By Samantha Williams

As one of the most popularly played games online video poker ranks at the top. Some experts say this is because it has one of the lowest house edges, so it pays out more often. I believe them, but I just play it because I like the game and find it that wee bit more entertaining than slots without the challenge of having to stack up to the skills of other poker players. But we all have our own reasons for playing video poker I am sure.

Different video poker software developers have different variations of the game and Microgaming for example has nearly 60 variants. Each of these variants has their own strategy for winning, and I found a great site the other day which allowed me to play video poker for free, while congratulating me for using the correct strategy, and criticizing me when I didn’t; but do you think for the life of me I can remember what it was called? Microgaming actually only has 17 pure variants, but these are split out by being able to play the games as 4 hand, 10 hand and even more hands as well as the new Level-up game.

Nevertheless, playing video poker for free at any site will familiarizes you with the strategy of a particular game and this is always governed by the pay tables. So all you need to do is refer to these to get the hang of it. Presently I believe that only Microgaming sites offer Level-up, but this will no doubt soon change.

It is hard to say what the most popular variant of video poker is, but I would hazard a guess at Jacks or Better as it is available at virtually every online casino. You will also find Aces and Faces, Double Joker, Bonus Deuces Wild, Double Bonus Poker and many other variations, I don’t want to be boring and list them all!

In games such as Bonus Deuces Wild the “deuce” which is a number two card, doubles up as a wild card and can be used to make the best winning poker hand. It is this that makes the game so simple to play and so easy to win. If a “Joker” is included in the title of the game, you can be pretty sure this is the extra card in the pack and it will also be a wild card.

As level-up poker is the latest format of video poker, I am not very familiar with it, but it looks very exciting and as soon as I have managed to sneak in a game or two, I will be better qualified to speak about it. It has something to do with playing four different hands with a new deck of cards, each at a different level.