How to Play Movin’ On Up Video Poker

Movin’ On Up video poker is the perfect game out there for everyone who believes in second or third chances. In the game, you can make an extra bet to give you just that. Depending on how much you bet, you can get either two or three draws for each hand, and each of those draws will pay separately if they are winners.

Video poker is a game that’s fun and easy, whether you play in casinos or at online betting sites. If you only know the game casually, you might only know about Jacks or Better. That’s the basic format of the game, and it involves players trying to make the best possible hand with a deal and a subsequent draw which allows them to discard some cards and have them replaced with others.

For some people who crave excitement, the gameplay for Jacks or Better can get a tad stale. And it also limits the amount of money that you can win on a single hand, making only the rarest of possible winning hands lucrative. You really have to grind out your winnings playing Jacks or Better.

But video poker manufacturers have created a slew of different games based on basic video poker with interesting twists added for excitement and more big-payout potential. Bonus pay tables are one way this is achieved. Movin’ On Up video poker gives you access to most of the top pay tables.

In addition, there have also been many video poker games created with extra twists on basic gameplay. Movin’ On Up video poker falls into this category as well. Like most of these games, it requires you to make an extra bet to use the feature, which makes the game a little expensive.

The trade-off is the extra twist, which produces excellent opportunities for winning. You’re getting two or three draws instead of just one. You can keep building your initial hand with these extra draws into even better and higher-paying winning combinations.

You will get paid for potentially two or three payments for each hand instead of one. It also increases the chances of walking away from a hand with some winnings. You get to revise your cards until they come out a winner.

The drawback of Movin’ On Up video poker is the cost. You have to bet 10 extra coins to get a second draw and 25 extra coins to get a third. That is a pretty significant commitment of funds, with no guarantee that any of the extra hands will produce a winner to help you compensate for this.

In the following article, we’ll give you the lowdown on Movin’ On Up video poker. We’ll talk about playing basic video poker, then explore the special twists that are added on to this game. And we’ll look at strategies for the game as well as its advantages and disadvantages.

Learning Video Poker

Video poker is a game that combines many of the best virtues of both slot machines and table games. Like slot machines, it is usually found in casinos well away from the hustle and bustle of the table game section. You can play the game at your own leisure without having to worry about your pace or answer for the decisions you make.

Like table games, video poker gives you the opportunity to affect the outcome using a strategy. It also lets you know what you can expect from the game, since the results are based on probabilities. And you can tell how much each machine will pay you on average based on the probabilities and the payback amounts listed in pay tables.

It’s a great game for beginners because it is very easy to learn. Hardcore gamblers love it because it rewards skill and takes some of the guesswork out. For all of those reasons, many people choose video poker as their gambling diversion of choice.

Movin’ On Up video poker complicates things a bit when you add in the extra twist. But first, you need to know how to play the most basic form of the game. With that in mind, let’s walk through a basic hand of video poker, so you can play the right way before getting into variations like Movin’ On Up video poker.

Step 1: Your Bankroll

To establish your bankroll, you simply need to put money into a video poker machine. If you are playing online, you’ll need to create an account at an online gambling site. Your money or funding will be registered on the machine as credits, or coins, with each credit or coin being equal to the denomination of the machine you’re playing.

Denominations can range from low amounts like a penny to higher amounts like a dollar. To know how many credits you’ll have, you have to divide the money that you’ve entered by the denomination. For example, $10 in a nickel machine will give you 200 credits (10 divided by .05).

Step 2: Your Bet

Many video poker games with an extra feature still give you the option of playing the game without a twist. Movin’ On Up video poker requires you to play either the Double Draw version or the Triple Draw version. For the Double Draw version, you’ll need to bet 15 credits for every hand (the maximum five plus a 10-credit bonus), while the Triple Draw game requires a 30-credit bet per hand (the maximum five plus a 25-credit bonus).

As for which one you should bet, it depends on the pay table that you choose. Some of the video poker variations (Jacks or Better, Double Bonus, Jokers Wild, etc.) will pay more in the Double Draw game, while others pay more in the Triple Draw game. The difference is pretty negligible, so it’s best to concentrate on choosing pay tables that have the highest paybacks per hand, then decide on Double Draw or Triple Draw based on what you want to risk and what you want to win.

Step 3: Your Hand

If you’ve ever played the card game known as five card draw poker at home, you’ll immediately recognize the rhythm of play in video poker. You get a five-card deal, followed by the chance to draw more cards after discarding others. The goal in video poker is to create the best possible winning hand.

What are the winning hands? Well, they will occasionally change depending on whether or not the game includes wild cards. But for the most part, these are the hands that will you earn you some money back playing video poker:

• Pair of jacks of 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)

The top hand in this list is the easiest to achieve and pays the least. As you move down the list, the hands are more difficult to achieve, but they pay more. In other words, in video poker, rarity is lucrative.

When you make your bet in a normal video poker game, you will receive five cards which you can see on the machine. You will then assess those cards to see if they make a winning combination or have the potential to do so. Here is what a sample deal might look like:

This deal is a winner as it is, since you already have a pair of jacks. If you were to keep the jacks, you could discard everything else and maybe improve it on the draw, which will come from the same deck you were dealt. For example, you might end up with two pair, three of a kind, a full house or, if you get really lucky on the draw, four of a kind.

