Guide to Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

Super Video Hold’em video poker cuts down the decisions that video poker players have to make. It mimics Texas Hold’em action far more than it resembles what you can expect from standard video poker. But you still can earn excellent payback in a single hand when playing this game.

Video poker has become one of the most popular of all casino games. It’s understandable when you consider all of the benefits it provides to players. You can make excellent payback from it even though it’s a relatively easy game to learn.

You might be a bit disoriented if you’re new to video poker, but you’re in luck here if you’re familiar with Texas Hold’em. The game boosted televised poker competitions in the last few decades and it’s played in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

For those who want something close to Texas Hold’em style action in a video poker concept, Super Video Hold’em video poker is about as similar as you can get. It’s also extremely close to the video poker game known as Video Hold‘em, albeit with a beefed-up pay table to account for the “super” part.

In Super Video Hold’em video poker, you receive two cards on the deal, which puts it in line with Texas Hold’em. But first, you have to decide which is better of two possible two-card deals that you’ll see on the screen. That turns out to be the only decision you really have to make when playing this game.

From there, you’ll receive five community cards, just as you would when playing Texas Hold’em. You’ll use these five community cards and the two cards you chose for your deal to form the best possible five-card hand. If it’s one of the winning hands on the pay table, you’ll get money back.

But that’s not the only way you can win playing Super Video Hold’em video poker. If you receive specific two-card deals, you’ll be eligible for multipliers on winning hands you form. Since these two-card deals are the most advantageous that you can receive, there’s a good chance the multiplier will have some weight behind it.

While all of these features make Super Video Hold’em video poker enticing, you have to remember that you’ll be paying for these privileges. You’ll bet in increments of two, all the way up to 10 coins per hand. That’s twice as much as most video poker games, making this game an expensive proposition.

In the following article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about Super Video Hold’em video poker. We’ll explain the rules of play and betting. And we’ll also go into how you can develop strategy while also talking about the payback you can expect to receive on average.

The Benefits of Video Poker

Even though gameplay is a little bit different, Super Video Hold’em video poker still falls into the general category of video poker. And it’s a cool twist on the action that will especially suit those folks who don’t mind their game being a bit more reliant on luck than with other video poker variations.

Like all other video poker games, Super Video Hold’em video poker makes for an excellent experience for gamblers. You’ll often hear video poker fans tell people that they’ll play no other game but video poker in casinos and on top online casino websites. And you can understand why when you start to run down the list of benefits you get from video poker.

Don’t believe us? Check out this list.

• You can learn to play video poker quickly. Many casino games are intimidating in terms of the rules and how the betting works. But video poker is a snap to learn even if you don’t have much of a poker background going into it.
• LYou can play video poker in a practically endless amount of different ways. Obviously, Super Video Hold’em video poker is a drastically different format for the game. But even within five-card video poker, there are many different variants to ensure that you don’t get bored.
• You can play video poker with no interruptions from anybody else. That means no worrying about etiquette or protocol as you might have to do when playing table games. All you have to worry about is your strategy and enjoying yourself.
• You can use strategy when playing video poker. In the case of Super Video Hold’em video poker, it won’t need to be quite as involved as if you were playing common video poker. But you still exert more control over the action than slot machine players, who won’t have any chance to influence matters.
• You’ll know what to expect from the video poker machine or online game you play. Pay tables will reveal how much you make from each winning hand. Simple probability math will tell you how often you can expect those hands to show up.
• You can expect solid payback from an average video poker game. In fact, video poker payback is usually much higher than what slot machines offer. As a gambling investment, video poker is one of the best you can make.
• You can find and enjoy video poker online easily. Most top gambling sites are filled with a robust section of video poker. And you can play these games just as if you were in the casino without losing anything in terms of the overall experience.

Now that you know why video poker is so advantageous, it’s time to learn how to play. In specific, let’s talk about the unique action provided by a Super Video Hold’em video poker machine.

How to Play Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

Step 1: Start up a Bankroll

Your bankroll will be what you use to make your bets. It will also be the place where any winnings you amass will show up. To start a bankroll, you just have to put money into a machine or create and fund an account at a gambling website.

