Before you say anything: I know that video poker is not really poker. Actually, none of the games called poker at the Royal Vegas online casino are true poker games. They are casino versions of the most popular card game of the world, built to lure poker fans to the casino tables. They require little to no skill, but loads of luck. Still, I say you should head over to the Royal Vegas and play video poker. Because it is a fast-paced, relaxing game, that’s similar enough to poker to get you in the mood, but easy enough to help your mind relax for a change.
What is, in fact, video poker? For one, it is a game that’s older than it seems. Back in the late 19th century, a couple of Brooklyn engineers built an automated poker machine. With just 50 card faces, and no automated payouts, the game worked much like a slot machine: people would feed it a nickel, pull a lever, wait for the drums to stop at a hand – and be rewarded with a beer, a cigar or anything the pub hosting the machine had at hand. And people loved it, at least its fame was overshadowed by Charles Fey’s slot machine.
Video poker stayed silent, forgotten, until the 1970s. This was the time when solid state computers and color monitors allowed the first true video poker machines to be built. Mounted inside cabinets, much like the arcade games – and slot machines – of the times, these games offered players a different kind of real money entertainment, one that didn’t involve sitting idly at a table, feeding the house with cash, and waiting for the dealer to do all the work. I think this is one of the reasons people love video poker games so much: they get to actually do something. They have to push a button to deal the cards, hold and un-hold them, draw, double up – they actually get to use their hands for a change.
As time has passed, the popularity of video poker games continued to grow. The great leap casino games made into the vast world of the online was kind to them: it allowed the games to expand, to get new versions, new varieties, all of them just a click away. The Royal Vegas online casino, one of the oldest online casinos out there, has continued to grow its collection of video poker games. Today it has tens of versions players can choose from, single and multi-hand, with wild deuces, jokers, side games and progressive jackpots. But with all these versions, changes and alterations, video poker has stayed the same over the last decades: a fast, relaxing game that deserves a chance. Even if it’s not really poker.