Guide to Playing Nevada Bonus Poker Video Poker
Nevada Bonus Poker video poker features somewhat different pay tables than what you might expect from regular Bonus Poker machines. In particular, the machine rewards three of a kind or four of a kind hands made with aces much more handsomely. To compensate for the higher real money payouts on three and four of a kinds, the game skimps on payback for a common hand at the bottom of the pay table.
Video poker stands as a casino game that rewards excellent strategy while still being relatively easy to play. It also features excellent payback compared to other games of chance that you might find in a casino or at a top gambling website. In reality, it combines the best elements of slot machines and table games.
Many people know video poker from the most common form of the game known as Jacks or Better. This game features a basic pay table that rewards hands in proportion to how difficult they are to achieve during the course of gameplay. Jacks or Better usually becomes the first video poker game that most learn when they’re first learning how to play.
Once you get past the learning stage, you might crave a little bit of a different spin on basic video poker play. One area where Jacks or Better video poker is lacking is that it gives you precious few opportunities to make a lot of payback on a single hand. Instead, you have to play video poker for a long period of time to grind out small winning amounts.
The Rise of Bonus Poker Games
Eventually, video poker manufacturers created bonus-style video poker machines. Bonus Poker boosts the payback for four of a kind hands to the point where they’re often second only to the royal flush in terms of pay. But you can envision coming up with four of a kind, whereas royal flush hands come along very infrequently.
As Bonus Poker games took off, video poker makers continued to tinker with the payback they could give out. Nevada Bonus Poker video poker represents one of the byproducts of that tinkering. This game takes a basic Bonus Poker pay table and twists it around to create something new and different.
Nevada Bonus Poker video poker mainly gives gamblers an incentive to get and keep aces in their hand wherever possible. Three of a kind with aces pays more than three of a kind with any other card. And the same is true for a four of a kind made with aces.
As a result, you have to think about changing your strategy somewhat. You’ll have to rethink whether you want to discard aces from your deal. In most cases, getting rid of an ace to chase another hand will turn out to be a bad idea. Nevada Bonus Poker video poker also boosts payback slightly for other key hands on the pay table, such as the straight flush and the full house. It does this while sticking relatively close to the Bonus Poker format.
But one area where it deviates is the payback for two pair. Nevada Bonus Poker video poker offers you only even-money for such a hand. Because of the frequency with which two pair hands will appear during gameplay, that little adjustment will make a very big impact on the style of play.
In the following article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the game known as Nevada Bonus Poker video poker. We’ll take you through the procedure for playing the game and we’ll also look at how the pay table stands out as unique from other bonus machines. And we’ll also talk about concepts that are important to video poker such as payback percentage and strategy.
The Benefits of Video Poker
Have you ever wondered why people will often sit at a video poker machine for hours upon hours? Or why some people will only play video poker and not any other game in the casino? And have you ever stopped to think about why there are so many video poker gambling apps available on your phone or tablet?
Well, the reasons for all of those actions come down to how much video poker benefits gamblers. Let’s talk about all of the ways video poker games like Nevada Bonus Poker video poker can make your day as a prospective gambler.
- Video poker is an extremely easy game to learn. You only need a basic knowledge of making poker hands to get started. Even without that, you can probably learn the game in a matter of minutes.
- Like slot machines, video poker can be played as a one-person experience. You don’t need to interact with employees or other patrons. That means you can play at your own pace and not have any hassles from others.
- Video poker is based on the probabilities that are found in a deck of 52 cards. From those probabilities, you can make rough estimates about how often certain winning hands will show up during gameplay. You have no such assurances from slot machines.
- Video poker contains pay tables, which, when combined with probabilities, can basically tell you how much a specific machine will pay back on average. Slot machines have pay tables as well. But without the probabilities, you can have no idea what a slot machine will pay during an average session.
- Video poker lets you utilize strategy when you play. The better your strategy, the more you will win if you play the game for a long period of time. There is generally no strategy to be found on slot machines, which means you have no control over whether you win or lose.
- Payback for video poker generally ranks much higher than most slot machines. In fact, that payback also stays in the ballpark of table games. You can even find video poker machines where the expected payback is over 100%, meaning you’ll have the edge instead of the casino for once.
- You’ll find that playing video poker in a casino and playing it online is roughly the same experience. But you can’t really say that about any other casino game of strategy. As such, it makes the perfect gambling outlet for those who like to get their action online.
These are just some of the reasons why video poker sits so high on the list of best casino games. And there are so many variations, like Nevada Bonus Poker video poker, that you’ll never get bored.
Let’s talk now about how to play basic video poker. Then, we’ll move on to explain what separates Nevada Bonus Poker video poker from basic games.