When your bankroll shows up on screen, you’ll see it represented by units known as credits or coins. Each of these units will be tied into the denomination that you’re playing. For example, if you bet 10 coins on a 25-cent machine, you’ve bet $2.50 (10 times .25).

Step 2: Place a Bet

This is where game play in Super Video Hold’em video poker starts to separate from what you might be used to playing basic video poker. In most video poker games, you’re expected to wager between one and five coins. And it’s recommended that you bet five coins (the “Max Bet”) because this increases what you can expect in terms of payback.

But Super Video Hold’em video poker lets you bet between two and 10 coins. Bets are made in increments of two (2, 4, 6, 8 or 10) instead of one. Therefore, the max bet is 10 coins.

In other words, you are assuming more of a financial risk when playing Super Video Hold’em video poker. Yet if you try to lessen that risk by lowering your bet per hand, you’ll be making a mistake.

Lowering your wager will also lower your payback ratio for the high-paying hands in the game (the royal flush and a royal flush on the board). In other words, bet less than 10 coins and you’ll be short-changed if you get one of these hands.

You’d be better off, percentage-wise, to simply find a Super Video Hold’em video poker machine with a lower denomination if you want to keep your betting budget under control. This will give you access to the best payback percentage without spending as much.

Step 3: Play a Hand

As we said, Super Video Hold’em video poker offers a much different experience than other video poker games. It is indeed very similar to the Texas Hold’em experience, albeit without the need for all the extra betting rounds. After all, you won’t be trying to bluff anybody, since you’re the only one at the virtual table.

The Deal

You’ll get two different two-card deals showing up on your screen once you’ve made your bet and hit the “deal” button. Each of these cards will come from a single 52-card deck within the machine’s software. This deck is always being shuffled, ensuring that you get random results in every situation.

You then have to decide which of these deals is more favorable to you. This decision will be based on the chances you have of turning these cards into winning hands once the five community cards come into the picture.

Since the bulk of the hand will come from the community cards, your first two cards won’t mean as much to the final hand. But you should still try to base your decision on the winning hands you might achieve.

Here are the winning hands that are available to you when playing Super Video Hold’em video poker:

• 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 the list will occur more often than the ones at the bottom. And the hands at the top also pay much less. In other words, the less your chance of making a winning combination, the more that it will pay.

Community Cards

When you play Texas Hold’em, the five community cards will come to you in a three-part process. The first three are revealed, then the fourth, and the fifth. During this process, players are allowed to bet at each stage of the reveal.

In Super Video Hold’em video poker, there are still five community cards, but they come out all at once after you decide on the two-card deal you’re keeping. (The two-card deal you don’t want will go back into the deck, leaving 50 cards for the draw.) And even though they’re still called community cards, they’re really only part of your hand, since you’re the only one playing.

The two cards you held from the Super Video Hold’em video poker deals and the five community cards make a total of seven. From these seven cards, the machine will form the best possible five-card poker hand. If that combination matches one of the winning ones from the list above, you have a winning hand.

Example Super Video Hold’em Video Poker Hands

Let’s take a look at how the process of playing a Super Video Hold’em video poker works. Imagine that you get the following two two-card deals:

Deal 1:

Deal 2:

Deal 1 doesn’t look to appetizing, as you have two cards that aren’t connected in any way by suit or rank. But Hand 2 gives you a glimmer of something with a pair of hearts. That puts you on the road to a possible flush, if nothing else.

As a result, the correct play in this case, in terms of the probability math, is to hold onto Hand 2 and discard Hand 1. That doesn’t mean it will turn out to be the right play or even the winning play, because the draw will bring a big element of luck into the picture. But it is the play that gives you the best chance of winning the hand.

Let’s see how it might play out when the community cards come out.

Add in the two cards you held from the deal and you end up with the following hand.

The Super Video Hold’em video poker machine will now sift through the possible combinations within those seven cards in search of any winning ones. In this hand, you have three of a kind with threes. That turns out to be one of the hands on the pay table, meaning that you’ll get paid back something depending on the pay table you’re playing and the wager you made.

