Video Poker Terms

Below are some defintions for the terminology and jargon used when referring to video poker.

Action - This is simply how much you are wagering, and a casino will utilize this information to work out how many comps to bestow on you.

Bank - There are two meanings of this word, the first is the display on the video poker machine showing how much you have in the machine by way of credits/winnings, and the second meaning is how a casino will describe a row of machines.

Bankroll - This is how much money you have set aside as your gambling budget.

Bonus Poker - This is one of the many different video poker game variants, each variant will have a different pay table and payout structure.

Coin In - This is simply inserting a coin into the video poker machine, you do this via the coin slot on the front of each machine.

Comps - Based on how much money you have played (irrespective of whether you have won or lost) the casino will give you a proportion of this back as way of a loyalty type scheme.

Cycle - This is a way of describing the amount of time it will take you to be dealt every single permutation that are available in playing a game of video poker.

Deuces Wild - This is another video poker game variant, again it has a unique pay table and in this game all of the two cards (known as deuces) are wild and will therefore stand in for all other cards.

Expected Return - This is how much you will be expected to win based on the pay table of the video poker machine, in the majority of cases this will be less than 100%.

Expert Play - This is when you play a video poker machine to optimum strategy, by holding and/or discarding the cards dealt to give you the best chance of a winning final hand.

Face Card - These are any of the picture cards dealt out on a video poker machine, these being either the Jacks, Queen or Kings.

Full Pay - This is when a video poker game is, due to its pay table, programmed to return the maximum amount back to players.

Hopper - This is a bucket shaped device that holds all of the coins inside a land based video poker machine.

Jacks or Better - The most common and well known video poker game. Many other games are varients of this main game.

Joker Poker - Another video poker game variant in this game there is an additional card in the deck which is a wild Joker.

Pay Table - This is printed on every single video poker machine, and it will show you every single hand ranking possible on that machine along with how many coins you will win based on how many coins you are staking.

Progressive Jackpot - This is an ever growing jackpot paid for getting a certain video poker hand, several machines are all interlinked with a small amount of everyone's stakes going into the jackpot. This prize will keep on rising until such a time that one person hits the jackpot.

Rank - This is the status of each group of cards, on a video poker machine the highest hand ranking is often the Royal Flush and the lowest ranked hand is often a pair, the pay table will alert you to each individual video poker machines specific hand rankings.

Random Number Generator - This is the device that ensures you are receiving a totally fair and honest game when playing video poker, it simply churns out a series of completely random numbers.

Short Pay - This is a video poker machine that does not pay out the best it can due to its configured pay table, and therefore offers bad value for players.

Wild Cards - Many video poker game variants have cards which are wild, meaning they can and do stand in for any other card and will help to complete winning combinations.