Bonus Royals Video Poker

Bonus Royals video poker makes the most coveted hand in the game even more
valuable. That hand, of course, is the royal flush, which occurs when a player
either gets dealt or draws a ten through ace of the same suit. The jackpot
payoff for a royal flush on Bonus Royals video poker jumps to 1000 to 1.

Video poker
players know that the royal flush is a hand that comes around once in a blue
moon, but can quickly make up for everything that came before it. It pays off,
in most versions of the game, sixteen times as much as any other hand in the
game. For that reason, players are often instructed by strategy charts to hold
onto whatever cards that might make up a royal flush, whenever possible.

Bonus Royals video poker ups the ante on the chase for royal flush hands even
further than other video poker games. Most video poker games pay off at 800 to 1
for a royal flush if you are playing the full five coins each hand. But bonus
royals video poker boosts that to 1000 to 1.

That means that there has to be some compensation somewhere lower down the
pay table. In the full-pay, Jacks or Better version of the game, that discount
comes in terms of the flush payoff. That brings the payback percentage down a
bit below the Jacks or Better game.

What you will also find if you are a casino veteran, or if you look on online
gambling sites, is that other versions of video poker can incorporate the Bonus
Royals format on top of their pay tables. And the process is basically the same,
in that the payoff for the royal flush is boosted and other payouts elsewhere in
the pay table are lowered.

In the following article, we will explore the ins and outs of playing Bonus
Royals video poker. We’ll take a look at pay tables, strategies, and how the
game can be incorporated on top of many popular versions of video poker.
Finally, we will explain the advantages and disadvantages of the game, so you
can decide whether or not the game is the right video poker variation for you.

The Basics of Video Poker

The good news about Bonus Royals video poker is that, when you play it, you
don’t need to know anything other than the basics of video poker. On top of
that, the strategy isn’t much different, since most strategic tips for the game
call for you to look for the royal flush anyway. You just need to know the
basics of video poker in order to enjoy this specific variation of the game.

And, if you know anything about video poker, you know how easy it is to play.
You also might know how it does such a great job of incorporating the best
elements of table games and slot machines. That leaves you with a simple game
that you can potentially make good profits from playing it with regularity.

On the one hand, video poker mimics slot machines in the way that it is such
a leisurely game to play. You don’t have to worry about how other patrons want
you to play, as is the case when you’re playing poker or blackjack. Better yet,
you can play at whatever pace suits you, fast or slow.

Slot machines also offer those advantages, but video poker gives you the
opportunity to use some strategy, which you can’t do on the slots. Video poker
also offers you the benefits of probability, which don’t come into play when you play slot
machines. Finally, the payback for the most giving machines approaches 100%,
which stands among the best percentages among all forms of casino entertainment.

So how do you play Bonus Royals video poker? Let’s walk you through it:

1. Set Up Your Bankroll: When you put money into a
   video poker machine, you simply divide the amount that you entered by the
   denomination of the machine to see how many credits, or coins, you will have
   to play. You should judge your bankroll by the length of time that you want
   to play the game.
2. Make Your Bet: It’s highly recommended that you
   the play the maximum bet, which is five credits, on each hand that you play.
   The reason for that is that the playoff for a royal flush is much higher,
   proportion-wise, when you play five credits than when you play one through
   four. If you find that playing five credits every hand is too much for you,
   you should move to a machine with a lesser denomination.
3. See the Deal: You will be dealt five cards, just
   as you would if you were playing with a 52-card deck at home. At that point,
   you will inspect your hand to see if any of the combinations that you have
   make up one of the winning hands on the pay table. You’ll also decide if
   there are ways that you can improve your hand by discarding one through all
   of the cards in your hand, which will be replaced with new ones.
4. Make the Draw: This is the point where you will
   receive cards to replace the ones that you’ve thrown out. Remember that the
   probabilities of your receiving cards will be exactly the same as if you
   were playing with that lone deck at home. Once the draw comes, the hand is
   over and you will receive credits if you have achieved a winning hand.
5. Repeat or Cash Out: At any point after a hand is
   complete, you can cash out your remaining credits. Or you can make your bet
   and start it all over again. If you run out of credits, you would need to
   insert more money to continue playing.