Step 1: Insert Your Cash
When you put money into a video poker machine, you’re creating a bankroll. That means you’ll be able to bet money in order to win money in return. For those who play online, your bankroll will come from the account you fund at the website you choose.
Denominations can be as small as a penny or can range to higher amounts like a dollar. Try to choose the amount that will give you sufficient credits to play for as long as you like. And, when making that consideration, remember that most people can play several hands of video poker per minute.
Step 2: Make Your Bet
We talked briefly about strategy. You might realize that strategy comes into play when you decide which cards to hold and which to discard from each deal (more on that below). What you might not realize is that there’s strategy at work when you make your bet.
You can bet between one and five credits per hand when playing a game like Nevada Bonus Poker video poker. There exists the option to switch the amount you bet each and every hand. But you shouldn’t use that approach.
Instead, you should bet the same amount on every hand, and that amount is the maximum wager of five coins. You might think that such a bet makes the game too expensive. But, in actuality, you’re lowering your potential winning percentage if you don’t make that bet.
When you bet between one and four coins and get lucky enough to hit the royal flush, which is the rarest and highest-paying hand in the game, you receive 250 coins for every one that you bet. And that might seem like a lot to you.
But it isn’t as much as 800 to 1. You will return those odds if you bet five coins on the hand and make a royal flush. That means a 4,000-coin payback all at once.
Don’t fall for the misconception that you can guess which hands are about to become winners based on what has come before. Some people think that, because they’ve won several hands already they should lower their bet for the next one. They feel that the machine is “due” for a loss.
By contrast, others might take the fact that they’ve won several hands in a row as a sign that they’re “hot” and thus, bet more than they have been betting. In truth, those concepts don’t exist in video poker. Each and every deal and draw is completely random and has nothing to do with anything that has come before it.
The reason why you should bet five coins per hand comes down to simple mathematics. A five-coin bet gives you the potential for the highest payback percentage. If you can’t afford five coins per hand at the denomination you’re playing, pick a machine or an online game with a lower one.
Step 3: Play Your Hand
When you make your bet and press the “deal” button on a Nevada Bonus Poker video poker machine, you’ll see five cards on your screen. These cards come from a 52-card simulated deck that is constantly being “shuffled” by the machine’s software. When you hit that button, the top five cards appear.
The idea behind video poker is very similar to the one behind the card game known as Five-Card Draw Poker. That game also allows you a five-card deal then a subsequent draw where you replace cards you don’t want with others from the deck.
But Five-Card Draw Poker is generally a multi-player game. That means your hand must top everyone else’s at the table for you to win. Barring that, you might be able to bluff your way to winning a hand.
There’s no bluff in Nevada Bonus Poker video poker because there are no other players. There are no other betting rounds once you bet your original amount. It’s simply a matter of trying to make a winning hand according to the machine’s pay table.
You might find that some video poker machines include different winning hands on their pay table to mix things up. But, for the most part, you’ll be looking to make one of the following winning combinations from the five cards you were dealt:
- 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)
You might be lucky and have one of these winning combinations already in your hand on the deal. Even if you don’t, though, you still have a chance to make a winning combination. And that chance comes on the draw.
The draw is the moment where you get to flash your strategy during video poker play. You get to choose which cards in your deal you want to keep (if any) and which you want to discard (if any).
The machine will replace the ones you discard with others from the deck that gave you the original deal. Remember that the deck only has 47 cards at that point, which is 52 minus the original five you were dealt. That knowledge will help you with the probabilities that inform your decision.
You have to decide your holds and discards based on your chances of turning that original deal into a winning hand. And you’ll also have to take into consideration the potential payout for those hands.
The choice will often come down to a hand that’s easy to attain but doesn’t pay that much and one that’s difficult to achieve but pays a lot. You’ll have to choose based on the mathematics of it all (more below when we get to strategy).
Here’s an example deal to demonstrate.
This deal does not provide you with a winning combination right off the bat. But there are the so-called “seeds” of winning hands in there. You just have to choose which one to pursue.
For example, you have a pair of nines. You would just need another nine in the three draw cards that you get (if you dump the eight, the ten, and the jack) to make three of a kind. You could also get a bit luckier and perhaps end up with a full house or even four of a kind.
You’ll also notice that you have four cards that are consecutive in rank in the eight through jack. That would leave you one shy of a straight, which you could get with a seven or a queen. There are eight of those cards in the deck of 47, so you’ll know exactly what your chances are to draw the needed card.
Finally, you also have the eight, nine, and ten of hearts. That leaves you two cards short of both a flush and a straight flush. Remember that the straight flush is one of the highest-paying hands in the game, but you would need something of a miracle draw to get it.
