Should You Employ Autohold In Video Poker?

• Published: May 8, 2013
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If you know anything about video poker, you are aware that it is a game that requires that you make decisions on each and every hand you are dealt. Specifically, the decision involves whether you are going to discard or hold certain cards. You are dealt five of them, and so you have to evaluate all the cards to determine which way you want to proceed. That sounds like a lot of stuff, doesn't it? Well, much of it would seem to follow logic, but the reality is that it isn't all that easy for some people.

Of course, we could ask the question as to why anyone would want to play a game where they were uncomfortable making these kinds of decisions, but some software programs will indeed make an alternative available for those people who want to take advantage of it. In this case, the option is called "Autohold" and it literally makes the decisions for you when you are playing video poker.

After you receive your five cards, the program will automatically hold cards, based on its own determination as to what will help you. One thing that should be kept in mind is that it doesn't necessarily give you the optimum mathematical decision on any one particular hand, but will always put you in a position where you can win something on the draw, and after all, that is the objective - to get paid.

This option is available at Microgaming casinos, and folks who want to alleviate themselves of having to make playing decisions themselves make use of it. There is, naturally, a motivation on the part of the casino as well, in that they would certainly prefer to keep the speed of the game going, as that will ultimately improve the bottom line. It does accomplish that end, although that doesn't mean it benefits the casino more than the player. The Autohold option affords the customer the correct play on more than 90% of occasions, and that is a very healthy percentage. It is not a bad option for the player at all, and is most assuredly better for a beginner than to not have such assistance at one's disposal. If the player could manually make decisions on the majority of hands while using Autohold for those instances in which he or she is really perplexed, that might produce the best of both worlds.