Random Rewards Video Poker
Random Rewards video poker gives you some big paybacks to shoot for if you decide to make an extra bet. For a sixth coin wagered instead of the usual maximum of five, you’ll activate a special feature. This feature does just as the game suggests and randomly raises the payback for certain winning hands to give you an incentive to go for them.
You can play video poker in many different ways. Many people like to keep it simple and stick to Jacks or Better. But you might also like to spice it up a little bit. You can play games that allow bigger payback for certain hands. If you choose, you can play machines that allow multiple hands all at once from a single deal.
Random Rewards video poker does all of the above to create a thrilling ride for players. First of all, it gives you the choice of some of the most popular Bonus Poker pay tables around. These pay tables offer boosted paybacks for four of a kind hands, sometimes at the expense of common hands like two pair.
This game also allows you a multiple play option. This means you can play three, five, or 10 hands of Random Rewards video poker at once. You can really ramp up the pace of the game.
Finally, Random Rewards video poker also adds an extra feature. This feature is activated when you make a six-coin bet for each hand that you play. That’s one coin more than the usual max bet of five.
If you make this bet, you’ll notice that the pay tables occasionally change as you’re set to play a hand. Payback for a specific hand will get a boost of up to 500 coins more than its original value. You thus have greatly increased payback potential when this happens.
The tricky part is that you never know when these rewards will be added or to what hand they’ll be added from hand to hand. You might have to drastically change your strategy to take advantage of the bonus. And if you can’t consistently match your winning hand to the Random Rewards video poker bonus hands, your bankroll will suffer as a result because of the higher bets.
In the following article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about Random Rewards video poker. We’ll explain the basics of video poker, how multiple play works, and what the Random Rewards twist brings to the table. In addition, we’ll also talk about the pay tables that are available to you and what kind of strategy you should be using to play this game.
The Advantages of Video Poker
Even though this article focuses on the specific game known as Random Rewards video poker, we know there are people out there reading it who might only be vaguely familiar with video poker as a whole. If you’re one of those people, you’re about to find out how video poker is one of the most player-friendly casino games in existence.
You’ll hear video poker fans sometimes explain that the game is a combination of slot machines and table games. But that only tells part of the story. In truth, video poker outdoes those games in a lot of different ways.
Here are some of the top advantages that video poker has over other games that can be found in a casino or online:
- Video poker is extremely easy to play. Newcomers who have never played any poker can pick it up in no time at all. And, once you learn, you can play quickly, up to several hands per minute.
- Video poker is a one-person game. Since it’s just you and the machine, you don’t have to worry about any rubbernecking patrons or intimidating casino employees. That takes a lot of pressure and hassle away from the experience.
- Video poker lets you use strategy. That might not seem like much, but it’s a vast improvement over slot machines. With a slot machine, all you can do is spin the reels and hope.
- Video poker doesn’t keep you guessing. Thanks to playing card probability, you never have to wonder about your chances of attaining a specific winning hand. That transparency can also be found in the payback percentages, which are readily attainable in video poker.
- Video poker pays back well. Compared to slot machines, video poker is easily the highest-paying single-person casino experience. And it ranks up there with the best table games in that department as well.
- Video poker provides excellent variety. Random Rewards video poker is just one of the many twists on basic play that you can find. There’s no way you’ll ever gets stuck in a rut playing video poker.
- Video poker makes for the ideal online gambling game. Many table games lack something when you try to play them online. That’s not the case with video poker, which looks and plays just the same at top gambling websites as it does when you experience it in the casino.
We could go on and on about the advantages of video poker. But you’ll find more of that out once you start to play.
With that in mind, let’s walk you step-by-step through the process of playing a single hand of video poker. Once that’s complete, we can look at some of the unique aspects of Random Rewards video poker.
How to Play Video Poker
Step 1: Build a Bankroll
You’ll need a bankroll when you play video poker so that you can make the bets that give you a chance to win money back in return. To create your bankroll, simply put some money or a casino redemption ticket into a video poker machine. If you’re playing online, you can fund an account once you sign up at a gambling website.
You’ll see that your bankroll is listed as credits or coins. The credits or coins will correspond to the denomination of the machine or online video poker you’ve chosen to play. In other words, at a 25-cent machine, one credit is worth 25 cents, two is worth 50 cents, and so on.
Step 2: Make a Wager
You’ll need to make a wager so that you can win money at a video poker machine. Most machines limit your bets to between one and five coins per hand. But Random Rewards video poker allows you to bet six coins per hand if you choose.
