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Video poker is based on the popular five card game of poker. Poker has been played in the United States since the early 1800s and it has now progressed from a game played with actual cards to a poker game played on slot-like machines. Video poker is now one of the most popular casino games in both land-based casinos and online casinos.
The First Poker Machines
Video poker history is closely linked to that of slots machines. In 1891, Sittman and Pitt developed the first slots machine which used 50 playing card symbols across five drums. The machine worked in a similar fashion to slots machines in that the player inserted coins and pulled the handle and the drums then spun. The game was entirely random. The aim of the game was to hit a winning poker hand. The Jack and ten of Spades were removed (to take the total cards down from 52 in a regular deck to the 50 on the drums) as these cards made the maximum number of straights and they wanted to make the game more difficult for the player. In 1899, Charles Fey developed the famous Liberty Bell slots machine which replaced playing cards with other symbols and changed the aim of the game from achieving poker hands to spinning certain numbers of the same symbol. And so, video poker lost favor to the slots machines. In 1901, Fey introduced the hold feature to the poker machines which allowed players to hold one or more drums and re-spin the rest. This changed the game from one of pure luck to one that required skill. These machines were known as the Skill Draw machines.
The First True Video Poker Machines
In 1970, Dale Electronics produced the Poker-Matic video poker machine. These became common in casinos in Las Vegas, but they did not become popular. In 1975, using the same technology, video slots was introduced. These too were not particularly popular as players could not see the slots spinning and did not trust the payouts. Using this technology, in 1979, IGT (then known as SIRCOMA) introduced the casino game Draw Poker which had hold and draw capabilities. This became hugely popular and can be said to be the beginning of the modern era of video poker.
The Growth of Video Poker
Video poker continued to increase in popularity and casinos found that many people began to enjoy playing on the machines more than at the tables. The technology of the machines and games continued to improve and new variations of video poker were introduced. The introduction of online casinos has only boosted the popularity of video poker. Microgaming software introduced the first online video poker games in 1994.
Online Video Poker
Online casinos tend to offer many more varieties of video poker than land-based casinos. As the technology of online casinos improves, the popularity of playing online casino games such as video poker improves as well. Online video poker is now played all over the world by players from varying backgrounds and classes.
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