What is the Average Return in Online Video Poker?
December 15th, 2011
Let’s face it. Not everyone who joins online casinos these day are all about playing free video slots. There are still some players out there who actually enjoy playing classic table games such as blackjack, craps, roulette and even the variation of video poker. These games usually represent a much higher amount of skill and players will often go for them in order to keep their minds moving instead of simply hitting the spin button of online slots. Now, online video poker is actually a quite fun game for players as well but it is important for them to better understand how the average return works in this game if they want to have a truly fun experience.

The first thing players need to learn is what the term Average Return To Player (RTP) stands for. The RTP is expressed as a percent value, which is usually between 94% and 99.5%, and is associated with an individual online casino game or game category, in this case being video poker. For example, a RTP of 95% on a free video slot game means that if a player repeatedly wagers $100 on that game on an average over the long term he will get back $95 and end up losing $5. Hence, it is obvious that players should place their bets on those games that offer the highest RTP, other factors being of equal importance.
In the case of online video poker, players must understand that these games also have a RTP that goes hand in hand with them. The RTP of a video poker game can be added mathematically based on the probability of occurrence and the payout of each poker hand ranking. These calculations are not simple and average online casino players are not usually able to perform them. There is a very important aspect to the RTP of video poker games and that is the fact that these games are skill based and the returns are totally dependent on skill.


