Guide to Lucky Stud Draw Poker Video Poker

Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker gives players who like elements of Stud Poker and Draw Poker a chance to play both. You’ll get a normal video poker hand to act as the basis for each round of play. But you’ll also get the chance to play up to four hands of Stud Poker with multipliers involved.

Most forms of video poker are based on the game known as Five-Card Draw Poker. In that game, you get a five-card deal, but you’re not stuck with it. You get to discard cards from your deal and have them replaced with others from the deck to make the best possible hand.

But when it comes to Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker, you get a taste of both Stud and Draw Poker games. To play the game at its most involved level, you’ll need to make a wager of 50 coins. That bet gets you one normal video poker hand, four hands of Stud Poker, and the chance to earn multipliers.

If you make that wager, you’ll see five lines of five cards on your screen. The top four will be the Stud Poker hands. And the bottom hand will be the one you play as if it were a normal video poker hand.

When you win any of the “stud” hands, you’ll earn payback based on special pay tables. These pay tables generally pay more for each winning hand. After all, a stud hand can’t be changed from the original deal, so it won’t be easy to achieve great winning hands.

In addition, any time you win one of the stud hands, a multiplier will be added to the hands below. It’s conceivable that you could end up with multipliers as high as five times your normal payoff once you get to the bottom. And those multipliers will be applied to all the stud hands on the way to that point, depending on how many of those hands are winners.

The key to earning big in Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker is to rack up as many wins as possible in the stud rounds. Then, combine that with a nice winning hand in the video poker hand at the bottom and your bankroll could see a huge boost. And that doesn’t even mention the huge jackpot payments.

In the following article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the game known as Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker. We’ll show you how to play basic video poker and also talk about the stud rounds and the multipliers. We’ll go into strategy and different pay tables available to you.

Learning Basic Video Poker

Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker combines two popular forms of poker into one fascinating package. When it comes to the stud rounds, there really isn’t much you can do to affect play. You’ll just make your bets and hope for the best hands to come your way.

But the draw part of Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker basically correlates to the video poker played by millions. And that’s the part of the game you’ll need to learn how to play, and play well, to maximize your winnings. Before embarking on this version of the game, it’s a good idea to learn the basics.

And you should also take some time to understand why video poker is beneficial to gamblers. In many ways, it combines slot machines and table games in a way that’s easy to learn and very lucrative.

Here are just some of the advantages to video poker:

• You can learn to play it in no time at all. If you have a background in poker, gameplay will come naturally. But even complete newcomers shouldn’t have any trouble getting up and running at a video poker machine in no time.
• You can find many different varieties to play. Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker represents just one of many interesting variations available to you in casinos and as a part of online gambling sites. Play never has to get stale in video poker because of these different games.
• You don’t have to get any help from anyone else to play video poker. It’s just you and the machine. No need to learn protocol or casino etiquette to deal with employees or other patrons.
• You can use strategy to affect gameplay. Video poker isn’t just mindless button-pushing, like slot machines are. The better you play, the better your chances at winning big.
• You’ll be able to use the probabilities of a 52-card deck to help you make decisions. These probabilities will also clue you in to how often winning hands will show up. And they’ll let you judge one game against the next because you can use them to calculate payback percentage.
• You can expect very competitive payback when playing video poker. Most video poker games will pay back more, on average, than the average slot machine. And you can also expect payback in the neighborhood of the best table games as well.
• Video poker is a great game to play online. You’ll find no difference in the experience of playing the game in a casino or playing it as a part of a real money online casino. That makes video poker extremely convenient.

All of those things are working in your favor when you play video poker. But first, you have to learn to play. Here’s a how-to guide, which teaches you how to play Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker.

Step 1: Create a Bankroll

Because of the size of the bets involved in Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker, you should consider building a sturdy bankroll. If playing at a machine, you’ll start up a bankroll with the money you insert into the machine. When playing online, you’ll need to fund a gambling account at the website of your choice.