Notice in this example that the nine of diamonds, which was in the two-card deal that you discarded, ended up in the community cards. This shows you that the cards you discard go back into the deck for the draw.

Let’s take a look at another Super Video Hold’em video poker sample hand.

Hand 1:

Hand 2:

Look at those two hands. It should be pretty obvious what the right play should be. In Hand 1, you’ve got two cards of the same suit with just one card separating them in flush. Hand 2, meanwhile, consists of two unconnected cards.

As a result, you should keep Hand 1 as your starting two cards. The three of clubs and 10 of diamonds go back into the deck for the community cards draw. Let’s see what you get this time:

Here’s your final hand.

The best that you have out of these seven cards is a pair of sixes. On a Super Video Hold’em video poker, that’s not a winning combination. You would lose this hand.

Remember the hand you discarded? Take a look at what would have transpired had you held those cards and received the same community cards.

You ended up with two winning combinations—two pair (threes and 10s) and a flush (with diamonds). The game would recognize the flush, since it is the higher-paying of the two hands.

This example shows how much luck is involved when playing Super Video Hold’em video poker. Granted, luck is involved in all video poker games. But with five-card video poker such as Jacks or Better, you have a little bit more control because you’ll be making decisions on more cards on the deal.

With Super Video Hold’em video poker, you have to take for granted that you’ll be dealing with a little more luck. Some game players might enjoy that aspect. Others, however, might prefer the control that comes with the common five-card version of the game.

Special Bonuses in Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

Remember how we said that Super Video Hold’em video poker requires a bet that’s higher than average for video poker? The reason you have to make that bet is to pay for a couple of cool special features. These special features will actually comprise a big portion of the payback you can expect from this game.

Multipliers

If you’re new to multipliers in video poker, you need to know that they’re one of the most valuable special features that can be found in the game. Whenever a multiplier is attached to a hand and you make a winning combination, the normal payback will be multiplied by whatever number is listed in front of the multiplier.

Case in point, imagine that you’re starting a hand with a 3x multiplier attached to it. After playing out the hand, you end up with a winning combination that normally pays off 10 coins. In this instance, however, it will pay off 30 coins, which is 3 times 10.

In Super Video Hold’em video poker, multipliers are attached to any hand with certain two-card combinations on the deal. You must hold onto the qualifying two-card start to get the multiplier.

Qualifying two-card hands for the multipliers in Super Video Hold’em video poker are:

• Jack and queen of same suit
• Jack and king of same suit
• Jack and ace of same suit
• Queen and king of same suit
• Queen and ace of same suit
• Pair of jacks, queens, or kings
• King and ace of same suit
• Pair of aces
• Pair of red aces

You can see that these are all very good starting hands in Super Video Hold’em video poker. More times than not, you’ll end up with a winning hand after starting with one of these two-card sets.

That will help prevent you from any “empty” multipliers. This occurs when you have a multiplier is in place but you don’t get a winning combination. Since anything multiplied by zero equals zero, the multiplier doesn’t help you in these cases.

Example Multiplier Hand

Let’s sat you’ve made the maximum 10-coin wager on the full-pay pay table (more on that below) for Super Video Hold’em video poker. You receive the following two-card deals.

Deal 1:

Deal 2:

There is no doubt that you should hold the pair of jacks in this case. But, as if you needed incentive, you’ll see that it’s actually one of the deals which qualifies for a multiplier. The multiplier attached to it is 4x.

Therefore, any winning combination that you make in the hand will be multiplied by four. Imagine that the hand played out and you ended up with a full house. A full house on the full-pay version of Super Video Hold’em video poker pays off normally at 45 coins for a max bet.

Let’s see how the multiplier changes that. 45 times 4 equals 180. That’s a pretty hefty payback for a single hand, the kind that’s usually reserved for one of the rarer hands in the game.

You should be looking for the multiplying hands in Super Video Hold’em video poker, since they’ll be responsible for a large portion of the payback. The good news is that it’ll be hard to miss them, since they’re such good hands anyway. There would be incentive to play even without the multipliers.

