Select from 19 different video poker variations with the button, including Jacks or Better, Bonus, Double Double, Triple Double, Full Pay Deuces, 16/10 (Not So Ugly) Deuces, Loose Deuces, three kinds of Joker Poker, and more. Keyboard You can use the mouse to click on cards to hold, or you may find it easier to use the keyboard: 1-5 = Hold/Cancel. Available at sites that offer IGT games, Triple Play Draw Poker is a single game that features nine different variations of video poker in one package. Players can choose from any of these games at any time, and are free to switch between them at any time they like. Double Double Bonus Poker – In this game, kickers come into play. Aside from the Royal Flush, 4 Aces with any 2, 3 or 4 are the highest payers, many times the usual 4 of a kind pay. Triple Double Bonus Poker – In this version of the game, four of a kind aces with a kicker of 2, 3 or 4, pays the same 800 coins as a Royal Flush.
By John Grochowski
If you like your video poker with a little extra spice, it can come at the price of an extra bet.
Games such as Hot Roll, Wheel Poker and Wheel Poker Deluxe offer multipliers or bonuses, but to be eligible you have to kick in that additional wager?
Is it worth it?
The short answer is usually, yes. International Game Technology, which produces these games, designs them so the return on the bonuses is as high, or higher, than on the base game. In manycases, making the extra bet increases the overall payback percentages. On some, notably Hot Roll, the house edge on the feature is the same as on the base game, making the attraction anaddition of volatility and a chance at big wins rather than increasing the payback percentage.
In all cases, the base games are the titles video poker players have known and loved for decades – Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild, Bonus Poker Deluxe, Double Bonus Poker and DoubleDouble Bonus Poker being the most common.
You'll usually see the bonus games in multi-hand formats such as Triple Play, Five Play and Ten Play, although some also are available in single-hand versions.
If you make the standard five-coin per line maximum bet, then you play the base games as usual. It's only when you make an extra bet that the bonus feature is unlocked and comes into play.
Let's check out how a few of them work and how the bonus feature affects the overall return.
Triple Double Bonus Poker Machines
HOT ROLL VIDEO POKER: Available in Triple Play, Five Play and Ten Play versions, Hot Roll takes a wager of 10 coins per hand to activate the bonus feature. Instead of the15-coin max bet on basic Triple Play, the max is 30 coins for Triple Play with Hot Roll.
What you get for your extra wager is a randomly occurring roll of two onscreen dice for a multiplier.
The dice pop up an average of once per six hands. After they roll, you complete your hand and any winners are multiplied by the total on the dice.
If you roll two 1s, your winnings are doubled. Roll two 6s, and winners are multiplied by 12. And, of course, there are plenty of multipliers in between.
The dice rolls are set for true odds – the onscreen roll yields the same frequency of totals as rolling two physical dice. The average multiplier is 7x once per six hands, and that means youraverage payoff is double the usual. Let's use a high pair as an example of how that works.
High pairs usually pay 1-for-1, or five coins for a maximum bet. In an average set of six high pairs on Hot Roll, five would get no dice roll and pay just those five coins, but one would pay35.
Five returns of five coins is a total of 25, and when you add in one 35-coin return, that's a total of 60 coins for your six winners. And that's an average of 10 coins per winner, exactlydouble the base return of five coins.
You double your bets, and on the average you double your payoffs, so the average return on the Hot Roll feature is the same as on the base game. If you're playing 9-6 Double Double Bonus Poker,a 98.98 percent return game with optimal play, you also get 98.98 percent on Hot Roll.
WHEEL POKER: IGT incorporates vertical wheels that spin for bonuses in many of its most popular slot machines – notably the Wheel of Fortune series. Wheel Poker and its sistergame, Wheel Poker Deluxe, bring a taste of that to video poker.
In the original Wheel Poker for Triple Play, Five Play and Ten Play, the maximum bet is six coins per line instead of the usual five – just one extra coin per hand instead of the five extra onHot Roll.
When you draw a natural four of a kind – meaning no wild cards – you get a spin of a prize wheel. The wheel is marked off in spaces worth 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1,000 or2,000 coins.
At the end of the spin, you get the indicated value on the wheel added to any other winnings.
Free Double Bonus Video Poker
Let's say you're playing Triple Play Jacks or Better with an 18-coin maximum bet and start with a pair of Kings. The draw leaves you with just the high pair on two of your hands, but you getfour Kings on the third. Then on the base game you get five-coin pays on each of the two high pairs, 125 coins for the four of a kind, plus the wheel spin.
Not all spaces have an equal chance of stopping at the top indicator. The most frequent values are 250 or 400 coins, while the least frequent is 2,000 followed by 100.
The average return on a wheel spin is 428 coins. The effect on payback percentage differs with the game and your strategy, which affects the frequency of quads.
But in all cases the wheel spin increases the overall return. One example is 9-6 Double Double Bonus Poker, with a basic return of 98.98 percent with expert play. Making the extra wheel betincrease that to 99.65 percent.
WHEEL POKER DELUXE: In the second Wheel Poker game, it takes an extra five coins per hand to activate the feature.
The Deluxe wheel is activated by starting hands instead of final hands. You go for a spin anytime your initial hand includes three of a kind. That includes dealt four of a kinds or full houses.
Instead of awarding you a set coin total, the wheel awards you a strong starting hands in multiple hand versions. You could get a Triple Play draw to suited Ace-King-Queen-Jack, suitedAce-King-Queen or suited Ace-2-3-4. You could get a Five Play draw to suited Ace-King-Queen, to three Kings or to 8-8-7-7. You could get a Ten Play draw to a pair of Aces, Ace-King-Queensuited, or 2-5-8-10 suited.