Your bankroll will show up on your screen in units known as credits or coins. Each credit or coin will be equal to one unit of the denomination that you’re playing. Some machines have the denomination set, while others let you choose.

As an example of how this system works, imagine that you get a hand that wins 10 credits on a 25-cent machine. That means you’ve won $2.50, since 10 times .25 equals $2.50.

Step 2: Make a Bet

Normal video poker games require a wager of anywhere from one to five coins. But Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker adds to that by including a five-credit requirement to add the multipliers to the action. In addition, you’ll need to bet on all of the hands you want to play.

If you choose to play Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker as if it were just a normal video poker game, wager between one and five credits. This will allow you to play the bottom hand without playing any of the stud hands. There won’t be any multiplier involved either.

If you bet 50 credits, you’ll get all five lines of poker (the one draw hand on the bottom and the four stud hands above it). In addition, you’ll unlock multipliers which get higher for each stud hand that you win. This is the best way to play Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker, since it creates the opportunity to reach the highest possible payback percentage.

Step 3: Play a Hand

As we said above, four of the five hands of Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker will be stud hands, which means you get whatever you’re dealt and can’t improve it. But the bottom hand is played like a normal video poker hand. That’s the part you can affect with your decisions and strategy.

For the most part, video poker plays out like Five-Card Draw poker, a popular table game. You get a deal of five cards then try to improve that deal by discarding certain cards and drawing new ones. The difference in video poker is that you just have to make a winning hand that’s listed on the pay table instead of trying to beat multiple players at a table.

The hands that are deemed to be winning hands vary from pay table to pay table. But, for the most part, these are the combinations you’ll be trying to achieve when playing Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker:

• Pair of jacks or better
• Two pair
• Three of a kind
• Straight (five cards of consecutive rank, like 3-4-5-6-7)
• Flush (five cards of same suit)
• Full house (three of a kind and two pair in the same hand)
• Four of a kind
• Straight flush (straight with five cards of same suit)
• Royal flush (ten, jack, queen, king, and ace of the same suit)

As you move down this list from top to bottom, the payback will rise because the hands at the bottom are more difficult to make. Meanwhile, the hands at the top might come up often during play, but they don’t pay that much.

The first thing that will happen when you make your bet and press the deal button is five cards will appear on your screen. In the case of Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker, they will appear at the bottom of five rows of cards. You’ll be trying to make the best possible hand out of this deal.

To help you out, you get to discard any or all of the cards that you have. The discarded cards will be replaced by others from the deck. As for the deck, it contains 52 cards, but only 47 for the draw.

That deck is always being shuffled by the software inside the machine. As a result, you’ll always get deals and draws that are completely random. Your chances of getting a specific card never change, no matter what might have happened on the machine in past hands.

When you decide which cards you’re going to hold and which ones you’re going to discard, you have to consider your chances of making a winning hand based on what’s left in the deck. You also should be taking into account how much payback the winning hands you’re considering seeking will fetch you.

Once you make your choice, you’ll press the buttons corresponding only to the cards you want to hold. If you don’t want to hold any of them, you’ll just hit the draw button. Keep in mind that you can also hold all five cards if you have a winning hand that you don’t think the draw will improve.

When you hit the draw button, the software will draw cards to replace the ones you’ve discarded. That will complete the hand. Any winnings you’ve achieved will be added to your bankroll.

When you play Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker, you’ll follow this process to play out the bottom hand. From there, the machine will do the rest in terms of the stud hands and the multipliers. Let’s take a look at how that process works.

Multipliers and Stud Hands

As we said, the 50-coin wager in Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker entitles you to one hand of basic draw video poker and four hands of Stud Poker. The Stud Poker hands have special pay tables attached to them separate from the draw tables.

