There are many video poker variants available at online casinos. The one that probably offers the highest average return to the player is Two Ways Royal. This online video poker variant offers a return of 99.8% on optimum play and has been developed by the leading online casino software provider Playtech. The special feature in this game is that there are two ways of hitting the royal flush poker hand. The first is the usual combination of suited 10, J, Q, K and A. This is designated as Hi Royal Flush in this online video poker variant. The second is the combination of suited 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. This is called Lo Royal Flush.
The base online video poker variant is Jacks or Better, which offers 99.5% average return to the player. Hence, in the long run and with optimum play, the player can expect to win $99.5 for every $100 wagered. Two Ways Royal online video poker adds the Lo Royal Flush hand ranking in the payout table. Both Lo Royal Flush and Hi Royal Flush pay out at 800 to 1 when five coins are wagered. The probability of hitting a Lo Royal Flush is 0.0023%. This increases the average return to the player by 1.8%. Hence the average return for Two Ways Royal should be 101.3%. Obviously with an average return of over 100% the players will clean out the online casinos. Therefore Playtech has made some other changes in Two Ways Royal to bring the average return below 100%. The payout for Full House is reduced from 9 to 1 to 6 to 1 and the payout for Flush is reduced from 6 to 1 to 5 to 1. Simultaneously the payout for Four of a Kind is increased from 25 to 1 to 40 to 1. The net effect of all this tweaking is that the average return to the player rests at 99.8%. Online casinos operate at significantly lower costs than land casinos. Therefore they can afford to offer games with higher average returns. This is a significant advantage of wagering at online casinos.
In order for the player to achieve the long term average return of 99.8% on Two Ways Royal, there are two conditions that need to be fulfilled. The first is that the player has to wager five coins on the hand. If the player wagers less than five coins then the payout for the two royal flushes falls from 800 to 1 to 250 to 1. This reduces the average return to the player considerably. The second condition is that the player makes the decisions in accordance with optimum strategy. If the player chooses the cards to be held in an incorrect manner his average return can fall. The optimum strategy for Two Ways Royal is more or less the same as that for Jacks or Better. The decisions that have been stipulated for Hi Royal Flush apply for Lo Royal Flush as well.
The game play for Two Ways Royal is the same as for other video poker variants at Playtech online casinos. The players have to select the coin denomination and click the Bet Max button. This automatically wagers five coins and deals the initial cards as well. Players can select the cards to be held by clicking on the Hold buttons below the cards. Then when they click on the Draw button they get the final hand.
