For beginner players it's always best to stick to the simpler video poker game of jacks or better...
Video poker games today come in a lot of different variations, but I have always tried to keep the philosophy of KISS(keep it simple stupid). Whenever I try to make things too complicated, it seems that I always make mistakes, so by sticking to that simple philosophy it's a lot easier to keep things in focus. With that said, let's go ahead and see what types of basic video poker games are being played by people today.
Due to the simplicity of it, one of the most played video poker games of all time is of jacks or better. Before you play this game, you need to check the machine and make sure the payout amounts for any type of big hands like a flush, full house, or a straight are good. Many of the poker machines out there have a progressive payout method, so these you want to avoid at first simply because of the fact that if you get a big hand, the payout will likely be less. Non-progressive machines will always payout more for any good hand like a full house or a royal flush.
One of the next most popular games you can play is jokers wild, which adds a little spice in the mix you could say. This game is pretty much exactly like jacks or better except for the fact that the Joker cards are left in the deck and can be used for a wildcard. Wildcards are wonderful in the fact that they can be used to represent any other card in the deck. As an example, say you get your five cards and one of them is a joker, if you get two Kings, a joker, and two threes, you end up with a full house do to the fact that the Joker can be made into a king. Since there is a wild card in the deck with jokers wild video poker, you will have to do better with your hand than with jacks or better in that you will need at least two pairs to win any money.
Another favorite video poker game out there is deuces wild, which makes all of the twos in the deck wildcards. While this is definitely going to make the odds better for you to get a big hand, in order for you to win anything with this, you have to get a minimum of three of a kind. That might seem a bit hard to get, but in reality since you can play the deuces as whatever card you want, it's not really that tough to get three of a kind.
Another video poker game that is quite popular today is called King of the decks. In this game, you have five decks of cards with 52 cards each. In order to get a winning combination, you have to have a minimum of two pairs, but since there are five decks of cards this is quite easy to do. These machines have been set up with a progressive jackpot that you can only win if you get all five Kings in the suit of clubs.
Progressive video poker machines are another type of video poker machine the people enjoy playing.
The payouts for big hands aren't quite as high as you get with other video poker machines, but since the payout builds progressively over time, it gives players the opportunity to hit a big payout all at once. If you're going to play this type of video poker game however, you need to make sure that the machine you're playing on is already at a high jackpot amount so that if you win that progressive pot it will be worth earning less for those smaller hands.
For beginners, it's always best to stick to the simple video poker game of jacks or better until you get a solid understanding of how the odds work on these machines. After you gain a good level of comfort with jacks or better, then it will be easier to understand some of the more complex types of video poker games.
When you are playing video poker, try to keep a level head about it and not take it all too seriously. Play it the way it was meant to be played, play it for fun.