Even Fifty Play and Hundred Play are in the mix. You could get 50 hands starting with 8-8-7-7 or 100 with 2-5-8-10 suited.
Your strategy does not affect the frequency of starting hands, so a payback percentage on the wheel spin can be calculated. Michael Shackelford at wizardofodds.com did the math and came up with100.9 percent.
So the overall payback percentage is the average of the return on the base game and 100.9 percent on the wheel. If you were to find Bonus Poker with an 8-5 pay table on Wheel Poker Deluxe, thewheel would raise the payback percentage from 99.2 percent with expert play to 99.9 percent. At a 7-5 pay table, Bonus Poker would become a 98.7 percent game instead of 98.0, and at 6-5, itwould be 97.8 instead of 96.8.
Because the wheel doesn't spin unless you get the strong starting hands, Wheel Poker Deluxe increases volatility, as do all the extra-bet games. In a cold streak, it will eat your bankrollfaster than base games without the extra bet, but when the bonuses come, they can lead to big wins and higher payback percentages.
John is the author of six books on casino games, including 'The Slot Machine Answer Book.'
Triple Double Bonus Poker
Game King consoles have been the go-to for video poker fans since the games first appeared in bars and live casinos. This game, developed by IGT, allows you to enjoy nine different varieties of video poker and move quickly and easily from game to game. If you enjoy Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, or any type of bonus poker, you've got them all here.
The game of video poker offers a mix of simplicity, fun and strategy, with the added extra of big wins for the best poker hands. Mr vegas slot. The concept is straightforward. You'll be dealt five cards and you'll have to decide which of the five you'll hold (you can hold none, you can hold all five, or you can hold any number in between). Your discarded cards are then replaced.
Your aim is to create the best poker hand possible with your eventual five cards. A pay table in each of the games tells you what you've won for your rank of hand.
IGT's Game King Video Poker is available online in states with legal online casinos, as well as in the live casinos country-wide. This page details everything you need to know about Game King Video Poker games including how to navigate through the options and the nine game types.
How Game King Video Poker Works
On entering Game King Video Poker, you are presented with a screen displaying nine boxes, each box represents a different format of video poker. For example, in the top left box you'll find Jacks or Better, while in the bottom right you'll find Joker Poker. Simply click on any of the nine boxes to load that game.
Once you've selected your game, you can set your bet. This is done by clicking the bet up button. By default, the game automatically starts at 0.10 x 1 coin. Once you've set your bet, a ‘bet down' button appears – allowing you to move the bet down again. Each time you move the bet, the appropriate pay table is highlighted, so you'll know exactly how much you'll win for each hand.
There is also a ‘speed' option with three settings – this is simply the speed at which the cards are dealt. If you want to play quick games, set it at the maximum three. If you want to add a bit of tension and drama into the game, set it to one.
After any game you can hit the ‘more games' option to return to the original game selection screen.
The Nine Game Range at Game King Video Poker
Here's a rundown of the nine games you can play at Game King Video Poker:
Jacks or Better – This is one of the most popular forms of video poker. To win a payout you'll need to have a poker hand that features a pair of jacks or better (hence the name). The payouts increase as you move through the hands, with the top prize of 800x your bet if you hit a Royal Flush. This is the only full pay video poker game available through Game King.
Bonus Poker – Bonus Poker takes the Jacks or Better format and gives it a twist. In this there is a large premium when you hit four aces, and a smaller premium for four 2s, 3s or 4s. This is offset by slightly smaller payouts for full houses and flushes.
Bonus Poker Deluxe – In this Jacks or Better based game, you'll receive a payout boost every time you hit any 4 of a kind hand. The payout is boosted to 80 coins instead of the standard 25. To offset this, two pairs offers the same stake back pay out that you receive for a pair of jacks, queens, kings and aces.
Double Bonus Poker – There is even more of a premium for four aces in this game, pushing the payout up to 160 coins, with further boosts for all of the four a kind hands. The rest of the pay table is changed to offset the larger pays for these premium hands.
Double Double Bonus Poker – The bonus games keep coming and this time around kickers are involved. If you hit four aces with a 2, 3 or 4 kicker – you'll win 400 coins, with smaller boosts for other 4 of a kind/kicker combinations. The two pairs prize remains the same as that for a pair.
Triple Double Bonus Poker – In the last of the bonus games, the premium for a pair of aces with a 2, 3 or 4 kicker ensures that this hand pays as much as a royal flush (800 coins). Receive smaller pays for two pairs and 3 of a kind, while any flush wins gain a small boost.
Deuces Wild Poker– In this version of video poker, every time you land a 2 it becomes a wild card. As such, big hands become that much easier to hit. You'll need to hit 3 of a kind to land any type of win here, with reduced pays for 4 of a kind. However, the 800-coin win for a Royal Flush is still there (reduced to 25 if there are 2's involved) and a premium when hitting 4 deuces.
Deuces Wild Bonus Poker – Very similar to Deuces Wild apart from the fact that if you hit four twos with an ace kicker, the payout is doubled. To offset this, the pay for a straight now matches for 3 of a kind.
Joker Poker – The final game available is Joker Poker, where you are playing with a 53-card deck. With just a single wild (the joker), big hands are more likely than in Jacks or Better, but less likely than in Deuces Wild. As such, you'll need Kings or Better in this game to start winning.
Summing Up – Is this the King of Video Poker Games?
The beauty of Game King Video Poker is the sheer range of games to enjoy. Many will stick to the classic games such as Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild and Joker Poker, but the option is there to play the bonus games, where the volatility is higher.
Free and real money Game King Video Poker is now available online in a series of states (including NJ, PA, MI and WV). As online gambling regulations roll out across the country, there will be opportunities to enjoy Game King Video Poker variants in a number of other jurisdictions soon.
