The game of Video Poker may seem complex and while some strategy and skill is required to play this rewarding casino games, the various draws generally come down to two types of hands. If you are dealt a hand that doesn’t just consist of random cards, then you’ll generally have a draw of some sort of pair-based hand. These hands are usually quite straight-forward to play, while Draws on the other hand have a number of possible scenarios, so their value can change quite significantly.
Here we’ll discuss a few different kinds of video poker draws and how to evaluate their respective strengths in comparison to made hands and one another.
If you are not dealt a straight flush or better, then the best way to play our hand is four cards to a Royal Flush. Even if you are dealt a made straight or made flush, opting to play a four card royal draw is the optimal play. This play teaches us a great deal about the value of draws as you get a lot of value from the single card in the deck that will award you the royal, in addition you have a number of other cards that can award you straights and flushes that in themselves have good value.
Something that is often overlooked in this case is the fact that Royal Flush Draws generally consist of three high cards. This means that there are nine (or occasionally twelve) more cards still in the deck that can offer you 1x payouts. While this may not seem high in comparison to the higher paying hands that you can make with this type of strong draw, it’s also pivotal as to why some draws are stronger than others. Let’s consider an example of a mistake that even experienced players often make.
If a player is dealt a hand consisting of an Ace of Clubs – Queen of Clubs – Ten of Clubs – Seven of Clubs and Seven of Diamonds, then the pair of Sevens wouldn’t be as strong as the flush draw and due to the fact that most players knows this, they will instinctively play the four card flush. This however is an error in judgement as playing the Ace, Queen, Ten hand is a superior play due to the value of the high cards in this instance.
Another example of a hand that often leads to player error is the King-Queen-Jack-Ten-Ten with no flush draw. Again the majority of players are aware of the fact that small pairs are inferior to the open-ended straight draws and therefore automatically opt for the Ten-Ten play. The optimal play in this instance is to play the King-Queen-Jack-Ten draw due to the increased strength of the high cards.
As you can see, you can learn a lot from Draws and this will help you to avoid common player mistakes and increase your payouts.
