How to play poker in casino

How to Play Poker in a Casino

If you’ve never played poker in a casino, it may seem intimidating compared to a night at your home game, but not to worry! Once you sit down at your first casino poker table, you’ll realize it’s not so different and you’ll be raking in the chips before you know it. Here’s how to get started!

Step 1: Get on a List

Give the poker host your initials and tell him which lists you’d like to be added to and voila! You’re done.

Step 2: Buy Your Chips

The exception to this rule is if they call for a brand-new game or table. Then they usually will have a dealer sitting there with racks of chips you can buy. And many casinos have chip-runners who will get your chips for you. All that said, there is never a downside to having your chips already.

You’ve signed up on the queue at the poker room, now the real fun begins.

Step 3: Sit Down and Play!

Once you’ve posted that first big blind, that’s it, you’re officially playing poker in a casino.

Step 4: Remember the Rules and Maintain Good Poker Manners

Once you’re in the game, you’ll want to follow all the rules of poker etiquette you’d follow at a home game, but there are some rules you’ll want to pay more attention to you might skip at home:

Step 5: Taking Breaks and Calling It a Night

Learn How To Play Texas Hold ‘Em In A Vegas Casino

When making your Vegas checklist it should include a show, at least a couple meals at a Vegas restaurant, but before you check out the best nightlife anywhere, you should learn how to play the classic and popular Texas Hold ‘Em poker in a Vegas casino.

You may have perfected your poker face, but you still need a few tricks up your sleeve before hitting the tables. Poker is one of the most common, yet strategic games on the Las Vegas casino floor, and the various types all have different rules. Texas Hold ‘Em is the most popular variation of poker, and has the same hand hierarchy and basic rules as traditional poker, so it’s great for beginners. Continuing our gaming series, there a few Texas Hold ‘Em poker pointers that can help you rake in winnings. After all, Texas Hold ‘Em is the game played in the World Series of Poker Main Event annually at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

Texas Hold ‘Em Casino Rules

In Texas Hold ‘Em, each player is dealt two pocket cards, and then five community cards are revealed. There are four rounds of bets–once after the hole cards are dealt, and then three rounds as different community cards are revealed. Players must make the best poker hand combination possible with their five cards.

Want to go all in and play poker? After betting big, cross your fingers for one of Texas Hold ‘Ems star hands, such as a Royal Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House and Two Pair.

You may not be ready to enter the WSOP’s finals table just yet, but you might get a few winning hands. Check out more poker tips and find out when to call, bet or fold.

If you still don’t think you’re ready for the WSOP, belly up and hone your Texas Hold ‘Em skills at any of these Caesars properties:

3 Card Poker Rules: Learn To Play In Less Than 5 Minutes

3 Card Poker Rules for Beginners:

When making your Vegas bucket list, you have to make time for the fantastic shows, plan at least a few meals at the uniquely delectable restaurants, and make sure you save some energy for the word-class nightlife, but you also should make time to learn how to win at 3 card poker.

Hot table game Three Card Poker has gained popularity not only because it’s fun, but because it’s also easy to learn. Three Card Poker is like getting two Las Vegas casino games in one. Not only can you play against the dealer, you can also win based on how good your cards are.

The object of the game is to make the best poker hand possible with only three cards.

How To Play 3 Card Poker

3 Card Poker Payouts:

Pair plus payouts:

Straight Flush 40 to 1

Three of a Kind 30 to 1

Straight 6 to 1

Ante bonus payouts:

Straight Flush 5 to 1

Three of a Kind 4 to 1

Straight 1 to 1

Now that you’re a Three Card Poker pro, check out more «how to play» videos on Texas Hold ‘Em poker, Blackjack, Craps and Roulette.

Now that you’ve learned how to play 3 card poker and win, try your luck at the tables at any of these Caesars properties:

Video poker guide

How to Play Video Poker

Almost everybody who has visited a land based casino stumbled upon a Video Poker machine. You can play Video Poker right at the bar, and at some casinos, even enjoy free drinks in return. But why exactly are Video Poker machines so popular? Is it the skill involved, or the simplicity of the game with touch-screen control? Maybe it’s the high payout many of the Video Poker games offer, and of course the magical Royal flush, sometimes with a progressive jackpot.

Even though Video Poker is very easy to learn and play, it is very difficult to master Video Poker strategies that help you to take full advantage of the often extremely high theoretical return to player (RTP), which can even be higher than 100 % in some cases.

1. Understanding the paytable

The paytable of Video Poker machines is based on poker hand rankings. So if you are familiar with Texas Hold’em Poker, you are good to go. However, it is not strictly necessary if you want to learn how to play Video Poker. The Video Poker machine will mark the completed poker hand combination after each game and pay you the winnings accordingly.

If you want to WIN more consistently playing Video Poker, you need to become familiar with hand ranking.

You will never hit Royal flush if you do not hold the required cards.

2. Choose a suitable Video Poker game and bankroll

Sitting down at a random Video Poker machine might actually decrease your chances to win.

Choosing the proper Video Poker game is one of the most important steps you need to take if you want to win more consistently playing Video Poker. Always remember to check the paytable and the payout of a given Video Poker game before playing. Contrary to slots, where you just have to trust the numbers published by casinos and casino software providers, the payout of Video Poker games can be statistically calculated based on the paytable.

Check out our article about the most common and highest paying Video Poker games for paytables of their various versions found at land based or online casinos, along with the theoretical payout value.

