Cherry Red advertises that they have the best Video Poker online with fast play, fast payouts and unrivalled customer support.  But they also want to give you a chance to double your deposit money with a 200% bonus that will boost your account up to $1200.   Just use the term WILDCHERRY in the redeem coupon section of the site when making your deposit. 

Cherry Red offers 14 different video poker games so you’re sure to find one that suits your mode. And the games can be played for one hand up to 52 hands at a time, for the real player in you.  Registration at Cherry Red is easy and free and they offer both practice play and real money play as either a software download or an instant play account. 

The casino does accept players from the United States.  The site is accredited by Technical Systems Testing (TST) and recognized for fair play. The sites runs on Real Time Gaming software with a variety of other games to offer if you need a break from Video Poker. 

The site also offers a VIP Rewards program. The Cherry Red VIP Club will earn you a variety of weekday and weekend bonuses plus plenty of comp points.  Plus if you play regularly, the VIP Cashback Flashback will earn you daily cashbacks as you play. 

If you’re looking for a casino to play Video Poker at, check out the action at Cherry Red.  And good luck at the cards! 

If you play video poker at online sites with any regularity, you’ll want to register for VIP programs at your favorite casino or casinos. These are programs that will earn you rewards and bonuses simply for playing at the casino. No need to win here. 

This post I want to look at Go Casino’s Go Getter program.  First a word about Go Casino itself.  If you’ve been on the gambling scene for a while, you might remember Go Casino by its old name of Golden Casino. The new casino is rebranded and eager for players.

Go Casino’s VIP Rewards Program is the Go Getter program.  The program is design to compliment the site’s huge welcome bonus by providing you with rewards for continued play on the site, not just reward for joining the site.  You don’t have to win, but you do have to play.  And practice play doesn’t count.

Join the program and you might win the Weekly Online Surprise Bonus. Several times a, players are selected to win a surprise bonus.  There’s no way to predict when this bonus will be awarded but the more time you spend playing on Go Casino (instead of another site) the more likely you are to win a surprise bonus.

But the program isn’t just about surprise bonuses.  You’ll earn VIP points every time you play  at the casino. Every $10 earns you a comp point. For every 100 points collected, the casino will credit a dollar to your account.   Also as you move up in the VIP levels, new bonuses become available for you to claim, from an additional 40% back on deposits to cash back on your losses. Yes, your losses.

But the best news about all of these rewards is that the Go Getter VIP Rewards Program is free to join. So you really have no reason not to check it out.

I’m playing Joker Poker Level Up Poker on Villento Las Vegas and enjoying it.  Keep in mind that’s a subjective statement. I tend to enjoy games when I’m winning money.  But Joker Poker Level Up Poker has offers a challenge for the player who is good enough at strategy to trigger a run of a few wins in a row. 

Here’s how the game works.  You are dealt a series of hands, in my game four hands are dealt.  All four have already had bets placed on them.  So, at a dollar a hand, my bet is four dollars for the round that I’m playing.  Now, unlike multi-hand games, each hand is played separately. 

You’ll decide which cards to hold and press draw.  If you win, you’ll move up to the next hand above your winning hand.  Win again, and you’ll progress up to the next level.  For each level you move up, your winnings are multiplied. So win the second hand, and you’ll win 2 times the pay table amount. Win the third hand, and you win four times the amount and win the final hand, and you’ll win eight times the pay out. 

The basic pay out table is a 7/5 payout starting at Kings or better (so Kings and Aces) which isn’t the best out there.  But the idea here is to move up the payout scale by winning hands in series.  The game has a joker card.  There is also a free ride card that will let you move up a level even if you don’t win the level below.  The simple strategy for this game is to hold kings and aces and always hold the joker card.  After that, you can play it with basic jacks or better game. 

If you manage to work your way up to the top hand and win there, the pay off is work it.  And the chase is part of the game.

Online tournaments are more common for slots players so I keep an eye out for the rare Video Poker tournament.  GoCasino seems to be one casino where I find them offered fairly regularly.  They have a new tournament starting tomorrow and ending Friday.

