Video Poker – A Skill Game For The Lucky Ones

Do you like playing poker? If you do, you would love video poker. This video version is as interesting as anything can ever get.

The basis of video poker is laid on the game of five-draw poker. It is an outcome of the various ways by which different generations have played poker. Let’s have a look at video poker history.

Origin

Video poker history can be traced back to late 1800’s. Video poker machines of earlier days were operated by putting a coin. Five drums which held poker cards could be spun by pulling a handle. Ten of Spades as well as Jack of Hearts were not included in this for reducing the winning chances. Drinks or cigars were provided to the winners. These machines were manufactured by a Brooklyn company called Sittman and Pitt in late 1800’s.

Charles Fey’s Contribution

‘Draw feature was added for the first time to video poker machines in 1901 by Charles Fey, an important name in video poker history. Players could now hold some drums still at the time of pulling the machine’s handle after spinning the drums for the first time. Hence, this can be considered as the first combination of hold with draw. This meant that players no more relied on only luck as they could also win by using their skills now. This was an important event in video poker history as Fey’s improvement helped the game immensely towards attaining increased popularity and even intellectual people jumped on to this bandwagon now.

Modern Video Poker

Modern day consoles started appearing in mid 1970’s. This was an important event in video poker history as it marked the rekindling of people’s interest again in machines of poker cards. This can be considered as that period when video poker machines literally evolved from poker machines. This happens to be the same time when personal computers were produced for the first time. Bill Wells and Logan Pease are the two engineers who are primarily responsible for the invention of today’s video poker machines. IGT, a gaming company introduced a DRAW POKER machine in 1979, which became an instant hit in casinos as well as other venues of gambling activities. Before them, Dale electronics also tried its luck with these machines by introducing POKER-MATIC in 1970 but it never became successful. The popularity of video poker continued to rise throughout the decade of 1980’s. The reason behind this is that these devices were found less intimidating by people as compared to playing games on the table.

Various prototypes are available of the DRAW POKER like Jacks or Better (first one amongst these), Bonus Poker, Jokers Wild, Player's Choice PokerTM, etc. Another important event in video poker history was in 1998, when Ernie Moody introduced a new machine which was multi-hand. It was referred as Triple play Draw Poker. Three hands were now allowed to be played at a time by players. They were required to deal 3 rows containing 5 cards each. If players dealt a huge hand such as Royal Flush, the payout as compared to older games of video poker, would almost be three times. Today, games having more hands are also available which range from “Five Play” to “hundred Play”.

Changes Undergone

Video poker machines of earlier days were black & white. They were introduced in 1976 but within 8 months of their introduction, colored machines also appeared. Today, these machines can be commonly found throughout the world. It has also undergone numerous variations which includes games with progressive jackpots, wildcards, payoff schedules that have been modified, etc. Video poker was introduced over the internet after Microprogramming introduced casino software for the internet in 1994 which came as a pleasant addition to video poker history. The online community has responded splendidly towards video poker.

So, when are you joining the bandwagon for being a part of video poker history?