Explaining the Pay Tables of Bonus Royals Video Poker

In most cases, when you encounter a Bonus Royals video poker machine or see
the game online, the pay table that you see will resemble the pay table for the
game known as Jacks or Better. Jacks or Better is the basic foundation of video
poker. It very closely resembles the five-card draw games that you might have
played at home, as the payouts are based on the rankings of hands in five-card
draw.

What is a pay table? A pay table is the chart that can be found on every
video poker machine that lets you know how much you will receive from each
winning hand in the game. It removes any of the guesswork out of the game and
allows payback percentages for video poker to be accurately calculated (more on
that below).

The pay table will also help you decide on strategy. And, in the case of
Bonus Royals video poker, the pay table really comes in handy because there are
many different variations on the game. Looking at the pay table will help you to
distinguish if it’s a twist on Jacks or Better, Bonus poker, or any other game.

For the sake of this discussion, let’s take a look at the most common form of
Bonus Royals video poker, which is a play on Jacks or Better. Here is the
full-pay (meaning that it is the most lucrative on average for the player) pay
table of the game, also known as 9/5 Bonus Royals video poker because of the
payouts for the full house (9 to 1) and the flush (5 to 1).

The column on the left lists all of the hands that will pay something back to
the gambler. Note that the one pair hand only refers to a pair of jacks, queens,
kings, or aces (hence the name Jacks or Better). The row on the top shows you
the bets that you might make, from one through five coins.

If you look at the “royal flush” row, you’ll notice how the payout for one
through four coins comes out to odds of 250 to 1. For five coins, however, those
odds skyrocket to 1000 to 1. That is why, as we noted above, it’s crucial that
you make that five-coin wager whenever you have the opportunity.

Anyone who has ever played Jacks or Better before will see how the pay table
resembles that game. The hands are ranked the same, and most pay out in exactly
the same proportion. But there are a few discrepancies when playing five coins:

To the inexperienced video poker player, that chart might make it look that
there is a huge edge to playing Bonus Royals video poker. After all, in two of
the three hands where there is a discrepancy, the advantage goes to Bonus
Royals. And the margin of the advantage is more pronounced in those cases.

But what you need to realize is that the one hand where Jacks or Better has
the edge in payouts, the flush, comes up much more often than the other two.
Unless you are planning on playing video poker for hours upon hours, the chances
are better than not that you will never see a straight flush or a royal flush.
But you’ll see the flush coming up with relative regularity (once every 90 hands
or so) as opposed to the other two.

As a result, you’ll have to decide whether it’s worth your while to go for
the long shot possibility of a royal or straight flush by playing Bonus Royals
video poker. Barring that, it might be better off to stick with Jacks or Better,
which, as you’re about to see, is actually a better-paying game over the long
haul.

Payback Percentages for Bonus Royals Video Poker

One of the advantages of video poker, as we alluded to before, is that you
can pinpoint the exact amount that a machine will pay you back during an average
round of play. This is done by combining both the probabilities of certain hands
and the paybacks as found on the pay tables. You can’t do this with slot
machines, because there is no probability at play in terms of how often you
manage certain winning spin combinations.

When you see a payback percentage, however, you might realize that it’s an
average estimation. Luck will skew the percentages when you are playing for only
a small amount of time. If you were to play the game thousands of times,
however, the luck would start to even out, and your results would come very
close to the expected percentage.

In the case of full-pay Bonus Royals video poker, the expected payback
percentage comes in at 99.01%. That means, for example, that a player who puts
$10,000 through the machine could expect about $9,901 to remain from that
original money when it’s all played. The house edge of .99% would mean that a
$99 loss could be expected.

Would every player experience those exact results when playing that exact
amount? Probably not, as luck, and the skill of the player, will come into play.
But, at the very least, you can go into a session playing a Bonus Royals video
poker machine, or playing the game online, with a solid notion of what you can
expect.

By comparison, the 9/6 Jacks or Better game we’ve talked about has a slightly
higher payback percentage of 99.54%. That comes from the higher flush payout.

For a small session, you likely won’t notice much difference between the two
games.

Bonus Royals When Attached to Other Video Poker Games

Bonus Royals is a malleable concept that can be used with other video poker
variations. Remember that Jacks or Better is as basic as it comes for video
poker. But there are many other types of games, with their own unique pay
tables, that can be found in casinos or online.