In addition, the 50-coin wager gives you the opportunity at multipliers. The multipliers will pike on top of one another if you get several winning stud hands. Stud Poker means that you’re receiving five cards on the deal but there’s no way to improve the hand. You’re stuck with what you get.

As for the multipliers, they start at 1x at the top of the five hands. A 1x multiplier just means you end up with whatever your original winnings would have been. Any number times one equals that number.

But once you get a winning hand, the multiplier goes up to 2x for the hand below it. Each time you get a winning stud hand, the multiplier goes up by 1. You can max out with a 5x multiplier that would be applied to the draw poker round at the bottom of the Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker screen.

Let’s take a look at the whole process in action for a 50-coin wager in Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker using a Bonus Poker pay table. Imagine that you receive the following five cards for your deal on the bottom hand:

hamsterFour of Clubs, Four of Diamonds, Five of Hearts, Six of Clubs, Seven of Clubs

You have to make a choice about how to play this hand. Some of the options include keeping the pair of fours, keeping the four through seven and going for a straight, or sticking with the four, six, and seven of clubs and hoping for a lucky draw to a straight flush.

For the sake of our example, let’s say that you decide to hold the pair of fours. The draw will take place after the four stud hands are revealed, starting at the top. All five hands will come from separate decks, so it’s possible to see the same card in more than one of your hands.

Let’s imagine that you receive the following five cards for Stud Hand #1:

You made a straight. We’ll get to pay tables in a second, but, for now, know that the payoff for this hand on the Bonus Poker pay table with a maximum wager is 75 coins. Great start!
You’ve also pushed the multiplier up to 2x for Hand 2. Let’s take a look at that deal:

You didn’t receive a winning combination there. No payout for that hand, and the multiplier stays at 2x for Stud Hand #3. Let’s see that deal:

You made a pair of fives, which does qualify as a winning hand on the Stud pay table for Double Bonus, returning you five coins. But remember that the multiplier is 2x. Your pay is thus 10 coins (2 times 5).

In addition, the multiplier jumps to 3x for Stud Hand #4. Here is that deal:

Nothing there. No payoff and the multiplier stays at 3x. Now, we move on to the draw hand at the bottom.

Remember that we held on to a pair of fours. Let’s see what we get on the draw:

You drew a full house. Normally, the pay for this hand on the Bonus Poker draw pay table is 35 coins. With the 3x multiplier, you ended up with 35 times 3, or 105 coins for that bottom hand.

Adding up the 75 coins from Hand 1, the 10 coins from Hand 3, and the 105 coins from the bottom hand, you end up with 190 coins in winnings that round. Subtract the 50 coins wagered, and you end up with a 140-coin profit.

As a comparison, if you were playing single-hand Jacks or Better video poker, the only way you could win at least 140 coins would be to make a royal flush or straight flush, the two rarest hands in the game. You were able to manage that in Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker without getting anything higher than a full house.

Of course, not all rounds of Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker will turn out like that. There will be times where you end up with no winning stud hands and, therefore, no multipliers to boost the draw hand. You might also have times when you get some multipliers but can’t match them up with winning hands.

Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker will be a game that swings drastically between impressive winning streaks where your bankroll soars and painful losing streaks where it craters. You have to prepare yourself for that by building up a solid bankroll. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing your bankroll too soon before a big winning round like the one above can pull you back up.

Pay Tables for Lucky Stud Draw Poker Video Poker

Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker allows you to choose from some of the most popular pay tables in the entire realm of video poker. The difference is that you also get exposure to a Stud pay table for each of those variations as well.

As an example, let’s take a look at the highest-paying pay table for Bonus Poker on a Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker machine.

Bonus Poker Pay Table

Coins/Hands	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1,000	4,000
Straight flush	50	100	150	200	250
Four of a kind (aces)	80	160	240	320	400
Four of a kind (2s, 3s, or 4s)	40	80	120	160	200
Four of a kind (any other)	20	40	60	80	100
Full house	7	14	21	28	35
Flush	5	10	15	20	25
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pairs	2	4	6	8	10
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

Now, let’s look at the Bonus draw pay table that goes with it.

