free online video poker

free slots video poker

Intel created the first transistor-based Microchip in 1971, and it wasn’t long before people began coming up with exciting and innovative uses for this new technology within the gambling industry. It took a few years for the techies and engineers to devise ways to use these new chips to create video slots and other digital casino games, but by 1975, an American businessman named William Redd was finally putting the finishing touches to what would become the first-ever Video Poker machine, titled “Fortune 1 Draw Poker”.

Before researching this subject, I always believed Jacks or Better was the first Video Poker game. In truth, Fortune 1 Draw Poker was extremely similar to Jacks or Better – it merely lacked the “Jacks or Better” payout from the paytable. It’s also not surprising that many people haven’t even heard of Fortune 1, too – the game was a colossal flop. With the lowest payout for two pairs, players would only win approximately 13% of the hands played.

William Redd wrote a book about his invention of the Video Poker machine later in his life. He described the “Lightbulb moment” when he realised that adding an extra payout for hitting a pair of “Jacks or Better” would dramatically improve the game's playability. 

It’s almost sneaky – the payout in question is just your original stake being returned to you – but psychologically, it immediately felt like you were losing much, much less often than you were in Fortune 1 Draw Poker. And it’s true, you were “losing” fewer hands – but you also weren’t winning any more money either. However, this didn’t matter to casino patrons, and Jacks or Better was the first big hit for Si Redd and his company SIRCOMA (shorthand for Si Redd’s Coin Operated machines).

Si Redd offered his new single-person poker game, Jacks or Better, to his former employer, Bally, as he felt they would be much better positioned to promote the game and get it into land-based casinos across America than he could ever hope to do on his own. But, surprisingly to Redd, Bally wasn’t interested in his offer, despite the success that Jacks or Better was quickly beginning to show in the small number of venues where it was already available.

Simon had no choice but to seek out his own manufacturing and marketing partners and soon began to sell Video Poker machines under the “Game King” brand to casinos across the United States. The machines were also immensely popular in smaller establishments in gambling towns such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

The beauty of a Video Poker machine is that it combines the best elements of table games – allowing players a degree of control over the outcome of each round – with the single-player, fast-paced nature of a slot machine. Of course, the modern GK machine adds several further advantages to this, too.

So popular is the Game King cabinet that you can barely walk a hundred yards in Las Vegas without coming across one. I’m not just talking about the strip either – downtown is stuffed full of the things too, and even the tiniest bars on the edge of the desert are likely to have one or two of these cabinets tucked away somewhere on their premises. It’s even reported online that the rec room at Area 51 has its own  machine, although, like most things related to Area 51, good luck confirming that one!

The popularity of the GK cabinet can no doubt be linked largely in part to the multitude of different gaming options available on each machine. For example, when you buy a Game King machine, it will usually come pre-loaded with at least a dozen different Video Poker games.

Earlier variations of the Game King could be updated with additional ROM chips to support other games. In contrast, most modern-day versions even allow owners to purchase additional games remotely, which are then downloaded and installed onto the cabinet via the internet.

Here’s a brief selection of just a few of the best Video Poker machine variants you can find on a modern Game King machine:

• Aces and Eights
• Aces and Faces
• All American
• Bonus Poker
• Double Bonus Poker
• Double Double Bonus Poker
• Deuces Wild
• Deuces & Joker Poker
• 10s or Better
• Jacks or Better
• Joker Poker

Game King has even begun adding other games to their cabinets, recognising that these machines take up a considerable amount of floor space, and there is no real reason to restrict them to playing just Video Poker.

A limited number of slot machines have already been released, as well as Blackjack, Keno, and Baccarat. Who knows what other games we might see on Game King cabinets in the future?

Learning how to play a Video Poker game is unlikely to be much trouble for anybody who has ever played a slot machine. However, mastering the art of poker will likely take longer – even a single-player variety like this one. If you have played a table poker game in the past, such as Texas Hold’em, then you are in luck – the hand rankings used in Video Poker are identical to all other forms of Poker. If not, understanding the various hand rankings is, in truth, the easy party – it is the individual strategies for each game variant that will truly take you some real time to learn.

We have published reviews of the five most popular video poker games, including Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, and Double Double Bonus Poker. All five of these reviews come with a complete strategy card you can download and use, whether playing at online casinos or in land-based premises. These strategy cards are often called “cheat sheets”, but don’t let this terminology confuse you! 

Casinos are more than happy for you to use these basic strategy cards, even whilst sitting at a machine in one of their land-based properties. Most of them even sell the cards in their gift shops at exorbitant prices, but rather than purchasing one, feel free to print out our version free of charge and even try them out on our free video poker games. You’ll probably find that ours is a tad more accurate to the full RTP of the game as well!

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