It may seem that playing video poker is similar to playing regular slot machines, but in fact the two games are quite different. You begin the games the same way by inserting a coin into the machine and pressing the play button, but this where the similarity ends.

Cards appear on the screen and it’s up to you decide which cards to hold, ranging from none to all five. The choice is yours. There are also five buttons on the front of the video poker machine.

When you push these buttons, the word "hold" will appear above those cards selected. Your objective in video poker is to get the best or highest hand possible. The next thing you do is press the "deal" button and a new set of cards will appear, replacing the ones you chose not to hold. If a winning combination results, the machine will award you with credits based on the payout schedule. After the credits are awarded, the "player paid" sign will appear on the screen. A machine that requires $.25 to play would record each credit as 25, so basically the credits will equal the value required to play the machine. With this hand over, you start the process all over again. You bet how many units or coins you wish to play on the next hand and then hit the "deal" button. When you decide you want to end your video poker session, all you do is press the "collect" button and the machine will give you your credits. The object of the game is to end each round with a winning combination. Betting is quite straightforward with Video Poker. You can typically choose $0.25, $0.50, $1, or $5 games on which to bet. And the bets are 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x, which is the maximum bet. If you're playing a $1 game, you can place bets of $1, $2, $3, $4, or $5.