You can also take the chance of throwing out one of the jacks in an effort to make a different winning hand. For example, you can keep everything but one of the jacks and go for a straight. Or you can keep the three hearts and have an outside chance at either a flush or a straight flush.

Once you make your choice by pressing the buttons of the cards you wish to hold, your draw will take place. If you had a winning hand, you will be rewarded with the corresponding credits. You can keep playing or cash out your winnings at any time.

That’s basic video poker for you, and it’s something that you should be able to pick up in once you get the hang of what makes a winning hand. Now that you have that under control, you can move on to Movin’ On Up video poker and the exciting feature that gives you multiple chances to win.

Playing Extra Draws on Movin’ On Up Video Poker

Despite the name, Movin’ On Up video poker doesn’t have anything to do with George Jefferson and the ‘70s sitcom built around his escapades. Instead, as we said above, you will have the choice of playing either Double Draw (two draws) or Triple Draw (three draws).

Let’s look at an example of both:

Double Draw

Let’s say that you bet 15 credits, giving you the right to a second draw. You receive this on the deal:

Nothing there to start, but you do have two high cards, which you decide to keep. On the draw you receive the following:

That gives you two pair. Assuming that you’re sticking with a Jacks or Better pay table, that gives you a payoff of 10 coins, since you’re automatically awarded the maximum wager payoff in Movin’ On Up video poker. In normal video poker, you would be done with this hand.

But since you’ve paid for the Double Draw, you go through the decision-making process again, using the hand that you just made as a base. You hold on to the two pair, and end up with the following:

Now, you’ve made the full house on this draw. That’s a 60-coin payoff in the Jacks or Better pay table on Movin’ On Up video poker. You made a total of 70 coins on the two hands, for a 55-coin profit (70 minus a 15-coin bet).

Considering that you would have only made a five-coin profit on this hand playing most forms of video poker, you can see how profitable Movin’ On Up video poker can be. And that’s just the Double Draw. Let’s see what can happen in a Triple Draw game.

Triple Draw

As we said above, to activate the Triple Draw feature in Movin’ On Up video poker, you have to bet a total of 30 coins. Let’s say that you did just that and have once again chosen the Jacks or Better pay table. Here is your deal:

You decide that you want to keep the queen of hearts and ace of hearts going forward. On your first draw you receive:

The first draw is a loser. But you can now move into your second draw with this as your base hand. You decide to keep the four hearts and hope for a flush, then get this draw:

That gives you the flush that you were hoping for, and a payoff of 40 coins. But that isn’t the end. You still have a third draw coming down the pike.

The easiest thing to do would be to keep the hand as is, which would net you another 40-coin payout for the flush. You would just hold all five cards and the draw would essentially be a repeat. But you could also go away from it and take a chance.

After all, you are just one card short of a potential royal flush, which is the highest-paying hand in the game. You can then decide to drop the three of hearts and go for it. After all, you know that you already have a win in the bag, which might make you go for the big score.

Let’s see how the draw could turn out:

You didn’t make the royal flush. But you did get a pair of queens, good enough for five coins in return. The total win for the three draws is 45 coins, which nets you a 15-coin profit on top of the 30-coin bet.

One thing you should note about the extra draws: They come from a deck made of 47 cards, the original 52 minus the five cards in your base hand. If you are in the second or third draw, you could conceivably receive a card that you threw back from the original deal. It’s something you have to consider when you’re thinking of the possibilities of making certain winning hands.

Hopefully, these will show you the usefulness of the extra hands. If you get a great deal, you can really amplify your winnings by fine-tuning that hand through two or three draws (or just leaving it be if you’re dealt a winning hand right off the bat). And if you get a poor deal, you have a better chance of improving it through multiple draws.

Pay Tables for Movin’ On Up Video Poker

In addition to the extra draws, Movin’ On Up video poker also gives you a bonus in that you can choose among many different video poker pay tables. This will allow you to tailor the pay table to the style you like to play. You can go with a basic Jacks or Better format, find a Bonus pay table for bigger payoffs on rare hands, or play the game with wild cards.

Here are the different variations of video poker available to you under the Movin’ On Up video poker umbrella:

• Jacks or Better
• Bonus Poker
• Bonus Poker Deluxe
• Double Bonus
• Double Double Bonus
• Triple Double Bonus
• Deuces Wild
• Deuces Wild Bonus
• Joker Poker

Many of the pay tables in the Movin’ On Up video poker version are much different than if you found them individually in casinos or online. The pay tables have been adjusted to make them competitive for the Double and Triple Draw format and the size of the bet. Here are some of the pay tables available for you in Double Draw:

Jacks or Better Pay Table

Coins/Hand	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	25	50	75	100	125
Full house	12	24	36	48	60
Flush	8	16	24	32	40
Straight	5	10	15	20	25
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pairs	2	4	6	8	10
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