Keep in mind, there’s no special “six-coin” spot on the pay table. If you bet six coins at a Random Rewards video poker machine, your pay will be based on a five-coin wager. But the sixth coin enables you to activate the Random Rewards feature.
Any time that a video poker game includes an extra wager above the normal maximum bet of five coins, the game is designed so that those making the extra bet will actually enjoy higher average payback than those that don’t. Yet many people shy away from betting six coins per hand because of the high cost.
Don’t make that same mistake. If you bet only five coins per hand, you won’t access the Random Rewards video poker special feature. And if you bet one through four coins, you are lowering the ratio of payback if you hit a royal flush.
Six coins might seem like a lot, especially when you’re playing more than one hand at a time like you will be on a Random Rewards video poker machine. But betting less actually short-changes you. It’s better to lower your denomination than lessen the coins that you bet.
Step 3: Play a Hand
Random Rewards video poker offers some deviations from simple, single-hand play. But you must first learn basic play, since that’s still the foundation for this spin on the game. Luckily, it’s quite easy to get it down.
If you have a background in playing cards, specifically poker, you might have heard of a game known as Five-Card Draw. In Five-Card Draw, you try to form the best five-card hand of video poker to beat everybody else at that table. Or you can try to bluff them into folding their bets and conceding the hand.
In video poker, you aren’t playing against anyone else and you don’t have to worry about bluffing. But the rhythm of play in video poker is the same as it is in Five-Card Draw. You receive five cards, discard from your deal, then draw new cards to replace the discarded ones.
The first thing that will happen after you set up your bankroll, make your bet, and hit the “deal” button is that five cards will appear on your screen. These five cards come from a simulated deck that contains the same exact 52 cards that would appear in a regulation deck. Inside the machine’s software, a random generator shuffles the cards to ensure that every deal you receive is completely random.
When you see your five cards, you’ll be hoping that they form a winning combination. Which combinations are winners in Random Rewards video poker? Here is a list:
- 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)
The hands at the top of this list pay the least, while the ones on the bottom pay the most. This is because the hands at the top are relatively common in video poker play while the ones on the bottom are harder to achieve. In other words, the rarer the winning, the more it pays.
When you see those five cards, you’ll have to decide which are worth keeping and which you’ll discard. You’ll get to replace the cards you’ve discarded by drawing others from the deck. The deck will have 47 cards for the draw, since the five you were dealt will be absent from the original deck of 52.
This decision about what to hold and discard is where you get to show off your video poker strategy. Should you try for a rare winning hand even if it means you’ll have to get lucky on the draw to achieve it? Or will you go for the more common winning hand, which might be easier to achieve but won’t pay as much?
In some cases, it will be easy to tell which cards to hold and which to discard based on the deal. Other times, you’ll have a hard time distinguishing the right play. Each hand of video poker presents a tug of war between risk and reward.
Once you’ve made your decision, press the buttons below the cards you wish to hold, and hit the “draw” button. The machine will draw cards for any discarded cards. This process is the same as the deal, in that the random number generator ensures the draw is random. After the draw takes place, your hand is complete.
Basic video poker works just like that. It might seem like a handful when you read it all like this. But you’ll find that playing video poker is pretty instinctual once you learn.
We have one hand of video poker down pat. But what happens when you play multiple hands at a time, which is what you’ll be doing when playing Random Rewards video poker? Let’s find out now.
Multiple Play Video Poker
Random Rewards video poker in a casino comes in multiple play mode. This means you’ll be playing more than one hand at a time. As a matter of fact, you’ll have the choice of playing three, five, or 10 hands at once.
You should go into the game realizing what multiple play means in terms of your betting budget. We told you earlier that it’s best to approach Random Rewards video poker by playing the maximum bet of six coins on every hand. Here’s what that would mean:
- Three Hands = 18 coins
- Five Hands = 30 coins
- Ten Hands = 60 coins
What does that mean in terms of dollars and cents? Well, let’s look at the betting for a 25-cent Random Rewards video poker machine:
- 18 coins = $4.50
- 30 coins = $7.50
- 60 coins = $15.00
You have to wager on each hand to play multiple hands on Random Rewards video poker, as we’ve established. But you will only be receiving one deal. All of the hands will then spring from that foundation.
Let’s say you want to play a three-play round of Random Rewards video poker while using a Bonus Poker pay table. Here’s the deal you receive:
Going through the decision-making process for multiple play is the same as if you were playing just one hand at a time. You’ll make a single decision about what to hold and discard. But that decision then gets repeated for every hand you bet.