Variance is important when deciding what size of bankroll to choose in order to be able to reach your targets. For example, to play long enough to be able to hit at least one higher paying combination. This is much more complicated than it sounds, and our article on Video Poker strategy will give you all the tips and recommendations you need to get started.

3. Make your first Video Poker bet

More important than it sounds, you can actually increase the expected payout based on how you structure your bet.

First you have to insert some money into the Video Poker machine. This is done online either automatically, or you choose the amount and insert the money with a push of a button. At land based casinos, you just insert an accepted banknote.

Another huge mistake that very often hurts the chances of players to win is the choice of the number of credits to be played per game.

Do not make this frequent mistake,

ALWAYS USE THE «BET MAX» BUTTON to play maximum credits per game.

The difference in terms of payout can be as high as several percentage points. If you want to bet 25 cents per game always choose a lower limit and play the maximum number of credits per game. In this case, choose a 5 cent limit and bet the maximum of 5 credits. The expected payout value will be higher than when playing the same limit with one 25 cent credit. The exact theoretical payout difference depends on the game played.

4. Pick the proper cards to hold

This is the most tricky part. If you do not choose proper cards according to optimal Video Poker strategy, the expected value of each hand rapidly decreases.

If you do not want to lose you bankroll rapidly, make sure you hold cards based on the Video Poker strategy chart found in our strategy article and in Video Poker games articles.

Without the knowledge of this Video Poker strategy chart, you will encounter situations where it’s extremely difficult to make correct decisions.

Make sure to print the Video Poker strategy chart and practise as much as possible playing free Video Poker online.

Below is an example of the type of tricky situation where the chart comes in handy. Many players would definitely go for the Royal flush and hold the Jacks and Queen of diamonds (or the flush draw), which would in this case prove a major error.

The correct play would actually be to hold the low pair (three of spades and the three of diamonds). And it gets even more complicated in games that feature a progressive jackpot. If the progressive jackpot reaches more than 21500 credits, the correct play would actually be to hold the jack and queen of diamonds and go for the Royal flush. However the expected return for flush draw would still remain lower than the Royal Flush draw and low pair.

Go beyond the knowledge of the paytable to get as close to the theoretical payout as possible.

5. To gamble or not to gamble your winnings?

A bet with zero casino advantage is great, isn’t it? However there are also some downsides to be aware of.

Most of the time, the gamble feature lets you gamble with your winnings, and usually double them when you are successful. You pick one card from 5, and if it’s higher than the card picked by the casino (machine), you double your winnings. There are usually limits on how many times you can double up. There are some games (including some by Playtech software) that let you quadruple your winnings by guessing the suit of the card.

There really isn’t any casino advantage when trying to double your winning using the feature. At least there shouldn’t be. Unfortunately there were/are some dishonest software providers like SkillOnNet, where this wasn’t the case based on the experiences of players.

You can read more information about this case on the blacklist at Wizard of Odds. A player in 303 double up games claimed he won 108 times and lost 193 times. The probability of that happening is 1 in 1 008 339!

Fortunately, most proven casino software providers are honest, and the gamble feature really is a 50:50 bet with no advantage for the casino or the player.

Another issue you should be aware of is that the double up feature can increase the payout ratio (for games with a theoretical payout lower than 100%), as for the same bankroll you will be able to play more rounds (when we consider double up option as separate game round).

However, the double up option drastically increases variance, so you will need a much higher bankroll if you tend to double up your winnings often. If you double up multiple times after the initial double up is successful, you will need a huge bankroll. You can win big, but more often you will lose faster. But if your objective is to win as much money as possible in a short period of time, the gamble feature could be for you.

How to Win at Video Poker

Just play Video Poker free online with no download or registration required to see how easy it is to play. If you want to be a successful Video Poker player, you have to go more under the surface, and master the Video Poker strategy. You can also take advantage of free bonuses as soon as you feel comfortable playing for real money. Not many online casinos allow Video Poker games when playing for bonus, but if they do, we’ll have them listed.

How to Play Video Poker

Did you know that video poker is one of the best games that you can play in a casino? Yes. It’s true!

Unlike a slot machine where the casino advantage can be as high as 12 to 18 percent, with video poker the casino advantage is usually only one to five percent. And, even better, there are actually some video poker games you can play where you will have a mathematical edge over the casino! That’s right these are casino games that can return more than 100% to the players.

Now you may be wondering: how can a casino offer a game where they are giving the mathematical advantage to the player rather than to the casino? Well, the answer is that video poker is a game of skill rather than pure luck and only the skilled players will know how to play their hands properly to achieve those high payback percentages. That means that the casino can still make money on those 100+% payback video poker machines because the vast majority of players are not skilled and they will make playing errors that give the edge to the casinos.

Watch Our YouTube Videos About How to Play Video Poker!

Read Great Articles About Video Poker!

This could never be done with a slot machine because the information on what the machine is programmed to pay back to the public is controlled by the random number generator (RNG) inside the machine and it can’t be determined by looking at the pay table.

So, if you are looking to learn more about how video poker works and how to be a better video poker player, then be sure look below to read some of the great video poker articles and to watch the informative YouTube videos we have produced to teach you how to win at video poker.

You will be sure to find out the best strategies for playing video poker, as well as great interviews with video poker experts that give you the best tips for winning at video poker. Good luck!