Coins/Hands	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	5000	10000	15000	20000	25000
Straight flush	1000	2000	3000	4000	5000
Four of a kind (aces)	400	800	1200	1600	2000
Four of a kind (2s, 3s, or 4s)	250	500	750	1000	1250
Four of a kind (any other)	200	400	600	800	1000
Full house	34	68	102	136	170
Flush	22	44	66	88	110
Straight	15	30	45	60	75
Three of a kind	9	18	27	36	45
Two pairs	3	6	9	12	15
Any Pair	1	2	3	4	5

As you can see, the hands pay much more on the Stud pay table than the Draw table. It shouldn’t be hard to figure out why. You can make a winning hand much easily with a deal and a draw than with just a deal alone.

Below are the other draw pay tables available to you on a Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker machine.

Bonus Poker Deluxe Pay Table

Coins/Hands	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Straight flush	50	100	150	200	250
Four of a kind (aces)	80	160	240	320	400
Full house	8	16	24	32	40
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pair	1	2	3	4	5
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

Double Bonus Poker Pay Table

Coins/Hands	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Straight flush	50	100	150	200	250
Four of a kind (aces)	160	320	480	640	800
Four of a kind (2s, 3s, or 4s)	80	160	240	320	400
Four of a kind (any other)	50	100	150	200	250
Full house	9	18	27	36	45
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	5	10	15	20	25
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pair	1	2	3	4	5
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

Double Double Bonus Poker Pay Table

Coins/Hands	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Straight flush	50	100	150	200	250
Four aces w/ any 2,3,4	400	800	1200	1600	2000
Four 2s, 3s, 4s w/ any A,2,3,4	160	320	480	640	800
Four aces	160	320	480	640	800
Four 2s, 3s, 4s	80	160	240	320	400
Four 5s through Ks	50	100	150	200	250
Full house	9	18	27	36	45
Flush	5	10	15	20	25
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pair	1	2	3	4	5
Pair of jacks +	1	2	3	4	5

Triple Double Bonus Pay Table

Coins/Hands	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Straight flush	50	100	150	200	250
Four of a kind – aces 2, 3, 4 kicker	800	1600	2400	3200	4000
Four of a kind – 2s, 3s, or 4s A, 2, 3, or 4 kicker	400	800	1200	1600	2000
Four of a kind – aces 5s – Ks kicker	160	320	480	640	800
Four of a kind – 2s, 3s, or 4s 5s – Ks kicker	80	160	240	320	400
Four of a kind – any other	50	100	150	200	250
Full house	9	18	27	36	45
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
Three of a kind	2	4	6	8	10
Two pair	1	2	3	4	5
Pair of jacks +	1	2	3	4	5

Super Aces Video Poker Pay Table

Coins/Hands	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Straight flush	60	120	180	240	300
Four of a kind (aces)	400	800	1,200	1,600	2,000
Four of a kind (2s, 3s, or 4s)	80	160	240	320	400
Four of a kind (any other)	50	100	150	200	250
Full house	7	14	21	28	35
Flush	5	10	15	20	25
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pair	2	4	6	8	10
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

Deuces Wild Pay Table

Coins/Hands	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Four deuces	200	400	600	800	1000
Wild royal flush	20	40	60	80	100
Five of a kind	12	24	36	48	60
Straight flush	10	20	30	40	50
Four of a kind	4	8	12	16	20
Full House	4	8	12	16	20
Flush	3	6	9	12	15
Straight	2	4	6	8	10
Three of a kind	1	2	3	4	5