Bad Beat Bonus

The Bad Beat Bonus is another way in which Super Video Hold’em video poker calls back to Texas Hold’em action. If you’ve ever watched Texas Hold’em, you know that a bad beat is what players call it when they seem like an overwhelming favorite to win a hand only to have luck turn against them in the end. In fact, the term “bad beat” has become synonymous with any gambling situation where terrible luck is involved for those losing a bet.

In the case of Super Video Hold’em video poker, the Bad Beat Bonus can be claimed if you get a pair of jacks, queens, kings, or aces on the deal. If you go on to play out the hand and end up without a winning combination, you get the bonus. It’s equal to the size of the original wager you made.

Example of Bad Beat Bonus

Let’s say that you make the max bet of 10 coins and get the following two deals in a hand of Super Video Hold’em video poker.

Hand 1:

Hand 2:

Hand 2 is obviously the better play here. You would discard Hand 1 and hope for the community cards to go your way. But imagine that they turned out this way:

This would be your complete seven-card hand.

Unfortunately, nothing came along to match up with your kings. And the community cards didn’t connect in any other ways. You ended up without a winning combination in this instance.

But don’t forget that the pair of jacks is one of the hands eligible for the Bad Beat Bonus in Super Video Hold’em video poker. Since you didn’t get a winning hand out of the deal, you receive the bonus, which is the same amount as your original bet. You’ll receive 10 coins in return.

Another way to look at the Bad Beat Bonus is to say that you’re guaranteed at least your money back when you get a pair of high cards in Super Video Hold’em video poker. Either you’ll form a winning combination with the community cards, in which case you’ll make a profit, or you’ll get the Bad Beat Bonus, which will get you your money back.

Pay Tables and Payback Percentages for Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

There are a few different pay tables for Super Video Hold’em video poker. Ideally, you can find the so-called “full-pay” version of these tables. This is the version of the game which, on average, will return you the highest possible payback percentage.

The payback percentage for full-pay Super Video Hold’em video poker is 98.1%. In other words, in an average session where you bet the entirety of your bankroll during the session, you can be expected to leave with 98.1% of your original bankroll intact. You’d be looking at an average loss of 1.9%.

How’s that possible? Even though you still might be losing a small amount during play, you can hope to make it up by through casino or website rewards. That could put you over 100% and into the black.

Super Video Hold’em video poker falls a little short of that in its full-pay version, which includes a specific set of paybacks for winning hands and multiplier amounts for the qualifying starting hands. But the way that the game can pay back in a single hand, thanks to all the bonuses, certainly makes it an exciting play for those who want to win a lot in a short span of time.

Let’s take a look at the full-pay pay table for Super Video Hold’em video poker.

Coins/Hand	2 Coins	4 Coins	6 Coins	8 Coins	10 Coins
Royal flush on board	1,500	3,000	4,500	6,000	20,000
Royal flush	150	300	450	600	2,000
Straight flush	100	200	300	400	500
Four aces	50	100	150	200	250
Four of a kind (any other)	20	40	60	80	100
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	2	4	6	8	10

Now, let’s look at the multipliers in place for this game.

• Jack and queen of same suit: 2x
• Jack and king of same suit: 2x
• Jack and ace of same suit: 3x
• Queen and king of same suit: 2x
• Queen and ace of same suit: 4x
• Pair of jacks, queens, or kings: 4x
• King and ace of same suit: 5x
• Pair of aces: 8x
• Pair of red aces: 10x

You’ll notice that the top of the pay table is occupied by a hand called “royal flush on board.” This occurs when the five community cards form a royal flush. In other words, it doesn’t matter what your starting cards are, because the royal flush came out ready-made for you on the community draw.

Again, this is the best-paying of the pay tables that you’ll find associated with Super Video Hold’em video poker. But it’s not the only one.

Other pay tables you encounter will bring back a lesser payback percentage. This will either be because the multipliers have been reduced or one or more of the winning hands on the pay table will have its payback reduced.

