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Actually it's still a question to me whether Video poker is absolutely the same as slots, where you can't affect the outcome in any way. Like, for example, if you were always ignoring a good hand, like a full house or four of a kind, or even better, that were given to you, and were holding nothing, but were exchanging all the cards all the time, would the result after, say, 50 games, be the same as if you were holding the "good" cards? I read that skillful poker players have significantly higher odds of winning, but I'm not sure if that is the case in reality.
There are many different types of slots, to start from the number of reels and lines to the ones that have some special features.
I said that video poker is "something like a poker-themed slot machine"...
Compared to real poker, video poker
is "something like a poker-themed slot machine". I totally agree with you on this one.
and basically it is. 5 reels, one line... with the first spin you decide which reels to hold for the next spin, and after that, you either have a hand or not (there are not many, but there are slots where you can hold the reels, but it costs extra). If you have a hand you can gamble for more and play hi & lo. Something that many slots have... feature to gamble with your winnings.
But in slots holding some reals is never free, isn't it? You have to pay something for holding those reals, and sometimes it's 10 times of your initial bet, so, I'm not sure if it's really the same or not.
From my experience, you can chase whatever you want but without luck (as in slots) you will not get anything! 50-100 hands without 3 of a kind, to not speak about something higher.
From my experience, it is easier to hit something higher in video poker than in real poker. For example, just recently there was a video poker challenge on one site, where you had to hit four of a kind
faces, meaning that only kings, queens and jacks count, and many people, including me, succeeded in that. You play real poker, so you have an idea how unlikely it is there, right?
Simply you don't have many options in video poker, it's just hand after hand and you either hit something good or not. Like spinning slots...
It is very true, you don't have that many options in video poker, but still, if you know at least basic rules and you know what cards is better to hold, you have better chances of winning than with spinning it like slots.