Ruby Royal is a good site for some of the most common video poker games available. It doesn’t offer many of the strange options I see coming out these days like Mystery Bonus Poker, but it does offer Jacks or Better and most of the basic players are familiar with.  So it isn’t difficult to find a game to play and enjoy. 

But now through May 31^st, the folks at Ruby Royal are making some great bonus offers to tempt you to play with them.  What I like is that they offer you three choices of sign up options.  So, if you haven’t signed up on the site yet, take a look at these.

Your first option, just make your first deposit and claim a 100% cashable bonus back on your money.  Or try option number 2 which is a 150% bonus plus $15 free to play on.  And option number three will give you a 100% back with a low play through rate of just 15 times.  So, you’ll be able to get that money out of your account sooner. 

However, if you want to make your first deposit by Saturday May, 29^th, you can claim another $25 free to play on from the casino.  So, are you worried about losing?  Here’s your Memorial Day special.  On Monday May 31^st, you can login to your account and claim 25% cashback on any losses you had between May 27^th and May 30^th.   

So, check out the video poker options over at Ruby Royal and start your Video Poker adventure.

Have you ever thought of video poker as a form of meditation?  There are days when I find that it helps me when I need to still my mind or even focus my attention.  Both video poker and regular poker focus on cards, strategy and money. But with regular poker, players focus not only on their cards but on the other player and the competition.  Games can be intense and competition is tough.  But though there is a focus, it isn’t particularly zen like.  

But video poker is different.  I need to focus on my strategy and on the cards in front of me, but there are no other distractions.  In fact, if I let my focus wander, I find myself losing concentration and missing a good hand.  So, I have to focus on the cards and the simple action of deal, hold, reveal.   Plus the action of watching my money as it goes up and down. 

With a good game of video poker, I find myself falling into a meditative state.  I focus on my cards and my game and the world sort of fades away.  Which means my stress level drops.  Okay, maybe it doesn’t drop if I’m losing too much money, but sometimes I play a new site in the practice mode so that money is just a virtual concern. 

There have been studies out there that suggest that gambling actually helps people reduce their stress levels.  Perhaps it’s this focused concentration that’s responsible for the reduction rather than the actual winning of great amounts of money.  Though, over all, perhaps winning great amounts of money would also lower my stress.

Yet another casino wants to give you a taste of what It’s like to play with real money on their site.  I’m seeing more and more of these offers to tempt players into the game.  And there’s no reason not to take advantage of them since they really do allow you to start playing on the casino’s money. If you don’t meet the play through on the promotional offer, you’ll lose the free money in your account, but that isn’t money out of your bank account and if you find you don’t like playing video poker online, you can always quit with no penalties. 

Today’s offer popping into my main box is from Online Vegas.com.  They want to give players $25 to begin playing on the site.  All you have to do is create a real money account and use the code OVF007 to claim your money.  You’ll need to call a toll free number - 1-877-516-6686 or contact their live chat support to claim the money. 

Online Vegas offers a nice selection single hand and multi hand and even mega multi hand games to tempt you to play.  They do stick with the standard video poker options such as Jacks or Better, Dueces Wild, Aces and Faces, Joker Poker and a handful more.  While they don’t offer the strange variations I’ve been finding like Mystery Bonus Poker, I’m not sure playing those games really improves your chances of winning money, so the standard games may be better for your bankroll. 

Online Vegas also offers slot and table games in your want to take a break from video poker. Though fair warning — the odds on slots are never as good as the odds on Video Poker played with a good strategy.

Okay, let’s get down to it. You want to play video poker and you don’t want to drive to a casino. So you’re thinking about playing online, but you’re hesitant.  Why? Because you aren’t sure of the process. Because you don’t know if the sites are legitimate or you just aren’t ready to hand over your money yet.  I mean, it’s not unusual for us to want to “try before we buy” especially when stepping into a new environment.  And I’m not going to tell you it’s easy to overcome your hesitation and jump into the world of online casinos.

Except — when it’s easy to overcome your hesitation and jump into the world of only casinos.  Because Box 24 is making it easy.  All you have to do is sign up for an account with them and they will give — yes, give — you $24 to beginning playing on.  This isn’t a matching deposit on money you put into the site but actual money given to you to begin playing on. 

The reason Box 24 is doing this is that hesitation that people feel when they think about playing online.  By allowing you to play at their site completely free but with real money, the site gives you a chance to become familiar with how they work. The casino hopes that you’ll continue to put more money into the casino when your $24 runs out.  You of course hope that you’ll make enough money from that $24 that you don’t have to put more money into the casino.  It’s possible. It’s always possible.  And all you stand to lose is the casino’s own money.

Be sure you check out the terms, conditions and play through on the offer before signing up. Though the offer for the money is legitimate, there are deadlines on the play through which mean you’ll want to sign up when you’re ready to spend some quality time playing on the site.

I’ve been playing Pick Em poker over on Silver Oak Casino, which is the one site I frequent that I’ve found it on.  I decided to give it a try because I wanted to play something a little different, and when it comes to Video Poker, Pick Em Poker certainly is different.  The problem is that so far, I haven’t discovered the appeal of the game. 

