Free video poker practice: how to learn without risking money

You can learn video poker strategy without spending a cent. The best way is simple: play one pay table, with play money, and get feedback on every hold. Random hands alone teach you the common decisions quickly and the rare ones almost never, so add drills on the hands you miss.

Free ways to practise

• Free trainers in the browser. The Wizard of Odds video poker game is free and gives optimal advice, warnings and a review of your errors. VideoPoker.com offers free play money games, with paid tiers for training tools.
• Free phone trainers. Several apps have free versions with ads, such as Practice Video Poker on iPhone and Play Perfect Lite on Android. Our own app, Perfect Hold (coming soon), will be free on iPhone with ads and teaches exact strategy for six Jacks or Better pay tables. See the full comparison of trainers.
• A chart and a deck of cards. Deal five cards, decide your hold, then check it against the strategy chart or the free strategy calculator. Slow, but it works anywhere.

Skip social casino apps built around coin packs. Many "free" video poker games sell coin packs for real money. They are built to keep you spending, and most do not tell you when a hold is wrong. Some trainers sell small credit top-ups too; you never need them to practise.

What makes practice stick

1. Feedback on every hold. Learning happens at the moment you find out you were wrong. A trainer that only shows the result of the draw teaches luck, not strategy.
2. The cost of each mistake. Knowing that keeping a kicker costs 0.60 credits per hand, and breaking two pair costs 5.28, tells you which habits to fix first. See the 10 most expensive mistakes.
3. One game, one pay table. Strategy changes between games and pay tables. Learn 9/6 Jacks or Better first; it is the base for the others.
4. Repeat what you miss. Bring back the hand types you get wrong until you stop getting them wrong.

Why random hands are not enough

Some decisions come up all the time. Others hardly ever. With 9/6 Jacks or Better, here is how often each situation is the best hold for the hand you are dealt (from our engine), and how long that takes at 600 hands an hour:

You will learn to keep a low pair in your first session. You might see four to a royal once in an afternoon, and the type 3 straight flush draw only every 40 minutes or so, with no idea it was special. Those rare hands are where practised players still make mistakes. Drills that deal them on purpose fix that much faster than waiting.

A simple practice plan

1. Session 1: play 100 hands with hints on. Read the reason for every hold you get wrong.
2. Sessions 2 to 5: turn hints off and play with warnings only. Note which mistakes repeat.
3. Then: drill your repeated mistakes and the rare lines until you get them right without thinking.
4. Check yourself on the strategy calculator with any hand you are unsure about.

Perfect Hold is built around exactly this plan: hints, warnings, plain-language explanations and drills on the hands you miss, with play credits only.

Practice is not a reason to play for money

Getting good at free video poker does not make the real game a winning one. Even perfect play on the best common Jacks or Better table returns 99.54%, less than you bet. If you do play for money, set a budget first and treat it as the cost of the evening.