Bonus Poker Pay Table

Coins/Hand	1 Coin	2 Coins	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal flush	200	400	600	800	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)	45	90	135	180	225
Four of a kind (any other)	20	40	60	80	100
Full house	10	20	30	40	50
Flush	8	16	24	32	40
Straight	5	10	15	20	25
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pairs	2	4	6	8	10
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

Double Double Bonus Poker Pay Table

Coins/Hand	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 aces without any 2,3,4	400	800	1,200	1,600	2,000
Four 2s, 3s, or 4s, without any A,2,3,4	160	320	460	640	800
Four aces	160	320	460	640	800
Four 2s, 3s, or 4s	80	160	240	320	400
Four 5s through Ks	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 pairs	1	2	3	4	5
Pair of jacks +	1	2	3	4	5

Deuces Wild Pay Table

Coins/Hand	1 Coin	2 Coins	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1,000	4,000
Four deuces	200	400	600	800	1,000
Wild royal flush	25	50	75	100	125
Five of a kind	17	34	51	68	85
Straight flush	13	26	39	52	65
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

Now, let’s a look at some of the pay tables for Triple Draw:

Jacks or Better Pay Table

Coins/Hand	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	25	50	75	100	125
Full house	12	24	36	48	60
Flush	8	16	24	32	40
Straight	5	10	15	20	25
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pairs	2	4	6	8	10
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

Bonus Poker Pay Table

Coins/Hand	1 Coin	2 Coins	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal flush	200	400	600	800	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)	45	90	135	180	225
Four of a kind (any other)	20	40	60	80	100
Full house	10	20	30	40	50
Flush	8	16	24	32	40
Straight	6	12	18	24	30
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pairs	2	4	6	8	10
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

Double Double Bonus Poker Pay Table

Coins/Hand	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 aces without any 2,3,4	400	800	1,200	1,600	2,000
Four 2s, 3s, or 4s without any A,2,3,4	160	320	460	640	800
Four aces	160	320	460	640	800
Four 2s, 3s, or 4s	80	160	240	320	400
Four 5s through Ks	50	100	150	200	250
Full house	8	16	24	32	40
Flush	5	10	15	20	25
Straight	5	10	15	20	25
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pairs	1	2	3	4	5
Pair of jacks +	1	2	3	4	5

Deuces Wild Pay Table

Coins/Hand	1 Coin	2 Coins	3 Coins	4 Coins	5 Coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1,000	4,000
Four deuces	200	400	600	800	1,000
Wild royal flush	25	50	75	100	125
Five of a kind	15	30	45	60	75
Straight flush	13	26	39	52	65
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

The good news is that these pay tables will all return you over 99% of payback. That means that you’ll be losing less than 1% of what you put into the machine during an average session. That is something you can usually make up by getting casino rewards for playing for a decent amount of time.

There are some pay tables within the Movin’ On Up video poker family that pay you above 100%. Any payback over 100% removes the house edge. A gambler can expect to make their money back and then some when playing at a machine with perfect strategy.

Keep in mind there are also pay tables which pay you less than the ones shown above. The best way to tell is by looking at hands like the full house, the flush, and the straight. Those are the hands that will usually be discounted as a way of dropping the payback percentage.

In any case, you have a lot of options when it comes to pay tables on a Movin’ On Up video poker machine. Try to pick one that fits your style of play, then you can try to find a pay table that pays you the best out of those different variations.

Video Poker Strategy for Movin’ On Up

The best way to reach the highest possible payback percentage is to play the game with perfect strategy, but learning how to do that isn’t easy. Movin’ On Up video poker can be difficult because of the extra draws.

You’ll find lots of tools about how to play a single draw of the various pay tables above. But the extra draws raise a lot of different variables. The play you make on a first draw might not make sense on a second or third draw.

First of all, you should learn how to play basic hands of video poker correctly. To do that, we suggest taking advantage of one of the following two methods of instruction:

• Video Poker Training Software: You can adjust the software based on the pay table you’re going to play. Then, you will play hands as if you were playing for real money. Every time that you make an incorrect play in terms of your holds and discards, you will be alerted as to what the right play should be.
• Strategy Charts: These can be found in plenty of online sources for the different variations of video poker above. You have to compare your hand to the listed combinations of cards on the chart, find the best combination in your hand, and discard everything else. If you can memorize the strategy chart, you can play perfectly.

Once you have that down, it might just come down to common sense and feel. Using the example we showed you above for the Triple Draw, it makes sense to take chance to go for the royal flush since you already made the flush the hand before. If you hadn’t made the flush, you might be inclined to play it a little bit safer.

If you really wanted to do so, you could simply play every draw according to the chart or the software. That would make things a little easier on you in terms of your decision-making. But it might not appeal to those who like to take some chances now and again, so be flexible if it fits your style.

Pros and Cons of Playing Movin’ On Up Video Poker

Conclusion on Movin’ On Up Video Poker

Whether you find it at your local casino or as part of a top gambling website, Movin’ On Up video poker might just be what you’re seeking if you find yourself wishing you could do more with winning hands in basic video poker. You’ll also love it if you get frustrated when you just miss on a winning hand, since you can get a second or third chance. Just be prepared to pay significantly for those privileges!