Pick Em Poker strikes me as a video poker game trying to cash in on the Texas Hold ‘em poker craze.  Most video poker games are played more like 5 card draw where you are dealt five cards and decide which to hold and which to discard and then pick up some new cards.  But Pick Em poker deals you four cards, the two to the left of the screen work more like the community cards, which means you can’t discard them, no matter how bad they are. 

You also have two revealed cards that sit on top of pre-dealt stacks of three cards. You choose one of these stacks and the other two are revealed, showing you your hand.  So, when you look at the four cards you have in front of you, you have two that you can’t discard. Then you have two of which you can only keep one. 

The lowest winning hand is a pair of nines or better, which might sound like good news.  But overall, this is a game that just doesn’t work for me.  Essentially, you choose once in this game and don’t have the control to hold or discard that you do in other video poker versions.  It may be designed to feel a bit like Texas Hold’em, but there is no opponent to outsmart or out bluff.  Just a machine. If you play this one, I recommend starting with practice games for no money.  Then decide if you want to risk your real money on it.

Interested in playing in a video poker tournament?  VIP Casino currently has three offerings to tempt you to play with them.  You can check out Weekend Deuces Wild Face Off which runs Friday through Sunday or join in a Jacks or Better Challenger event that runs Monday through Thursday or even check out the May 100 hand Deuces Wild tournament that is running now through May 31. 

These are all low fee tournaments with a buy in of $5 and a prize pool of combined money from the buy in pot.  So for tournaments still open for registration, you won’t know the real prize amount until the casino knows how many players it has.  Generally you can expect more money than the entry fee, but I don’t think video poker is as popular as slots yet.  Which means many video poker players aren’t familiar with tournament play.

So, here’s the deal with a tournament. When you play Video Poker as a regular player, you play the money that you have in your account and win or lose the amount shown on in the game.  But with tournaments, you pay a fee and are entered to compete against other players to see who can make the most money during the tournament play time.  If you play the Weekend Deuces Wild Face Off, you’ll pay $5 to enter and be given a balance of $100 to play with.  Then you’ll put your best strategy forward and try to win more money than anyone else in the game.  If you succeed, you win the prize determined by the prize pool.  Often there are various levels of prizes to encourage people to keep coming back.  But keep in mind, you win the pre-determined prize — not the amount that you won while playing the game.  To win (or lose) that amount, you’d invest a hundred dollars of your own money to play on. 

Tournaments are popular at casinos because the small entry fee usually gives players a chance to check out their favorite games with a chance to win more money than they would have just by playing the entry fee amount.  With slots, players have to depend on luck, but with Video Poker, you can still play with your best strategy. 

Mystery Bonus Video Poker is Jacks or Better Video Poker with a teaser.  You’ll place your bet and hit deal.  The cards will be dealt and a mystery hand will be revealed.  You can then try for the best winning hand, either by playing for the standard poker hands or to try to hit the hand revealed as the mystery hand for a bonus prize. 

The pay table for the game is a basic 8/5 pay table, so not as strong as a 9/6 pay out possibility.  Whether the mystery bonus makes up for the difference in the payout is largely dependent on luck.  Since mystery bonus video poker can be played for one or multiple hands, the recommended strategy is to play for more than one hand at a time since that increases your odds of hitting a bonus hand.  Of course, since the bonus hands can be those hard to hit hands like a royal flush, you may find your chances of hitting the bonus hand as rare as your chances of landing a royal flush.

The trick with playing mystery bonus poker is that while you can follow your basic strategy video strategy but sometimes you might find you want to bend the strategy to go for the bonus hand.  For example, while the strategy recommended by the casino I’m playing at is not to hold 2 pair because you want to try for three or four of a kind, if the bonus hand it 2 pair, it may be one of the few chances you have of actually hitting the mystery bonus. 

Mystery Bonus Video Poker doesn’t offer the strongest odds, but the mystery bonus might add a little interest to the game for the occasional round of play.  Hitting the bonus round might be rare but if you hit it for a high enough hand, it could be worthwhile.

The problem with learning to play video poker with Deuces Wild is that the choices don’t give you the strategy overview that learning with Jacks or Better does.  This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a strategy. But the prevalence of wild cards means that the strategy shifts because you aren’t working with natural poker hands but rather wild card hands.   So, you always hold a 2. 

But in Deuces Wild, you’ll feel like you discard your entire hand more often than you do in Jacks or Better.  This is because there is not payout for a high pair, a pair or even two pair.  Which means unlike Jacks or Better, you would hold a single high card, there really is no advantage to that here.  You’re often better off discarding everything because that gives you a better chance of drawing more wild cards.

Always hold the 2. If you play a game that automatically holds the best hand, check to be sure that it holds a single 2 or make sure you hold that yourself.  I’ve lost a hand while playing because I didn’t notice that the 2 hadn’t been automatically marked to be held. 

The payout hands start at three of a kind and run up to a natural Royal Flush.  A natural royal flush is one that you hit without a wild card.  You’ll want to bet the maximum coins in this as in any video poker game so that you can get the maximum payout for a Royal Flush.  A Royal Flush with one or more wild cards still pays, but considerably less.  Also, there is a potential 5 of a Kind payout here which would be four of a kind and a wild 2.

Despite the feeling that I’m tossing too many hands because there is no payout for a high pair, the overall odds for this game can run strongly in the player’s favor.  It just takes a little time to remember to strategize around those wild cards. 

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.