Let’s say for the sake of argument that you decide to play the pair of twos. That would mean discarding the three, four, and queen of hearts. When you make this decision, you’ll see that the pair of twos are found in the same position on all three hands.
Next up comes the draw. The draw takes will take place from three separate decks, all uniquely shuffled, that contain the 47 cards left in the deck after the deal. Since it occurs this way, there’s the chance that you could get the same card in two or three different hands on the draw.
Hand 1
Hand 2
Hand 3
In Hand 1, you ended up with a full house. Hand 2 provided you with two pair. Alas, you came up empty in Hand 3.
You would then add up the winnings for Hands 1 and 2. On a Bonus Poker pay table for a maximum wager, that would be 40 coins for a full house and 10 coins for two pair. Your total payoff would be 50.
The process for five-play and 10-play Random Rewards video poker would be the same, only with more draws. Multiple play video poker provides you with a great boost if you get a good deal. It’s like a gift that keeps on giving over the multiple hands.
The opposite is true if you have a lousy deal. Instead of losing just once with a bad deal, you might be losing three, five, or 10 times. Basically, multiple play mode makes Random Rewards video poker more volatile than your average single-hand game. That volatility really rises with the special feature.
What Are the Random Rewards?
Random Rewards video poker adds an extra feature if you bet a sixth coin per hand. If you bet only one through five coins, this feature simply would not appear. You would essentially be playing run-of-the-mill multiple play video poker based on whatever pay table you choose.
The sixth coin, however, gives you the chance to see increased winnings on hands that might normally not pay too much. In fact, you could see the payout for hands like full house and the flush rise to the level of some of the highest-paying hands in the game.
When you bet a sixth coin, you have no way of knowing when the random rewards might appear. You might play several hands without seeing any difference in the pay table. But the random rewards will appear enough to make it worth your while to wager the sixth coin.
When these added payback awards appear during Random Rewards video poker game play, you’ll notice they’re highlighted on the pay table. When this occurs, one or two winning hands will receive a modest boost. But one other winning hand will see a significant boost, up to as much as 500 coins.
You would then play out your multiple play Random Rewards video poker hands as normal. If you manage to get one of the winning hands whose payoff is boosted, you’ll see that in your winnings.
When you begin the next hand, there won’t be any carryover from the previous hand. You might get more of the Random Rewards video poker bonuses, but that would be due to luck. It’s not like some video poker games where multipliers carry over from hand to hand.
The winning hands included in the Random Rewards video poker bonus awards are the flush, full house, four of a kind, and straight flush. When you consider what could happen to their payback amounts, you can see how this game is enticing. On those hands, when you get a reward, the expectation in terms of potential return skyrocket.
Here’s a look at the possibilities, based on a Bonus Poker pay table:
| Hand | Normal Return | +100 | +200 | +500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flush | 5 | 105 | 205 | 505 |
| Full House | 8 | 108 | 208 | 508 |
| Base four of a kind | 100 | 200 | 300 | 600 |
| Straight flush | 250 | 350 | 450 | 750 |
The key to succeeding at Random Rewards video poker is to match up your winning hand with the one that gets a boost. That requires some luck and some strategy.
The disadvantage of Random Rewards video poker comes from the fact that you have to bet six coins to get this bonus. When you do achieve it, your payroll will take a huge jump into very healthy territory. But you have to consider what happens on those hands that you don’t get any boost.
Obviously, any losing hand is going to cost you six coins instead of five, which will take a little bit more out of your bankroll. But imagine the impact on payback from common winning hands. These are the hands which usually help your bankroll stay afloat.
For example, if you’re playing normal video poker, make a five-coin bet, and get a pair of jacks or better, it’s a break-even situation. You’ll be betting five coins and getting five in return.
That might not seem like much, but it sort of gives you a free play. That’s one more chance you’ll have at achieving one of the high-paying hands in the game, which is really the quickest way to earn money playing video poker.
But when you play the special feature in Random Rewards video poker, you would be making a six-coin bet. The pair of jacks or better would still only return five coins. You’d be looking at a one-coin loss.
Little by little, your bankroll will suffer if you play Random Rewards video poker and don’t take advantage of the bonus. As we said earlier, the rewards will be worth your while in the long run of the game. You just have to make sure your bankroll is stout enough to survive to get to that point.
Pay Tables for Random Rewards Video Poker
Video poker pay tables are crucial pieces of information for savvy players. They dictate strategy and also clue you in to whether one particular game pays more or less than another. You should always locate and check out the pay table before you begin play.
