subject: A Historical Look At Video Poker [print this page] A Historical Look At Video Poker A Historical Look At Video Poker
Draw poker and 5 card stud were the common gambling card games on the paddle boats of the Mississippi river as well as in the bars of the long forgotten West in the era of the 1800's. By the time the 1900's rolled around, folks all over the United States were playing the same games of poker on weekend nights with family and friends.
Despite the growing popularity, you had to have played poker quite frequently as well as have a clear understanding of the game before you would walk into a card room to play poker. That concept probably remained true until video poker was brought onto the scene in the late 1970's. Here was an innovative, entertaining and quite simple computer driven game that you could play singly without being intimidated by the dealers and other players. It immediately became an enormous hit with patrons of casinos across the country.
The beginning video machines appeared in Las Vegas in about 1976. These fresh machines had limited payouts but did offer a $1,500 payout for a royal flush on the one dollar machines if the maximum five coins were inserted. As soon as the machine manufacturers increased the payouts (for instance, to full house payout levels of 8 or 9 coins), player interest improved considerably and popularity of the video poker games began to skyrocket.
Today, casino floor managers are moving old slot machines out and installing new video games on a regular basis. Video poker machines have evolved into scores of different games from the simple draw poker beginnings. Wild card versions such as Joker Poker and Deuces Wild are now offered as well as many bonus games which pay higher amounts for various 4 of a kind combinations.
Video poker is not only quite popular with casino customers, it's also one of the less risky games in the casino for players, since it does not rely soley on luck and depends on skill as well.
