Any newcomer to online casino games – and especially video poker – can get a little confused when it comes to staking.
You’ll see in some games that you can select how many coins you want to play and the denomination value for each coin, and although you might not realise it yet there is an important distinction that needs to be made.
You might think that playing one coin at £1 is the same as playing five coins at £0.20 each, but you’d be wrong….
How Many Coins Should I Use in Video Poker?
Back in 2021, a video poker enthusiast sat down at their favourite machine at the Suncoast Casino in Las Vegas and got to work.
They were playing four coins per game, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that – until they hit a royal flush, which as you are probably aware is the best payout in video poker.
What a deal! Congrats to the lucky winner of this $10,000 jackpot! pic.twitter.com/RcXmfcI8k5
— Suncoast Casino (@suncoastcasino) August 10, 2021
That secured them a handsome $10,000 payout, which is of course not to be sniffed at. But the unfortunate individual may not have been aware that had he or she played five coins instead of four, they would have won more than $30,000 from the same stake per game.
The reason is that a royal flush will trigger a special bonus at higher odds in many cases, but this only becomes active when a minimum of five coins are in play. The standard payout for a royal flush is usually around the 250/1 mark when you bet four coins or fewer. But when you go max (assuming five is the limit), the prize for a royal flush can jump to as high as 800/1.
The irony is that you can super-size your payout by wagering five coins per game even at the same denomination as four or fewer – without losing any more on weak hands at the lower coin level.
One of the other factors to consider is that the best Return to Player (RTP) rate for a video poker game is calculated from the five-coin maximum. At the four coin or lower level, this RTP will drop by as much as 2% – meaning that from the average gaming session, you can expect to lose more with four coins or less than you would by playing five. If you play regularly, that 2% drop-off will soon add up to a considerable margin.
Knowing Your Stuff
So one of the best bits of advice that video poker players can heed is to consult the paytable before deciding upon your coin amount.
This table, usually available when you click the ‘info’ or ‘i’ button on screen, will reveal the different payouts available for a royal flush based upon how many coins are wagered.
Typically, there will be a jump in prize money when you wager five coins or more compared to four coins or less – make sure you know the ins and outs of the video poker game you want to play before beginning your session.
Remember, just because you are betting more coins does not mean you have to wager more in real terms. So, if you want to bet £1 per game, you would simply bet five coins at a denomination of £0.20 as opposed to four coins at £0.25.
You have absolutely nothing to lose from making the switch, and perhaps plenty to gain.
Flushed Away
Of course, there’s an alternative train of thought that’s worth considering.
By increasing your stake to five coins, you’re only really seeing the benefit from the bonus paid out on royal flush hands – that increases your financial return and also your theoretical RTP rate.
But did you know that the chances of hitting a royal flush are around 1 in 40,000 when optimal poker strategy is used!?
So you need to weigh up if you want to base your staking plan on a scenario that is very rare to say the least or not.
The converse way of thinking is that, even though your RTP increases when playing five coins and therefore the house edge decreases, the basis of that calculation is something that occurs on a basis rarer than Halley’s Comet.
So, if you’re playing video poker solely as a means of enjoyment – which you should be anyway, with any winnings made on top an added bonus, then you should be staking a lower amount on one coin.
Why? Because that way you will be able to play more hands with your bankroll than you would by splashing out on five coins per hand.
There’s a simple equation you need to answer when deciding upon your staking plan in video poker: are you going to wager more in the hope of a bumper royal flush payday, or are you going to stake less so that you can play more hands?