As you can see, this example demonstrates how video poker hand can be tricky in terms of the choices that you have to make. Other hands won’t present you with such complex decisions. You’ll likely be able to make many decisions on holds and discards in a snap.
In any case, you will press the buttons below the cards you want to hold. You will then push the draw button to activate the draw. Your cards will be replaced to end the hand, and the machine will add any winnings to your total.
Video poker play can continue in that manner as long as you have credits left to wager. Once you run out, you’ll have to quit or insert more. You can also cash out your credits at any time.
That basically shows you the process of playing video poker. Now, it’s time to learn the intricacies of the version known as Nevada Bonus Poker video poker.
The Nevada Bonus Poker Pay Table
You might not even think of looking at your pay table once you settle at a video poker machine or with an online version of the game. That would be a mistake. The pay table shows you much more than just the payout for each winning hand.
A pay table should lead your strategic decisions, since you need to base your holds and discards on how much winning hands pay. Your pay table will also indicate the style of play for each machine in terms of its volatility. And, by plugging the information about the pay table into an online calculator, you can even figure out how high the payback percentage might be.
We’ll talk more about payback percentage and volatility in a second. But first, let’s get to the Nevada Bonus Poker video poker pay table, so you can see what’s in store.
The pay table below represents the highest-paying version of Nevada Bonus Poker video poker. What that means is that playing this pay table will bring back the highest payback percentage the game can offer.
| Coins/Hands | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Straight flush | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 |
| Four of a kind (aces) | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1000 |
| Four of a kind (any other) | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Full house | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 |
| Flush | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 40 |
| Straight | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Three of a kind (aces) | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Three of a kind (any other) | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two pair | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
How do you read this pay table? Simply follow the row with your winning hand over to the column with the wager. For example, a flush with four coins wagered will pay you 32 coins back.
If you’ve played your share of video poker before, you might be able to recognize some of the standout features of Nevada Bonus Poker video poker. But if you haven’t, we need to provide some context.
You can tell from the name that Nevada Bonus Poker video poker is a form of Bonus Poker. Thus, let’s take a look at one of the most commonly found Bonus poker machines to compare:
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) | 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 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 40 |
| 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 |
The big thing you’ll notice is that the Nevada Bonus Poker video poker pays out at a higher level for three of a kind and four of a kind with aces. That means you will be placing more of a premium on achieving those hands than if you were playing any other Bonus Poker game.
You might also be able to see that there are some other areas where the Nevada Bonus Poker video poker pay table outdoes the pay table for Bonus Poker. The straight flush, full house, flush, and straight all pay better on the Nevada Bonus Poker pay table.
Well, it pays a little better for four of a kind hands that aren’t made with aces. But the real key to the difference is the pay for the two pair hand. In basic Bonus Poker, two pair pays two coins for every one that you bet. Compare that to the Nevada Bonus Poker video poker game, where one coin wagered gets back one in return when you make two pair. In other words, you simply break even instead of making a profit.
You might not think it makes much of a difference because the pay is low for the two pair compared to some of the other hands where the Nevada Bonus Poker video poker pays more. But you have to take into consideration the frequency with which the two pair hand appears.
Once out of every 10 hands or so, a two pair hand will show up. Often during Nevada Bonus Poker video poker gameplay, you will be getting paid at a discount to the normal Bonus Poker game.
What does that mean? Well, first of all, the discrepancy helps to even out the overall payback percentage for the two games. Nevada Bonus Poker video poker pays back at 98.8%, just below the percentage of 99.2% for the Bonus Poker game.
In general, we recommend video poker games that come close to the threshold of 99%. Even though a 99% payback means you’ll be losing around 1% of your bankroll, you can still come out on top. Casino loyalty programs or, if you’re playing online, perks from top gambling websites will help you make up the difference.
The big difference is how the two games will reach those numbers. Bonus Poker video poker ranks much lower on the volatility scale than Nevada Bonus Poker video poker. Volatility measures the swings between winning and losing during video poker play.
Nevada Bonus Poker video poker offers you more chances at a significant payoff on a single hand than the Bonus Poker game. Your bankroll could easily spike well above where it started in a mighty hurry.
By contrast, the fact that the two pair hand only pays off even money on Nevada Bonus Poker video poker means your bankroll will also be prone to dropping much faster than if you were playing the Bonus Poker game. That also raises your risk of ruin, which is a fancy term meaning the possibility of losing your entire bankroll.
Basically, Nevada Bonus Poker video poker creates a bumpier ride. But you might be happy to make that tradeoff since it means more chances of winning big in a hurry. The choice will be up to you.