Most common among these are the Bonus games, which usually offer higher
bonuses for four of a kind hands than do Jacks or Better style games. These
games tend to be top-heavy in their pay tables, offering bigger payouts for rare
hands and smaller pays for common hands. They really play to the thrill-seekers
among video poker enthusiasts.

The basic concept of Bonus Royals video poker doesn’t change when applied to
these games, which include Bonus poker, Double Bonus, Triple Bonus, and Bonus
Deuces Wild. There is still a 1000 to 1 payoff for the royal flush.

And there is still somewhere on the pay table where an adjustment has been
made to keep the game from being too beneficial to the gambler. After all, the
casinos don’t want to lose money.

Your best bet is to learn a little bit about these games before you get too
carried away with the Bonus Royals aspect. If you understand how these games
work and want to take advantage of the possibility of an increased payment for
the royal flush, you’ll likely prefer the Bonus Royals video poker version of
all these games.

Strategy for Playing Bonus Royals Video Poker

When we talked above about payback percentages, all of the ones that we
listed were based on perfect play. That means that you can only achieve those
totals if every decision you make while playing the game is correct. But what is
a correct choice? And how do you learn it?

The best way to explain the notion of perfect play might be to track a sample
hand that you might encounter while playing Bonus Royals video poker. Let’s say
you receive these five cards on the deal:

If you have played video poker, or maybe even five-card draw, in the past,
you probably notice that there are two obvious possibilities staring you in the
face with this hand. You have a pair of threes, which leads to the possibility
of a two pair, three of a kind, a full house, or even a four of a kind.

You also have four spades, which means that you need just one more spade for
a flush. And, if you’re really up for a gamble, you could just stick with the
king of spades and hope that you can get the remaining four cards you would need
(ten, jack, queen, and ace of spades) for the high-paying royal flush.

Anything is possible on that single draw, but playing the hand an infinite
amount of times will eventually reveal the fact that holding the four spades for
the flush is the right play. It will give you the best chance at making the most
money off that hand if you received it over and over.

Again, on that single hand, anything can happen. The next two cards on top of
the virtual deck might be two more threes, in which case holding the two threes
that you were dealt would have been the best play. Or the top four cards on the
deck might be the ones that make up the royal flush with the king.

But your best chance for profit on the game is to play the flush, based on
the probabilities and the pay tables. And, in the same manner, there are correct
plays for every single hand you might be dealt when playing Bonus Royals video
poker. But how do you learn them?

There are three methods that we recommend:

1. Free Play. This is the easiest way to get
   comfortable with playing video poker. It will help you learn the basics and
   give you an idea of which cards are best to hold out of certain
   combinations. But you won’t know for sure if you are making the right
   choices on certain difficult hands like the one listed above.
2. Video Poker Training. Software that demonstrates
   the right holds and discards can either be downloaded for free or purchased.
   These trainers will simulate the play as if you were playing video poker for
   real money. Each and every time you play a hand incorrectly according to the
   probabilities, you will be alerted to your mistakes.
3. Strategy Charts. When you locate a strategy
   chart for Bonus Royals video poker, you will see a series of possible hands
   that you might receive on the deal. They will be ranked in order of their
   desirability. By matching these hands to the one that you have, you can tell
   which cards are inessential, compared to the ones that you have, and discard
   them.

Quick Tips for Bonus Royals Video Poker

• Play to the Pay Table: Remember that there are
  many different variations of video poker which might include the Bonus
  Royals boost for the royal flush. It’s important that you dictate your
  strategy to these specific pay tables. The way you play a hand in
  
  Jacks or Better might be far different than what you would do for Triple
  Double Bonus, for example.
• Royals Rule: Most video poker strategy tutorials
  will point you toward looking for the royal flush. In the case of Bonus
  Royals video poker, the royal flush is stressed even more. If you have three
  cards of a royal flush, you really have to go for it, regardless of whatever
  other combinations might be in play.
• Think Twice: Some players might want to burn
  through play at a fast rate, but you run the risk of making ill-advised
  mistakes if you play faster. And you don’t improve your chances any more by
  playing faster, so it’s better to take your time.

Pros and Cons of Bonus Royals Video Poker

Conclusion

Bonus Royals video poker adds even more importance to the royal flush hand.
Hit one, and you’ll be walking on air, and a pile of money, for the rest of your
session. Even if you don’t, the game is similar enough to common video poker
games to easily be enjoyed.