There's nothing better than free money and these Video Poker Tips are that good! Well, pretty close anyway. They'll damn sure make you a better player and that'll mean less of your coin goes to the house.

Tip #1: Read your pay table!

There are two kinds of VP games: Full Pay and all the others. For instance Full Pay Jacks or Better has the following pay table:

Your hand       Pays
---------       ----
Royal Flush     800
Straight Flush  50
Four-of-a-Kind  25
Full House      9
Flush           6
Straight        4
Three-of-a-Kind 3
Two Pair        2
Pair            1

If the pay table on your game doesn't look like this then you're not getting Full Pay. Bottom line: the house will get more of your money.

Tip #2: Watch the Full House/Flush lines.

It is strongly recommended that you check the pay lines for Full House and Flush every time you sit down to play. Those pay lines are the traditional places for the house to jimmy things a little to improve their take. And change them they do, often without notice.

Think 8/5 or 6/5 pay lines are pretty close to the proper Full Pay 9/6? Think again! 8/5 gives the house an additional 2.3% advantage while 6/5 is more than twice as bad. It's your money, but why waste it?

Tip #3: Learn your Basic Strategy.

If you're not playing Basic Strategy (or better) then you're throwing money away. The odds in each VP game differ and thus there is a different Basic Strategy for each.

If you assume you know the odds in your VP game you probably don't. That's what Basic Strategies are for.

Tip #4: Always play MAX coins.

If you look at your pay lines there is a bonus offered, usually for a Royal, if you play MAX coins. In other words by not playing MAX you are giving the house an advantage that would otherwise be yours for the taking.

If you don't feel comfortable dropping the MAX amount on your particular game step down to a lower coinage game. It's better to play MAX coins on a smaller machine than yield the MAX bonus advantage on a large one.

Tip #5: Set win/lose limits, and KEEP them!

The same is true for Wins too. Decide, again in advance, at what point you're going to be happy getting up from the table when you're ahead. For some people it's when they're ahead 50%. For others it's when they double their money.

I once saw a guy hit a Full House on his third pull. Within seconds of hitting the games this guy had won hundreds of dollars! Very cool!

At that point I would've grabbed the winnings and headed for the bar but he figured he'd get lucky again and before he was convinced otherwise it was all gone. As I recall I ended up paying for his drinks that night. Very not cool!