Online Video Poker in Canada
More and more players choose to play video poker games on the internet. Playing from home has tons of advantages, the main one being convenience.
When you play video poker online, you choose when and where to play. On your comfy couch or in bed, and you wear whatever you want as you kick back and relax. There are no annoying crowds and you are in the privacy of your home.
Tons of Perks to Playing Online
Our favourite perk of playing online vs at a landbased casino is the better selection of games. Our preferred video poker game is Deuces Wild, but 100 hand Jacks or Better and All American are excellent games as well. Selection like this is impossible to find in any brick and mortar casino in Canada.
Jacks or Better – the classic poker machine game for Canadians
More Chances to Win Big
Another added benefit of playing online is bigger wins, and we can’t deny our love of having the chance to win big. All games have better payouts than their real-life cousins, and jackpot games like Supa Jax have pots that reach nearly 100,000 Canadian dollars.
Since nobody will hand you free money in real life, internet casinos make it more fun and worthwhile to play by giving bonus money when you sign up. Some of our favourite Welcome Bonuses come from casinos like LeoVegas and Spin Casino.
By the way, the reason for better odds and free money you get online is simple. Online casinos have very low overhead and they compete fiercely with other online casinos. Combined, this means that they have money to spend and that they want to make players as happy as they can by dishing out freebies.
Mobile Games
Video poker machines are among the most-played games at online casinos. Thanks to this they all have at least Jacks or Better available within their mobile platform. The majority of casinos also have Deuces Wild and a couple of other key games available.
A huge perk of playing video poker is that it actually works better on mobile devices than most other gambling games. Even in real-life casinos, video poker is typically played on touch screen devices nowadays. This means there is little, if any, difference between playing at a land-based casino or at home.
Device-wise, Apple devices and Android devices are well-supported by online casinos. Playing video poker with a Blackberry is another story, since these phones are more old-school and still have real buttons.
Free Games
Perhaps the biggest advantage to playing online is the free gameplay. Can you imagine walking into a real-life casino, only to be asked to play their poker machines for free? This is our idea of heaven on Earth, and it is more than possible when you opt to play online instead of in-person.
Playing for free is a super handy feature in a strategic game like video poker. You get to try your strategies before you deposit and start playing with real money (we’ll let you know about some of these strategies in a bit).
Bonuses: Not for Video Poker Players
Casinos love handing out big bonuses to new customers and offering all kinds of free stuff. Unfortunately though, they most certainly do not love video poker players. You can play for free, but you won’t often be able to bet your real-money bonus on video poker.
Video poker games have super low house edges, making them dangerous for casinos (if there is one thing casinos don’t like, it’s losing money). As a result, casinos make certain they don’t end up losing on bonuses by not allowing players to clear them while playing video poker.
So if you head on over to our list of March 2023 bonuses, keep in mind that the bonuses are mostly meant for playing slot machines.
Video Poker Variants
This player scored big on this lucky Deuces Wild poker hand
The most basic video poker game is Jacks or Better: No jokers in the deck, get a pair of jacks or better and you win, that’s it.
Jacks or Better, which was the very first video poker machine ever built, has inspired many variations and even variations on the variations. For example, Jacks or Better can also come as Tens or Better and Aces and Faces, which are similar games but have different pay tables.
In addition to Jacks or Better and its variants, here are a few more popular video poker options for Canadians:
- All Aces by Microgaming
- 2 Ways Royal by Playtech
- All American Double Up by NetEnt
- Deuces Wild by Microgaming
Other popular games throw in jokers, such as Joker Poker. This is essentially Jacks or Better with a single joker in the deck. Deuces Wild turns all 2 cards into jokers, and so on. It’d be impossible to list all the different poker machines you can find online.
You’ll find all these and other video poker games in 1-100 hand versions. In a 100 hand game you are dealt your starting hand. You then choose which cards you keep and your chosen cards are copied into 100 hands and each of them get the missing cards. Playing a multi-hand game like this is quite an experience the first time you try it. Just remember to bet a fraction of a dollar per hand!
Top 5 Video Poker Tips & Hints
Make no mistake, video poker is not a game of luck like slot machines or roulette. The strategy and mathematics of video poker can get incredibly complex. Lucky for you, these five tips will get you started on your way to becoming a first class video poker player.
1. Never Break a Winning Hand
Don’t break winning hands. If you remember only one thing about this article, make it this one. Breaking winning hands in hopes of slightly bigger wins is the biggest mistake you can make while playing video poker.
2. The One Situation Where You Break a Winning Hand
Oops. Okay, so we just told you not to break winning hands. That’s because there is only one exception to it, so you aren’t making a big mistake by never breaking your winning hands.
The right time to break a winning hand is if you can make a royal straight flush with just one new card. For example, if you have a ten, jack, queen and king of hearts and a queen of spades, dump the queen of spades.
3. Play the Full Number of Coins
This is a tip many players miss and doing so costs them money. In video poker games you can bet 1-5 coins. Always bet five coins.
The reason for betting the full amount is that the payout table is much better when playing with five coins. For example, in Jacks or Better royal straight flush can pay 250 with 1 coin and 4,000 with five coins.
Stay in budget by selecting a smaller coin, not by skimping on how many coins you are betting.
4. Double-Up
Doubling up is the only bet you can make in a casino, where the casino has no house edge. So if you get a chance to double up, do it.
5. Go for Jackpots
If you play a poker game that has jackpots (like Microgaming’s Supajaxx), make sure you really go for the jackpot. While most of the time it’s still not a good idea to break winning hands, it’s definitely worth chasing a very unlikely jackpot hand instead of a normal winning hand.
Jackpots make a huge difference on any poker game’s returns. How well the machine pays out is tied to winning the jackpot: if you don’t win the jackpot, you are going to lose. If you do win it, you are going to win big – huge in fact. The aforementioned Supajaxx can have CAD $90,000 jackpots. You need to either stomach the variance or stick with normal machines.
Our Favourite Poker Machine: 5 Hand Joker Wild
Our pick for the best online video poker game is 5 hand Joker Wild. One joker in the deck keeps things interesting and playing 5 hand at one try adds just the right amount of extra oomph.
The best part of the game is the gamble option. You can either try to double (guess the colour of a card) or quadruple (guess the suit) your winnings. There is no upper limit to gambling. If you have the guts you can gamble to big wins, even up to thousands of dollars.
Best Casino for Real-Money Video Poker Online
Sure, you’ve got tons of options for playing video poker online, but there is one casino that takes the cake. LeoVegas. Leo has the best selection of video poker games (and other games) in the Canadian gaming market and one of the most lucrative Welcome Bonuses out there.
LeoVegas has it all with the best video poker selection and a mobile-friendly gaming site
Leo is the top gaming site for playing on mobile. You can play all of your favourites on the go from just about any device and make deposits with tons of Canadian-friendly payment methods, like InstaDebit and Interac Online.
