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Poker is all about hand ranks. If you don’t know what you are holding, you are defeated even before you start playing! And in order to wager wisely, you need to know which hand is the best and which is the worst in terms of payouts. Here is a ready reckoner:

High cards: This hand does not contain any pairs, straights or flushes. For this reason it is referred to as Garbage. If this is the case, your first card is compared to the first card of other players. The hand which contains the highest first card among all hands wins. It is considered the worst hand due to the low payouts attached to it. However, the odds of being dealt such a hand is very high — 50.12% –so just cross your fingers and hope for the highest first card as well!

Pair: Two cards of the same value (e.g. 9-9) along with three kickers (unmatched cards) is known as a pair. Payout wise this hand ranks better than high card but the chances of being dealt a one pair hand is a less, 42.27%.

Two Pair: This hand consists of two separate pairs (e.g. 4- 4 and K-K) with one kicker. The possibility of drawing hands with two pairs is just 4.75% but this hand is still considered good as the payouts are decent.

Three-of-a-Kind: It includes three cards of the same value (e.g. 6, 6, 6) with two kickers. With odds of just 2.11%, the chances of drawing such a hand is less but the payout is good.

Straight: Five cards in a sequence but not of the same suit (e.g. 8-9-10-J-K of different suits) is known as a Straight Poker hand. The probability of getting a straight is 0.39%.

Flush: Any five cards of the same suit but not following any sequence is a Flush (e.g. 4-7-10-J-2 of spades). The probability of being dealt a flush is 0.20%.

Full House: It comprises three of a kind along with a pair (e.g. 8-8-8-A-A). The probability of dealing a full house is 0.144%.

Four of a Kind: It includes all the four cards of the same value with one kicker (e.g. 4-4-4-4-10) and the odds of winning this hand is 0.024%.

Straight Flush: It has five cards in sequence and of the same suit (e.g. 4-5-6-7-8 of clubs) with 0.00154% chances of drawing it.

Royal Flush: And here we finally introduce you to the best Poker hand that is possible and that comprises an Ace, King, Queen, Jack and a 10 of the same suit.

So next time you play online poker, RECOGNISE a good or bad hand when you see one.

I am really passionate about video poker…now! But this was not always the case. In the beginning, I was over-cautious and played a single hand –hesitant to wager a lot, afraid to lose and not daring enough to take risks. Gradually, I started playing online video poker, but still stuck to the one-hand option. Once — it was by sheer mistake –that I clicked on the three-hand option while playing Jacks or Better. To my utter surprise, I bagged a Royal Flush. In all my years of playing the game, I had never once managed to get a maximum payout.

It was not as if I was ignorant of the rules of the game. I always knew that to play video poker I was required to bet a certain number of coins to get dealt five cards. I also knew activating the maximum bet would ultimately trigger larger payouts on the higher-ranked hands. However, I stuck to the minimum bets and played a “safe” game, under the mistaken notion that not losing much was akin to winning.

I would of course have my moments of joy and entertainment. The game is such that anyone will derive some pleasure for sure. For instance, I loved it when I got a Two Pair or a Jacks or Better. That was quite a frequent occurrence. Three-of-a-kind was a bonus for me, and Straight, Flush , Full House and Four-of-A-Kind were very rare. A Straight Flush was a distant dream, leave alone a Royal Flush.

Looking back, I think I played the game mechanically –I chose cards to hold, and drew poker cards to replace other cards without strategy and planning. Some video poker games which had the wild card option –maybe a two, a seven or a Joker – were my favorite. As they acted as substitutes for any card, it made my game easier. But a single hand was all I could handle.

After my Royal Flush win, I began to opt for multi-hand video poker more often. I soon realized that

I could play with 10 , 52 and 100 hands. The results were awesome and I really felt I was maximizing my chances of winning.

Soon, I became a votary of multi-hand video poker and now waste no time in advising others to go for it. True, Jacks or Better or Deuces Wild are known for a relatively higher payout percentage –they even touch 100% at times –but in my opinion trying multiple hands on any video poker game affords greater chances of winning. If you ask experts, they would probably say the odds are the same. But then I think one should also trust one’s intuition and take risks.

Have you ever played video poker? Try it for sheer excitement! Played online or on computerized consoles in casinos, it is pretty much like poker with winning hands like Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a- Kind and what have you! Players have an equal chance to win or lose. Many experts and professional video poker players have come up with strategies that claim to fetch a guaranteed win. These are invariably based on mathematical calculations that supposedly predict the outcome of the ‘draw.’

However it is a known fact that the hand that appears in a Poker game is random and cannot be related to the previous or the next hand. A randomness of a hand in video poker refers to the fact that there is an equal probability of any of the cards to be chosen when the ‘draw’; button is clicked. This “randomness” is decreed by law and online casinos have embraced a sophisticated random number generator (RNG) software to ensure true random selection and display of cards from a virtual deck.

The dilemma of Video Poker is whether the cards drawn are really a random occurrence or a randomness “controlled” through a manipulated RNG. Controversial as it sounds, such a thing is yet to be proved, but it does not stop many an unlucky player from suspecting the worst. Those who have suffered long spells of bad streaks have taken the trouble to record moves and outcomes, noted the winning combinations and matched patterns with probability theories. As the randomness of video poker hands remain random, the strategies vouched for by experts often go out the window and accusatory fingers are pointed.

Take for instance, Rob Singer, a professional and experienced Poker player, who played the game for nearly two decades before formulating his opinion based on empirical evidence and independent verification. In his study, he kept a track of the number of times he was dealt two pair, an open-end straight and four-to-a-flush, and recorded how many times he drew cards that completed a full house, a straight or a flush. After playing at least 30000 rounds, he concluded that hand outcomes were not as often as they should have been in a random machine. He is intent on proving that poker hands are not based on random outcomes but on ‘hot-and-cold-cycles’ in the machine Well, all the best to him, but me thinks one man’s randomness is another man’s losing streak and yet another’s winning streak!

As the debate continues, and as long as players are in a dilemma over the the randomness or certainty of the draw, interest in video poker will continue to grow.