Obviously, you should try to find the full-pay version of the game if possible. But casual players probably won’t play Super Video Hold’em video poker enough for the slight differences to make much of an impact. Especially when luck is such a big part of the equation with this game.

Here are the other pay tables, along with their accompanying multiplier amounts, that you might find on a Super Video Hold’em video poker machine:

Coins/Hand	2 Coins	4 Coins	6 Coins	8 Coins	10 Coins
Royal flush on board	1,500	3,000	4,500	6,000	20,000
Royal flush	150	300	450	600	2,000
Straight flush	100	200	300	400	500
Four aces	50	100	150	200	250
Four of a kind (any other)	20	40	60	80	100
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	2	4	6	8	10

• Jack and queen of same suit: 2x
• Jack and king of same suit: 2x
• Jack and ace of same suit: 3x
• Queen and king of same suit: 2x
• Queen and ace of same suit: 4x
• Pair of jacks, queens, or kings: 4x
• King and ace of same suit: 5x
• Pair of aces: 7x
• Pair of red aces: 10x

Coins/Hand	2 Coins	4 Coins	6 Coins	8 Coins	10 Coins
Royal flush on board	1,500	3,000	4,500	6,000	20,000
Royal flush	150	300	450	600	2,000
Straight flush	100	200	300	400	500
Four aces	50	100	150	200	250
Four of a kind (any other)	20	40	60	80	100
Full house	8	16	24	32	40
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	5	10	15	20	25
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pairs	2	4	6	8	10

• Jack and queen of same suit: 2x
• Jack and king of same suit: 2x
• Jack and ace of same suit: 4x
• Queen and king of same suit: 2x
• Queen and ace of same suit: 4x
• Pair of jacks, queens, or kings: 4x
• King and ace of same suit: 6x
• Pair of aces: 8x
• Pair of red aces: 10x

Strategy for Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

Strategy is an important part of the equation of any video poker game. But in the case of Super Video Hold’em video poker, you might not want to spend too much time to perfect it.

On the one hand, Super Video Hold’em video poker might seem like an easier game in terms of strategy. When you’re playing regular video poker, you have to choose between 32 possible combinations of holds and discards. The high number of choices comes from the fact that you’re getting five cards.

But with Super Video Hold’em video poker, you only have to choose between one of two different two-card hands. Get it right, and you improve your chances of forming a winning combination. Seems simple, right?

Difficulties of Learning Proper Strategy

Good luck finding resources to help you with your Super Video Hold’em video poker strategy. Unlike common five-card video poker, where you can find strategy charts and video poker training software for all the top pay tables, you won’t find much in that department for this two-card version of the game.

And even though it seems like the choice of one of two different two-card deals might seem easy, it’s a little more complex than you might think. After all, there are hundreds of possible two-card deals you might receive. Many of them are so close to each other in expected value that it will be hard for you to tell the right play between them.

Remember that the wrong choice will lower your expected payback percentage. How then will you be able to learn the right way to play this unique game? We do have a few suggestions below.

• Keep it simple. If you see a pair or two cards of the same suit, you can expect that it’s a good deal. Don’t try to overthink it. And never overlook the two-card combinations that will trigger the multipliers.
• Beware of the high cards bias. If you play Super Video Hold’em video poker regularly, you might be used to looking out for high cards. After all, a pair of high cards will get even-money on most pay tables. But in this game, you don’t get paid for any pairs, so, often, high cards don’t have the same kind of value they would in the five-card games.
• Have fun with it. Ideally, you could come up with a perfect strategy for Super Video Hold’em video poker. But the truth is that luck is more involved with this game than other video poker games, so incorrect strategy won’t hurt you as much. As a result, just making your best guess on the hands that you play should be good enough.

Pros and Cons of Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

Super Video Hold’em Video Poker Conclusion

Super Video Hold’em video poker lets you imagine that you’re waiting for that fantastic flop at the final table of the World Series of Poker. Don’t expect the same kind of payback, of course. But the unique game structure makes this an entertaining change of pace for regular video poker players.