Online Video Poker Glossary

Bankroll – The sum of all money that you have access to for gambling purposes.

Action – The total amount of money wagered.

Bank – A cluster or grouping of video slot machines.

Bankroll – The total amount of money a player has available to be used for gambling.

Cash Back – A monetary bonus awarded to a player.

Cycle – The average number of hands that pass between top-payout victories on any given machine – typically through the use of the royal flush. The phrase may seem to imply that there is a predictable number of spins between each top payout, but each hand is totally random. You could win twice in a row, or not once in a million spins.

Drawing Hand – A poker hand which requires a specific card to improve in value.

Face Card – Category that includes Kings, Queens, and Jacks.

Full Pay – The best, statistically speaking, version of any particular game. The 9/6 Jacks or Better game, for example, is the full pay version of Jacks or Better. Other variations give the house a larger advantage and should be avoided.

House Edge – The houses statistical advantage displayed as a percentage. For players, a lower house edge, all else equal, is a good thing.

Inside Straight – A potential straight that requires you to draw one or more cards to fill the inside of the sequence. For example, a hand that contains 6, 7, 8, and 10 requires a nine on the draw to become a straight.

Kicker – A hand’s highest, non-paired card that could be used as a tie breaker in traditional poker games. Do not hold kickers in video poker – they don’t serve the same function.

Outside Straight – A potential straight that requires you to draw one of two cards to finish the five-in-a-row sequence o f a straight. This is much easier to complete than an inside straight. For example, a hand that contains 9, 10, J, and Q, can be made into a straight by receiving either an 8 or a K on the draw.

Pay Table – The diagram that tells you how much each hand is worth – payouts displayed in terms of your bet size.

Progressive Jackpot – A jackpot that grows larger as players fail to win it. Typically, many machines are linked together to feed the same progressive jackpot. Once won, it will reset to its starting amount.

RNG – Short for random number generator; as with all online casino games, this is the digital mechanism that allows for random events to take place fairly. In the case of video poker, the random number generator produces a random 5-card hand.

Short Pay – The counterpart to “full pay”. These are less than optimum slot machines because of their less generous pay tables. These should typically be avoided, but at times, they may be your only option.

Volatility – A measure of how much a player should expect a machine to deviate from its expected return. Higher volatility should result in bigger swings in your bankroll, both positive and negative.

Wild Card – A card in a specific video poker game that can act as any other card to create a more valuable hand.