To find the tournament and register, you’ll want to download the Go Casino software and then visit the Tournament Lobby.  Tournaments are listed on the left side of the screen starting with tournaments already in play.  Scroll down to find upcoming tournaments, though you can take part in a tournament that is already in progress.  For Video Poker, you’re actually looking for the words Video Poker in the title.  The one starting tomorrow is “Video Poker $1500 Guaranteed 100 cash prizes” and the game is Deuces Wild. 

Tournament play is a little different than regular play.  Instead of depositing money for chips, you pay an entry fee into the tournament and are given a starting balance. In this case, you pay $1.99 for your entry fee and start off with $100 in chips. You must make at least 20 bets but you keep betting during the tournament period.  If you run out of money, you can rebuy 100 chips for another $1.99.

Instead of winning the amount on the reels, you’re playing for prizes based on who finishes top in the money.    For this tournament, the top prize is $350 for 1 winner.  Second is $110 for 1 winner and third is $100 for one winner.  The prizes continue down until 50 winners in 24^th place receive $3.00. 

I enjoy playing at Villento Las Vegas. They do have an amazing selection of video poker games. About 56 different games to choose from.  Of course some are variation on the same game but at Villento Las Vegas I can find Double Bonus poker and Double Double bonus poker and wonder when someone will come up with Double, Double, Double bonus poker or if that would just be Triple Bonus poker.  But I try not to let these thoughts distract my video poker strategy.

But when Villento Las Vegas told me that it had redesigned the front lobby, I logged in with a little bit of trepidation.  I’ve had redesign through things off on me and leave me looking for my favorite games.  No problems here.  The front lobby is wonderfully laid out with new graphics and as promised a focus on my account details, which are right there on the left hand side of the screen. 

The new lobby  also gives you instant information on current tournaments or new games available on the site, so if Triple Bonus Poker ever shows up, I’ll see it right away.  Of course the new games are usually slots.  But that’s the case with just about every online casino.  Slots need to be fresh new and shiny to attract players.  Video poker attracts players who know how to play. 

 But if I could make a suggestion to the site, now that you’ve made it easier to see my account details on the Lobby page, could you put a button in on the games view and other inside pages that will take me back to the lobby?  Because it seems you can’t get there from here. 

No, this isn’t Video Poker.  But when I spotted it in a list of Online Casino games I had to check it out and find out if it was a variation I hadn’t heard of.  Poker based games seem to be everywhere these days and some bear only a passing resemblance to poker.  For me Video Poker is on the closer side because players do make critical decisions on strategy, though of course the personal interplay of the poker table is missing.  But that means video poker games go faster and even hesitant poker players can join in the fun.  Caribbean Stud Poker and Pai Gow are other variations that provide the fun of poker without the stress of the high stakes bluffing and complex rules of a game like Texas Hold ‘em.

Poker slots is a slots game played with cards on a poker table like background.  It is somewhat amusing if you have a few minutes to spare and some extra change.  But this one, like any slots game, is purely luck based. Your only decision is how much to bet.  Once you’ve made that critical decision, you press the deal button and 25 cards — five rows across and five down — are dealt to the table.  If you’re playing all the lines, you win money for any poker hand made in any row, column or diagonal spread of cards.  This means there are 12 potential winning hands.  And it’s interesting how often I can lose with every one of them.  There is no option to hold or draw new cards.  This is slots. Just spin and hope to win.

I rather like this game. But keep in mind that this is a subjective judgment, not an objective one.  But it appeals to my love of hitting four of a kind and getting to hold cards.  But also the ability to use basic Jacks or Better strategy for the most part.  Actually, you won’t go wrong playing this like Jacks or Better because the top win is still a Royal Flush.  The pay out table takes a Jacks or Better 8/5 table as its base. At least on the version I’m playing. 

