What You Should Know About Virtual Reality Video Poker

Poker was born at the beginning of the 19^th century in the United States. It went on to become the most popular card game (according to Best US Casinos) and produce many successful variations, such as video poker.

We can certainly say that poker has come a long way ever since the first time it was played. In fact, taking advantage of all the fantastic technological advancements there are today, players can already enjoy video poker in a virtual reality setting.

Virtual reality video poker

Over the last few years, we have witnessed tremendously fast developments in the world of virtual reality. Now, some casinos have joined the revolution and offer virtual reality games. And video poker was one of the first to go through the upgrade.

Equipped with a VR headset and the compatible gambling platforms, any player can be immersed into a realistic and interactive casino experience. To add to the fun, everything in the game is happening live.

Of course, there are still many improvements to be made and virtual reality video poker is not something that is already widely available in casinos worldwide. But it is still an impressive step towards more digital and customized casino gambling.

The realistic features

In these VR video poker settings, gamblers can even explore the tables and their surroundings almost as vividly as they would in real life. You can talk to the dealer and engage in conversations with other virtual players at your table.

Body gestures and behavioral expressions are accurately realistic.

We guess we’ll just have to wait to see how much more VR video poker will evolve in the near future.

2 Interesting Facts and Figures Collected from Video Poker Infographics

Both regular and video poker games are relatively complex and require a good level of skill from the gambler. Video poker games are now more and more the trend in casinos and online.

So, it’s only natural that a bunch of infographics with facts and figures to aid preparation and strategy swirl around the web. From those insightful infographics, we selected two pieces of knowledge we think you should know.

Hand values

In video poker, hand values are very similar to regular poker, but there are slight differences. The pay table of a video poker game shows you a list of hands from highest to lowest.

It is basically a chart that lets you know how much any given hand pays off. The curious thing is that there are cases in which a hand that would be better in regular poker is not as strong in the video version.

Let us illustrate with an example. Some variations of video poker games have a feature called bonus poker. In bonus poker, you get a bonus based on your 4 of a kind.

But while in traditional poker the hand is increasingly stronger as the rank of the cards in the 4 of a kind is proportionately higher, that is not necessarily what happens in video poker.

For instance, 4 of a kind that consists of 2s or 3s can have a bigger payoff than a hand made up of 9s or 10s. And this is just an example of the subtle differences between video poker and old-fashioned poker.

Do you want to know another quick one? The kicker simply doesn’t impact the game in video poker. To demonstrate, two jacks with a 5 kicker are just as good as two jacks with an ace kicker. The payout is exactly the same.

Calculating the payback percentage

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You only need two pieces of information to be able to calculate the payback percentage in video poker. What are they? The payoff of a certain combination and the probability of getting that combination. We will teach you how to do it.

Let’s use as an example of a game of 9/6 Jacks or Better. In this game, the payoff for two jacks or higher is 1 to 1. The probability of having that combination in hand is approximately 21.5%. Then, you just need to multiply 1 by 21.5%. Very simple, right? You get a 21.5 payback percentage.

Now let’s try the calculation for two pairs of jacks or higher. The payoff is 2 to 1 and the probability of ending up with that hand is 12.9%. Well, 2 x 12.9% gives you a payback percentage of 25.8%.

You can apply this multiplication for every hand in the game as long as you have the two fundamental pieces of information.

When you’re finished, add up all the expected percentages. The result is the overall expected payback percentage for the round, which in the case of the 9/6 Jacks or Better game is slightly above 99.5%.

You need to be as knowledgeable as possible about video poker. And the many infographics you can find online are a great tool for you to be some steps ahead of the other gamblers.