How video poker works
Deal five, choose what to hold, draw once, and read the result.
Poker hands, without the poker table
Video poker borrows five-card hand rankings, but it is not a game against a dealer or other players. There are no betting rounds, bluffs, community cards, or pots. You make one wager, receive five cards, choose which cards to keep, and get one draw. A fixed pay table settles the final five-card hand.
One hand has three moments
- 1. Deal: five cards come from a shuffled 52-card deck.
- 2. Hold: keep any number of those cards—from none to all five. Every card you do not hold will be discarded.
- 3. Draw: each discard is replaced from the 47 cards that were not in the original deal. The final five cards are matched to the pay table, and the hand ends.
A common first decision: hold the pair of jacks and replace the other three cards. The draw could improve the pair—or leave it unchanged.
You never draw a sixth card. Held cards stay in place, discarded cards cannot return on that draw, and the final result always contains exactly five cards.
Credits, denominations, and the wager
Video poker tables state awards in credits, also called coins. A denomination gives each credit a money value. At a $0.25 denomination, five credits represent a $1.25 wager; at $1, the same five credits represent $5. The card probabilities do not change with the denomination.
Sharper Edge always uses five credits because the supported tables include their maximum-coin royal payout. Its dollars and bankroll are practice counters only: there is no deposit, withdrawal, prize, or real-money wager on this site.
What you control—and what you do not
The deal and replacement cards are random. Your decision is the hold. Because every possible hold leads to a different set of final hands, some choices return more on average than others. Video poker strategy is the work of finding that highest-average choice for the exact cards and pay table in front of you.
A correct hold can lose and a poor hold can get lucky. That does not make the first decision wrong or the second one right. The learning path will keep decision quality separate from the card that happened to arrive.
Try it at the table
Open a practice hand of 9/6 Jacks or Better. Hold cards by clicking them, then draw once. 'Show after draw' feedback explains the choice after the result.