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Tips For Playing Video Poker Tournaments

When you’re playing online video poker, it’s just you vs the casino. By utilising the best playing strategy, you’ll receive the highest expected return. As you’re probably aware, your ultimate goal is to end up with more credits than you started with. But video poker tournaments are a totally different kettle of fish. That’s because it’s not just you against the casino. But rather you’re going to be playing against any number of other tournament players. Just like playing slots tournaments,

The aim of the game here isn’t enough to end up with more credits per round, but you want to end up with more credits than your opponents. Even if it means the total is less than you started with. When you look at it this way, you can see that video poker tournament play requires a totally different playing strategy.

When it comes to poker tournaments, there are as many formats and rules as there are online casinos that offer them. Here at Jackpotfinder.com, we’ve taken a look at all the available options. as a result, we decided to produce a summary of the two major formats that are the most popular. We’ll also include lots of jackpot winning tips and tricks that should help increase your jackpot winning chances.

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How To Get Your Video Poker Tournaments Started

First off, let’s look at some general facts about tournament play. For starters, every tournament player needs to pay the same entry fee. This buy-in will give every player a specific number of credits with which they can start the first round. If you look at the video poker screen, you’ll see at the bottom there’s a counter. This records the number of credits you’re winning on each round. This is the opposite of how a regular video game counter functions, as it’s counting down the number of credits left. 

Check The Video Poker Tournaments Paytable

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All online casinos, like Bovada Casino, can use any video poker game for the tournament. With this in mind, it might be a good idea to look at the pay table before you decide to enter the competition. Having said that, the regular choice of jackpot games chosen normally have pay tables which are relatively liberal. Also, take note that many video poker tournaments have machines that are pre-programmed to only play with a maximum of 5 coins per hand. However, you should really only play with this number of coins. By playing with the max coins, you’re more likely to accelerate ahead faster

The two formats that you’ll most commonly come across when playing video poker tournaments are those that are based on a specific time limit, which is based purely on speed. The other is based on a specific number of hands to be played. Let’s have a look at each one in turn.

Time Or Speed Tournaments

Just as it says on the tin, with this tournament format there’s a time on each machine and within that time limit, you must play as many hands as you can. As for the actual number of minutes, you’ll find that many tournaments will offer some for as little as 5-minutes, with others going on to 20 minutes and upwards. These video poker tournaments are speed tournaments, meaning your job is to play as many hands as you can within the allotted time. You must play like a whirling dervish, as the idea is you must complete more hands than your opponent. You can guarantee that your opponents will be playing like crazy people.

Learn To Play With Two Hands

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Before you sign up and dive into a time tournament, we suggest that you master three techniques first. The most important is you’ll have to practise using both hands. This is because you need to press down on the deal/draw button and the hold button at the same time. If your opponents are just using one finger to smash the buttons or the touchscreen, then you’re going to be miles ahead. In the beginning, it may seem a little awkward. But after some practise you’ll get the hang of it. Then you’ll realise that two hands are so much better than one. At the end of the day, there’s just a single goal. And it requires nothing but speed to achieve it.

Maintain A Clear Head

Next up you need a clear head. This is because you have very little time to make decisions about every hand that appears. We recommend using a software trainer on your home PC. This will allow you to scan the cards in your hand very quickly. Then you can make a decision based on the contents of your hand. It’s quite normal that when you start off you’re going to make a number of mistakes simply because you’re playing very rapidly. But as this is a competition of speed, your goal is to play as many hands as quickly as possible within that specific time frame.

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An All Or Nothing Winning Strategy

Another important strategy for these video poker tournaments is to use what’s known as a go-for-the-royal strategy. This is simply because, after viewing literally thousands of tournaments, we conclude that the top players are the ones who managed to hit a royal flush. Yes, it’s true, this does require a kind of “all or nothing” approach. But it’s probably better that you hold the cards that might give you the biggest possible payout. Rather than holding those for which prizes are much smaller.

If you’re going to play with this strategy and you have no royal cards, then feel free to discard all five cards and get new ones. It’s worth pointing out that your odds of hitting a royal flush actually improve by playing this strategy. They go from 1 in every 40,000 hands to 1 in every 23,000 hands. We’ll be the first to admit that paying for the royal flush is an extreme strategy. The truth is that with this all-or-nothing approach, you’re going to lose most of the time. But stepping back, we can see that if you have a low score of saw 400 credits, then it’s no different than having a score of 4,000 credits. Especially if you need a much biggest score to wind up in the prize money.

Total Hand Video Poker Tournaments Format

With this game format, you going to play a specific number of hands. You don’t have to worry about speed so much. Yet you will need to be aware of accuracy. Having said that, you may well find some tournaments that also have a time limit. So you must finish playing a hand within this period. Generally speaking, in this type of tournament, you’ll know beforehand what game is going to be used, as well as the pay table. With this knowledge, we suggest that you practise the game’s playing strategies. As previously mentioned, it’s a good idea to use your software trainer on your home computer in order to keep track of how accurate you’re playing.

Yet More Videro Poker Tournaments Tips

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One of the main jackpot winning strategies is to know the score you need to beat. Now if for example, the competition consists of several rounds of play where each player’s points are accumulated, then you should schedule to play for a later round. By knowing what the top scores are, you know what you need to aim for. You can therefore adjust your playing strategies accordingly.

Read The Video Poker Tournaments Rules

Though it sounds kinda obvious, it’s really important for you to understand that video poker tournaments have rules before you dive in. Another important consideration is to know how many players are taking part in the video poker tournament. Also, look into the distribution of the prizes. In some cases, the vast majority of prize money goes to the first-place winner. Yet, in other tournaments, the money is divided out more evenly.

There’s no getting away from the fact that luck is probably the biggest component in these video poker tournaments. That’s only because they only require a few hands to be played. However, if you make use of the above strategies, and practice when you should, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be finishing with a nice payout. Head over to Bovada Casino, where they put on regular tournaments, with some having buy-in for as little as $0.50!

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