn how to compare them. Video poker pros only exploit the machines that offer no less than a 99% return. Even if you are new to the game, you shouldn’t waste your money on anything that provides less than 97%. For example, Jacks or Better pays nine coins for a full house and six for a flush, so look for the machine that offers that ratio.

Video Poker Jackpots

Video poker machines often come with progressive jackpots, allowing players to win big, even on relatively small wagers.

Jacks or Better video poker games have some of the best progressive jackpots around, but you will only have a chance at winning if you utilize the right strategy. The only problem is that those machines usually feature unfavorable pay tables. Thus, you should first find those that offer competitive ones.

Remember to always play maximum coins for the royal flush to qualify for the progressive jackpot. This is the top hand in most video poker variations, typically paying off 800x for five coins. If you wager anything less than that, the payout will always be 250x. Thus, the royal flush jumps from the $1,000 payout for four coins to $4,000 for five.

However, one must know that the chances of winning a video poker jackpot (royal flush) are astronomically high — 1:649,740.

House Edge in Video Poker

House edge illustrates how much money the house keeps over time.

Most games are purposefully designed to give the casino an advantage. However, the house isn’t always the only one to benefit from video poker.

For instance, in a casino game with a 99.54% payback, the house edge will be 0.46%, which is one of the lowest.

Generally, video poker has a house advantage that ranges from 5% to almost 0.5%. And it is even negative in some games, such as Deuces Wild, the house edge is -0.76% based on its RTP of 100.76%.

Skill Is Essential

Compared to video poker, table poker requires skill. Poker pros invest years into studying game strategies, and this is because it is a game of skill in the long run. For instance, a good player will eventually win against weaker players.

Thus, the more you train yourself, use the tested strategies, learn how to read and understand people, and make the most out of hand, your skills will pay off over time. There are always high-stake decisions to make in table poker, such as buffing, raising, and calling. So, before making each move, you get to consider multiple scenarios and outcomes in your head to make the best possible decision.

Table Positions

Your table position heavily influences your poker strategy. There are four sections at the poker table, each with its own pros and cons. They are the blinds, early, middle, and late positions.

Early positions, including the small blind, big blind, and under the gun, are the most unfavorable ones, as players have a very tight opening range and little informational advantage.

The middle position allows players to open a wider range of hands, but it must be controlled because more players are left to act.

Late positions (hijack, cutoff, and button) are the most profitable. The cutoff and button are favorable as they also offer a steal opportunity (to open extremely weak hands with the chance of winning the blinds).

Betting Structure/Limit

Table poker betting can be structured in a variety of ways. The most common are the following three structures:

• No limit — Players may bet all their chips when it’s their turn.
• Pot limit — Players can bet or raise to the total pot size.
• Fixed limit — Betting and raising require fixed amounts.