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Video Poker is famous in Las Vegas and will go down in history as the game that also made it really big at online casinos such as the award winning Spin Palace. Spin ’s super-advanced video poker software enables you to experience Vegas-quality gaming on some of the fastest, best looking VP interfaces ever seen. The best news is Spin Palace Casino are currently offering you an exclusive £1,000.00 free bonus to try out the latest video poker and casino game releases – risk-free! Click for more…
Video Poker
Video Poker has its roots in both poker and slot machines – however what isn’t well known is that the first ever slot concept was actually very similar to today’s ultra-sophisticated online VP interfaces (minus the cool flashing lights, jackpots and graphics!). In 1891, Sittman and Pitt developed a machine with 50 card icons and 5 drums. The Jack and 10 of Spades was removed to prevent players striking too many poker hands (particularly straights), and wins were paid out with a selection of cigars and stiff drinks – a fine reward for a gentleman’s investment!
Ironically, the first ever genuine slot machine (developed by Charles Frey in 1899) replaced the classic playing card symbols with hearts, spades, bells and horseshoes! Rather than hitting poker combos, gamers merely needed to land several similar icons on the reels to win. Essentially, poker was removed from slot machines, and while we love all the classic slot icons – it’s incredible to think that the poker hands were ever banished from the reels.
Thankfully, while fruit machines continued to thrive, by the 1970’s a wise company decided it was time to dust off the poker reels and put them back into the slot world. Dale Electronics launched the first video poker machine known as Poker-Matic and placed them in many casinos all over the US. In 1975, Walt Fraley commissioned hundreds of VP Machines for his Las Vegas casino - however, Video Poker was by no means an over-night success, and gamers were left bemused by the concept of table gaming on a machine – could they really work for skilled gamers?
Strangely enough, it was left for video slots to save video poker from the casino scrap heap, with the release of the hugely popular Draw Poker slots – essentially a slot game with no traditional reels. The game exploded across the USA and simultaneously boosted the profile and trust in video poker – the rest is history, as the game quickly flourished all over the world and later the web.
During the 1980’s, the surge in video gaming technology took video poker gaming to amazing levels of complexity, with multi-hands, bonus features and super-fast game-play – complete with massive jackpot potential! By the turn of the century, the game was ready for the internet and delivered the unique gaming concept to locations that had never seen the game before – it was an instant success.
Since 1994, Microgaming’s Viper software has become the gold standard in online video poker, with slick gaming and auto strategy features that can turn novices into semi-skilled gamers. It took decades to emerge – but video poker is most definitely here to stay.
