Moving From Video Poker to Online Texas Holdem

To the uninitiated, online games like Video Poker and Texas Holdem tend to get lumped into the same category. They believe that the video poker strategy they use can help them in the Texas Holdem world. While its true that both of these games use a standard 52 card deck and have the same hand ranking, after that, the similarities start to disappear.

Video poker is a game played strictly against a machine. There are certain combinations that will result in a win (payout) for the player and others that will result in a loss. Winning hands and their associated payouts are based solely on a predefined payout table. If youre dealt good cards you win, bad cards you lose.

As an example, lets take a quick look at one of the most popular video poker versions Jacks or Better Video Poker. The player is dealt five cards, after examining the hand the player decides which cards to keep and which cards to throw away, the discarded cards are replaced by new ones and the hand is over. The payout if any is determined by the payout table.

The point is, because youre playing against a machine and all winning hands/payouts are predetermined your odds of winning are very predictable and can always be improved by using certain specific strategies.

In a game like Texas Holdem however, youre playing against other real people. Since youre not playing against a machine, there is no payout table. Wins and losses are not necessarily determined by the best hand, but by the player perceived to have the best hand. The payout itself is based on the amount the player bets and in the case of No-Limit Texas Holdem this can be his or her entire bankroll. These are the key differences between Video Poker and Texas Holdem and the ones that make Online Holdem so exciting.

Holdem is really a game that is more about the situation then it is about the cards. For example, one of the worst starting hands in Holdem is the dreaded deuce, 7 off suit. Its a bad hand because the card values are low, the cards are too far apart to be part of a straight, and theyre off-suit so they wont even make for a flush draw. Anyway, this hand as bad as it is, can - under the correct circumstances - beat out much better hands. How? Because in Holdem its all about perception if you bet appropriately, have the correct table persona and wait for the right time, you can simply scare your opponents into folding. Thats the magic of Texas Holdem, and thats what keeps us coming back.