Which Form of Poker is Best?
Poker is a very popular game at Jackpot Capital Casino. The two most popular types of poker are video poker and Caribbean Poker. In this article, we will talk about the three Caribbean Poker variations and the basic video poker game which is called Jacks or Better.
At the end, you as the gamer will decide which poker game is better for you!
The Fun Factor
This is always an important aspect of any game. Most people like to play board games or table games with friends or family. These don’t have to be betting games; in fact, they rarely are betting games. They just need to be games.
Games manufacturers bring out many new games every year. Just a few pass the fun factor for new players. There are many games that kids seem to like that are dull and boring and generally not interesting to adults!
A few games go on to become classics. We all know a lot of games that have stood the test of time and have wide a following from 6 to 100 (which is the new 60!). Games are a popular birthday present for kids and adults. Such is the power of games!
We would like to say upfront that we are talking about video poker and Caribbean Poker under the assumption that both have passed your individual fun factor.
What Attracts Gamers to Video Poker?
The first idea is that video poker allows gamers to play poker without needing to deal with opponents! An opponent might bluff you out of a winning hand. Poker also requires players to know at least the bare minimum of poker math. Players who do not like doing the math often end up at video poker.
Video poker is based on five card draw poker. One of the great attractions of video poker is that you don’t play against other players and you don’t play against the dealer. You play against the paytable.
At first look, the video poker paytable is quite straightforward. In Jacks or Better, you get a 1-1 payout for a high pair which is a pair of Jacks or better; ergo the game’s name!
So, a lower pair will fail to win money for the gamer.
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The Most Obvious Strategy in Video Poker
At first, a new video poker gamer would hold onto a winning pair in all cases. At this point, we get to the high return to player rate and the paytable. When a gamer places the maximum bet on all games—a lot of video poker gamers like to play multi-hand games—he or she qualifies for the big extra payout for a Royal Flush.
A Royal Flush is fairly rare; it happens about once on 40,000 hands.
That sounds like it is very rare indeed. However, if a gamer plays multi-hand video poker with 100 hands, and they play 40 rounds in a gaming session, then they will have played 40,000 hands in only ten days! A Royal Flush does come up in video poker!
Video Poker Has Several Counter-intuitive Strategies
In order to achieve the 99.5% return to player rate in video poker, a gamer has to learn the basic strategy for the game. There is also an advanced strategy that adds a very small extra benefit to the player. Basic strategy in video poker is long enough and it returns 99.5% of all wagers back to the player so it suffices for excellent video poker play.
Playing for a higher hand and a larger payout often requires a player to discard a winning pair! The best example is when you have four cards to either a Royal Flush or as high straight flush.
With either the Royal Flush draw or the straight flush draw, you nil have one or more high cards that you might pair and win. But you also have the chance to win with a Royal Flush, a straight flush, a flush, or a straight. You have many outs when you discard a 1-1 win and go for a much higher win!
Knowing the counter-intuitive strategies will raise your game tremendously!
Caribbean Poker Presents Exciting Strategy Challenges
There are three Caribbean Poker variations: Caribbean Draw, Caribbean Stud, and Caribbean Hold’em. In Caribbean Draw both the player and the dealer can draw up to two cards. In the other Caribbean Poker variations, there is no draw and the cards as dealt determine the winner of the hand.
There are a couple of basic rules in all three of the Caribbean Poker variations:
- The player makes an ante bet.
- After cards are dealt, the player has to decide whether to “call” or fold. If she folds, the house wins the ante bet. If she calls, she places a second bet that is double the ante.
- The house can’t win unless it “qualifies” which differs from game to game.
- If the house qualifies, the player will either win both the ante and the call bet or will lose both.
- If the dealer doesn’t qualify, the player will win the ante bet if he or she called.
- The pay scale in all Caribbean Poker variations is graduated; there is a higher payout for better hands.
The best strategy in Caribbean Poker is to never fold. There are some statisticians who say that in Caribbean Stud, the player should fold anything less than an ace-king hand.
How Does the Dealer Qualify?
In Caribbean Draw, the dealer needs at least a pair of eights. In Holdem, the dealer needs at least a pair of fours, and in stud, the dealer needs at least an ace-king hand.
If you call and the dealer doesn’t qualify, you win the ante and the call bet is a push.
You can have a worse hand than the dealer and still win if he doesn’t qualify! That’s the main reason most evaluators say that the best strategy is to call all the time.
The dealer will qualify about 52% of the time in Caribbean Draw. The rate is higher in Hold’em.
Which Game is Better?
Some players are big fans of the Caribbean games while others love video poker. The return to player rate is about 99.5% in video poker, assuming the player always uses the best strategy, and it is about 95.5% in Caribbean Poker.
So, the return to player rate would seem to indicate a preference for video poker. However, there is also the entertainment factor and many gamers prefer the Caribbean games over video poker!
One thing we know for sure: if you want to play these great games at Jackpot Capital, you have to JOIN JACKPOT CAPITAL ONLINE CASINO!