Deuces Wild Bonus Pay Table

Coins/Hands	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1000	4000
Four deuces with one ace	400	800	1200	1600	2000
Four deuces	200	400	600	800	1000
Wild royal flush	25	50	75	100	125
Five aces	80	160	240	320	400
Five 3s, 4s, or 5s	40	80	120	160	200
Five 6s through Ks	20	40	60	80	100
Straight flush	13	26	39	52	65
Four of a kind	4	8	12	16	20
Full House	3	6	9	12	15
Flush	3	6	9	12	15
Straight	1	2	3	4	5
Three of a kind	1	2	3	4	5

You might find other pay tables that don’t pay quite as much as these tables. The best way to identify the lesser pay tables is to pay attention to the payoffs for mid-priced hands like the full house and the flush. These are the hands that are often discounted on lesser pay tables.

You’ll also note that there are pay tables known as Deuces Wild and Deuces Wild Bonus on Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker machines. These games allow any twos in the deck to be “wild.” That means they can be turned into any card in the deck that improves your hand the most.

Video Poker Strategy

When playing Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker, you’ll have your chance to exert your strategy on the bottom hand, which is the Draw Poker round. Your choices of what to hold and what to discard will ultimately determine how well you do playing the game. Ideally, you can make the mathematically correct choice for every possible deal you get.

There can be occasions when you get away with making the wrong choice. After all, anything can happen on the draw. But making the wrong selections eventually lower your potential payback and raise the house edge.

As we said above, you won’t have any control over the Stud Poker part of Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker. Your chances of getting winning hands in the stud rounds are set in stone. That will impact the multipliers and your ultimate payback.

But the bottom-line draw hand will also make up a big part of your potential winnings. After all, the multipliers will be at their highest when you get down to the bottom line. Making the most of those multipliers will be crucial to your overall results.

The only change in strategy you might consider making when you play Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker is to play it a bit safe when you have a high multipliers in play. You might not want to go for a long shot, high-paying hand when you can draw much more easily to a low-paying hand. After all, the multiplier will only have an effect if it’s attached to a winning hand.

As for learning the rest of the strategic plays that will help you max out your winnings playing Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker, we suggest taking a couple of steps to get yourself some assistance. First of all, decide which pay table you want to play with regularity. That will narrow down the information you have to learn.

The next thing you should do is take advantage of one of the following two resources for learning video poker. Each of these strategic aids have already done all the math that goes into making the right plays in Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker. You just have to learn them. See our recommendations below.

Video Poker Training Software

The software can be tailored to work for any pay table available in Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker. All you have to do is input the correct figures for the pay table you plan to learn. That will allow you to learn the information that’s pertinent to how you wish to play.

When you use video poker training software, you’ll play out sample hands as if you were playing for real, with a bankroll and everything. Each time you make a mistake in terms of what to hold and discard from a specific deal, the software will alert you. It will then show you the right play.

Video Poker Strategy Charts

Video poker training software will teach you all the right plays after working with it for a while. But strategy charts offer you a quicker fix to learning which cards to hold and discard. Once you have the chart memorized, you can then use the information whenever you play the game for real.

Video poker strategy charts rank all of the possible combinations of cards you can receive on the deal based on their expected value within the pay table you’re using. You’ll look at your own hand to see which is the highest-ranked combination of cards that you have. And in this way, you’ll know which cards are valuable and which can be disposed of in every single hand you play.

Pros and Cons of Lucky Stud Draw Poker Video Poker

Advantages of Lucky Stud Draw Poker Video Poker

• Stud hands offer some of the highest payback in all of video poker
• Multipliers can take certain winning hands and make them much more valuable
• Access to many top pay tables

Disadvantages of Lucky Stud Draw Poker Video Poker

• Extremely expensive to play
• You don’t have any control over the stud hands
• The size of the bet makes the game very volatile

Conclusion on Lucky Draw Poker Video Poker

Lucky Stud Draw Poker video poker gives you a little bit of everything in one video poker machine. You can enjoy the hands-off rounds of Stud Poker while still making decisions on the draw round. Put them both together with winning hands and the monetary rewards can be quite impressive.