The arguments are almost endless about whether or not to play the maximum number of coins on each hand in video poker. We'll attempt to make some sense of it for you.

In almost video poker machines, the payout is proportionally the same regardless of the number of coins bet. In other words, if you have a winning hand that pays 10 for one coin bet, it will pay 20 for two coins bet, 30 for three coins bet, etc.

As a result, there is no advantage to playing more than one coin - WITH ONE EXCEPTION: A ROYAL FLUSH! If you hit a royal flush, you are almost always paid five times the normal odds if you bet the maximum coins.

For example, assume you're playing a machine that pays 200 for a royal flush with one coin bet. It will then typically pay 400 for two coins, 600 for three coins, and 800 for four coins. There is no advantage to playing, say, four coins instead of one because the payout is exactly four times the one coin payout.

However, if you bet the maximum of five coins, the royal flush will usually pay 5,000 instead of the proportional odds payout of 1,000. This is a huge advantage if you do hit a royal flush and you will certainly kick yourself all the way home if you only have one coin bet.

However, the odds of hitting a royal flush are over 600,000 to one! So do you feel lucky? You're essentially faced with the decision of whether to spend your money at the much faster rate of five coins per hand in order to collect a large payday if you do beat the odds and draw a royal.

Only you can decide how much risk you want to assume.

Good luck!

Tom is the webmaster at http://www.blackjack-for-everyone.com, which is a website dedicated to turning beginning Blackjack players into serious recreational players.

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