Video Poker's Pay Table and Hand Frequency
If a gambler wonders how a poker player is able to determine the expected return of their game from a video poker machine, the answer is found on the pay table displayed on a conspicuous space on the video poker machine.
As the popularity of the video poker machine grows, many poker gamblers are able to appreciate playing poker while knowing about the expected return of their games prior to playing.
One can find out whether a particular video poker machine is paying a 100% pay back or lower than this percentage range. Since video poker machines differ in payout tables, the pay table displayed on each video poker machine provides the player a better idea which machine is profitable to play at.
It is of relevance to note that for every 52 card deck used for playing the video poker game the player will have millions of hand combinations possible to occur. The poker player is able to acquire knowledge as to the expected returns of playing a hand along with information on video poker hand frequency and probabilities as stated on the video poker machine's pay table.
The casino is able to adjust the payback of their video poker machines based on the hand frequency and probability that each poker hand to occur. For each specific hand there will be an average video poker hand frequency that the player needs to play in order to obtain hitting a winning hand.
For a royal flush to occur it takes a hand frequency of 40,000 hands to be played by the player, 9,148 for a straight flush, 423 for 4-of-a-kind, 45 for a full house, 30 for a flush, 20 for a straight, 15 for 3-of-a-kind, 10 for 2 pairs and 5 for jack or better.
The video poker payout is significantly adjusted according to the hand frequency of a hand to occur. The hand with the video poker hand frequency that likely to occur more often are given the lowest payout as displayed on the video poker machine's pay table. In a contrast manner, the poker hand that least likely to occur often is given by the casino the highest payout to win.
A player gets the highest payout from a video poker machine when they pay for the maximum coins which are commonly set at 5 coins. With this maximum bet one can win as much as 4,000 coins for the royal flush and 250 coins when a player bet for only a single coin.
Winning 4,000 coins from a maximum bet for the royal flush as an example will always require a player to play at least an average of 40,000 hand frequency to win.
Although playing the maximum coins give a bigger payout to a player, one should consider the hand frequency required to play a hand before realizing the chance to hit this pay out.
This is an important aspect of playing video poker that should be considered by a poker player when setting their bet on a video poker machine.