In the case of Random Rewards video poker, there are multiple different pay tables available to you. All of these are Bonus Poker pay tables of some sort. Bonus pay tables are known for rewarding four of a kind hands at a much higher level than basic Jacks or Better games.
You should be aware that some of these pay tables compensate for this by lowering the payback for certain common winning hands. For example, on some of the pay tables below, you’ll notice that a hand of two pair only pays back even money. That’s opposed to the 2 to 1 payback the hand earns on common Jacks or Better pay tables.
The list below gives you an idea of the pay tables you’ll encounter when playing Random Rewards video poker. You might find that there are pay tables on the machine that you’re playing that might have lesser payback amounts for certain hands than the ones you see here. Always try to find the most beneficial tables so that you can maximize your payback.
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 |
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 | 80 | 160 | 240 | 320 | 400 |
| Full house | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 | 45 |
| 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 | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 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 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 | 35 |
| 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 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 w/ any 2,3,4 | 400 | 800 | 1200 | 1600 | 2000 |
| Four of a kind 2s, 3s, or 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 | 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 |
| 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 | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 4000 |
| Straight flush | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
| Four of a kind – aces 2, 3, or 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 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 | 35 |
| 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 |
Strategy for Random Rewards Video Poker
To play video poker at the highest level, you have to learn perfect strategy. That essentially means you’re learning the correct combination of holds and discards for every possible deal you get. All of this is based on the probabilities of attaining hands based on what you received on the deal and the payback for those hands.
In most cases, this process doesn’t change from deal to deal. Take a look at the following deal as an example:
If you were playing a Bonus Poker pay table, the correct play for this hand would be to hold the pair of kings and discard all other cards. Even though you have a flush draw, the expected value of the hand is at its highest when you hold onto the kings.
Playing a Bonus Poker table over and over on a regular video poker machine, you would learn that holding the kings is the right play. And you wouldn’t have to worry about diverting from that sequence of holds and discards.
But what if you were playing Random Rewards video poker and, as the deal came on the screen, you noticed that 500 coins had been added to the flush payout? That would change everything. In that case, the correct mathematical play would be to hold on to the four Hearts and go for the flush, which is suddenly extremely lucrative.
This example shows how tricky strategy can be for Random Rewards video poker. You really have to change your strategy on the fly. And many of the traditional methods for learning proper strategy can’t really help you on occasions like this.
At some point, your common sense has to kick in to help you out. If you see that a significant amount of coins has been added to the payback for a certain winning hand, you have to lean into it a little. And you really have to consider going for it if your deal pushes you even the slightest bit in the direction of that hand.
These examples won’t come up a whole lot during Random Rewards video poker game play. As a result, you should probably still go through the normal process of learning strategy to help you out. After all, trying to make the right holds and discards can be tricky when there are several combinations in a deal that are very close to each other in expected value.
First, pick a pay table that you plan to play with regularity on a Random Rewards video poker machine. Then, use one of these methods to help you learn perfect play even while remembering that you might have to deviate from the instructions occasionally when the Random Rewards come into play.
Strategy Charts
The quickest fix to learning perfect video poker strategy is to use a strategy chart. You can find these charts online for most major pay tables like the ones listed above. Once you memorize the chart, you’ll have all the information you need.
The strategy chart will rank all of the cards you might receive on the deal based on their expected value within the specific pay table. You would then use that information for each deal that you receive. Just pick out the most valuable combination to hold and discard the rest.
Video Poker Training Software
Training software requires a little bit more time to learn than strategy charts. But it’s a good way to go if you struggle with memorization. Plus, it can be a lot of fun, since it simulates play as if you were in a casino.
When you input the pay table you’re planning to play into the software, it will tailor the instruction properly. As you simulate play, you’ll be faced with decisions about which cards to hold and discard. If you should make the wrong decision, the software will let you know so you learn from your mistake.
Random Rewards Video Poker Pros and Cons
- Possible huge payouts on hands that are relatively easy to achieve
- Extra wager adds to the expected payback
- Solid group of Bonus Poker pay tables from which to choose
- Six-coin bet in multiple play can be expensive
- Bankroll will suffer when you don’t achieve the Random Rewards
- Strategy can be tricky when the pay tables are being adjusted by the Random Rewards
Conclusion on Random Rewards Video Poker
Random Rewards video poker lets you take a ride into the unknown as you play your hands. Without warning, you’ll see the potential for huge payouts pop up at unexpected times. The key to succeeding at this game is adjusting on the fly and cashing in on those Random Rewards whenever possible.
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