Keep in mind the pay table above for Nevada Bonus Poker video poker is one of several that you might encounter when you see the game. Remember that’s the highest-paying version. As a result, the others you find will pay less.
You’ll be able to spot these lesser paying games from the payout for the full house and flush hands. When you see that those hands are discounted, you’ll know that you don’t have the full-pay version. And you’ll also know that your overall payback percentage will suffer as a result.
Take a look at two other pay tables available on Nevada Bonus Poker video poker machines.
| Coins/Hands | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Straight flush | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 |
| Four of a kind (aces) | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1000 |
| Four of a kind (any other) | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Full house | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 |
| Flush | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 | 35 |
| Straight | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Three of a kind (aces) | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Three of a kind (any other) | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two pair | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Coins/Hands | 1 coin | 2 coins | 3 coins | 4 coins | 5 coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Straight flush | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 |
| Four of a kind (aces) | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1000 |
| Four of a kind (any other) | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 |
| Full house | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| Flush | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 | 35 |
| Straight | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Three of a kind (aces) | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 30 |
| Three of a kind (any other) | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Two pair | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Jacks or better | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Strategy for Nevada Bonus Poker
As we said above, you can apply strategy at two different points when playing Nevada Bonus Poker video poker. The first comes when you decide what to bet. That part is easy, since you should always bet the maximum amount of five coins.
Learning the right strategy for which cards to hold and which to discard gets a little trickier. After all, think of all the combinations of cards you might get on the deal. Having to learn the right play for each of those combinations will take time.
What do we mean by “right” in terms of the decision about what to hold and what to discard? Well, the right decision is the one that maximizes the potential value of the deal.
In other words, your decision should be the one that would return the most amount of money from the hand if you played it over and over, compared to all other possible combinations you could choose. This is based on the probabilities of making the hands and the payouts you can receive from those winning hands.
Of course, Nevada Bonus Poker video poker complicates the matter by messing around a bit with a Bonus Poker pay table. Consider the following deal:
If you were playing that deal on the Bonus Poker pay table listed above, you would be smart to keep everything but the eight of spades. That would lock in the two pair hand at 2 to 1 payoff. And you could still conceivably draw to a full house.
But think about the same deal on a Nevada Bonus Poker video poker pay table. Two pair only pays even money. That’s the same payout you would get for a pair of jacks or better, which you also have in the pair of aces.
Now, remember what we said about the premium placed on aces in Nevada Bonus Poker video poker. You can make 6 to 1 odds with three aces and a whopping 200 to 1 with four aces. In Bonus Poker, those paybacks are just 3 to 1 and 80 to 1, respectively.
As a result, Nevada Bonus Poker video poker requires you, with this deal, to make the somewhat odd choice of dumping everything but the pair of aces. The only way that the two pair can be improved is with another ace or four for a full house. That’s not enough incentive to give up on the big payouts for multiple ace hands.
Such unique situations are what make learning strategy for any video poker game difficult. Unless you’re a math genius who can do complex computations about probabilities in seconds, you won’t be able to do this right on your own. If you don’t get help, you could make incorrect decisions, which will eventually lower your payback percentage.
Luckily, there are some ways you can get some help to learn strategy for Nevada Bonus Poker video poker. Below, you’ll find two ways we recommend.
Strategy Charts
First of all, make sure that any strategy chart that you find is tailored directly to Nevada Bonus Poker video poker. Then, take the time to memorize this chart. It will allow you to carry the information, in a sense, right into the casino with you so you’ll never make a wrong decision.
A strategy chart ranks all of the combinations of cards you might get on a deal from highest to lowest expected value. When you look at your hand, you’ll see which of the combinations rank highest on the list. You can then discard the cards that aren’t included in the listed combination.
Video Poker Training Software
You can customize training software to any pay table that might come down the pike. Thus, before you start your instruction, make sure to enter the pay totals for Nevada Bonus Poker video poker into the software. Once you do that, you can be assured that the instruction that you receive is accurate.
Video poker training software lets you simulate play as if you were actually gambling for real money. Whenever you make a decision about what to hold and what to discard that is mathematically incorrect, the training software will alert you and tell you the right decision. After using the software for a long time, you’ll instinctively learn all the right holds and discards for Nevada Bonus Poker video poker.
Conclusion on Nevada Bonus Poker Video Poker
Nevada Bonus Poker video poker twists a basic Bonus poker pay table into something new and different. You’ll notice that gameplay is affected by the way those hands with several aces really boost your bankroll through the roof. But you’ll also notice that bankroll taking a dive without big hands because of the discount on two pair.
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