But the game adds the pursuit of four of a kind to the mix to make things a bit more interesting.  Hit four of a kind with Aces or 8s and the payout is 80 for one.  Or if you’re playing for the maximum coins, 400 coins.  Which is a nice number.  Hit four 7s and you’ll get a 50 for 1 payout or 250 coins for full play.  And four of a kind of other cards pays 20 for one or 100 coins for full pay.  But the game still pays 2 for 1 on two pair, which seems to be one place where many games pull back a coin because it seems like nothing when reading the pay table.  Who’s going to object to losing a coin on two pair when you look at the big money pay outs?  But those two pair draws come about more often than four of a kind and can really help keep you afloat.

So far I’ve hit for four of a kind twice in this round of Aces and Eights, once with Aces, and I’m comfortably over my starting point. Which means more money to play on!

It’s generally easier to find bonuses and promotions for slot games than it is for video poker, so I always keep a look out for online casinos offering bonuses for those of us who play video poker.  Slotastic has two offers that we can take advantage of, one for now and one on going.

First, you’ll want to look at Slotastics bonus to start playing video poker on their site.  This is a “get started” matching bonus on your first deposit.  You’ll get a 100% match on your first deposit up to $100. So, you’ll want to deposit $100 to start off with $200 in money to play on.  But keep in mind that you’ll have to play the video poker bonus for 50 times the sum of the deposit and the bonus before funds can be withdrawn and only video poker games count toward the wager requirements.  Of course you can play on the money the moment it lands in your account.  But you’ll have to risk losing it 50 times before taking it out of the account.  The coupon code for this offer is POKERSTARTED.

Slotastic is also offering a $200 monthly paycheck for deposits made on the site.  With this offer, you’ll receive a 50% deposit bonus up to $200.  So you’ll need to deposit $400 to claim the entire amount. But if you play on the site, there will be a new bonus awaiting you every month.  This is a bonus given to help bring you back to the site so you don’t leave after your sign up bonus is spent or redeemed. 

If you play slots as well as Video Poker, you’ll find bonuses available for the slot of the week and the progressive of the month.  So, Slotastic does well by its slots players too.  But keep in mind  that there are playing requirements for each bonus.  You’ll need to spend time playing at Slotastic.  But if you play, let them help pay!

Here’s the question, do the potential of winning on Ten through Ace rather than Jack through Ace give you enough of an advantage to make Tens or Better worth playing at a 6/5 payout.  I’m playing at Villento Las Vegas casino on line which helpfully reminds me which are the best cards to hold. I can always change the default holds to something else, but when playing a new game or switching from Jacks or Better to Tens or Better, it’s nice to have the reminder to look for tens.  Though I don’t want to become complacent because sometimes it chooses a more obvious pick over something that might be a potential royal flush.  And the game in Tens or Better video poker is still to chase after that Royal. 

First my impression just based on play without going to research the statistics on the game.  I may be winning more often because of the extra 10 possibility, but I’m running lower in money wins than I do at a full pay Jacks or Better game. The reason for this is that while a pair of tens is a winning hand, it only pays out at 1 to 1.  So those tens keep you from losing money on a hand but they don’t actually win you more money.  If you based this game on the payout chart for a full pay Jacks or Better game, you would truly have a game for the player not the house.  Which is why the payout table isn’t the same as a full pay 9/6 table.  The house needs to make money somewhere.  They do it by lowering the payout for the higher paying hands such as a Full House and a Flush.  Those are the hands that don’t just keep you from losing money but bring you up in the winnings.  With this game, I’m hitting them enough to hover just below or at my starting point. But there isn’t enough of a boost to push me over my starting point.

Now, checking the statistics on this shows me that I’m playing a game with a .991 return.  This puts it just below a full pay Jacks or Better game.  But actually makes it a better game than a 9/5 or 8/6 Jacks or Better game.  So, overall, not a bad game to play.  And actually if you’re in a real world casino and the full pay Jacks or Better machines are taken, this would be a better choice than a lower paying Jacks or Better game.  Just remember to  watch for the tens.