The new—and different—hits keep coming in bonus-style video poker.
Since introducing the first video poker machines in the late 1970s, International Game Technology has sought to evolve the game. But not too much.
Over these ensuing decades, IGT’s changes to video poker have always considered the fact that its earliest offering, Jacks or Better Draw Poker, spawned a unique group of dedicated players eager to employ a strategy that was relatively easy to learn to reduce the game’s house edge nearly to nothing.
These players formed something of a subculture on the slot floor, with new players eager to join and begin learning. In its changes to video poker, IGT has been careful not to alienate that core group of diehard players. The Bonus Poker variations maintained the high return-to-player percentages—higher, in some cases—of the original games while offering perks like bonuses for four Aces and low four-of-a-kind hands, with fun additions like kickers. Deuces Wild and other variations brought in new fans while giving diehard fans new strategies to learn and new ways to win.
The subculture grew further with the introduction of Triple Play Poker, Five Play Poker and all the other multi-hand iterations, which injected volatility into the core of popular video poker variants IGT kept in the libraries of multi-game formats like Game King and Super Star Poker.
Other manufacturers have begun to offer video poker in their own bar-top and multi-game platforms, but only IGT continues to tweak the game genre. Recent years have seen a parade of new video poker games that take the old, tried-and-true video poker variants and add a bonus event—random win multipliers in clever presentations like a dice roll, slot-like bonus features and formats, win multipliers applied to multiple hands.
Consistent with the company’s strategy, IGT’s video poker game designers take care to present games that will be played by experienced fans as well as novices. The way this has been done is that nearly all of the games maintain the high-returning pay tables of the original games. Instead of altering some of the pay schedule to pay for the bonus, the games simply charge an ante for the bonus feature—a single-hand bet of six coins, seven coins or 10 coins, instead of the traditional five-coin max, activates and pays for the bonus.
“That’s absolutely key,” said Brad Fredella, IGT’s senior content manager for video poker and keno, “because we want those players that are familiar with the poker pay table on their base single-hand or (multi-hand) game to be able to recognize that pay table on the bonus games as well.”
Fredella added that these games go one step farther. The bonus version of each game will tack an extra tenth of a percentage point or so onto the RTP of the original game. “(We) actually increase the RTP when that extra bet is made,” he said.
“We make sure to give the players a bit higher payback. To offset the higher volatility that the bonus feature brings to the game, a little bump in the RTP is helpful to make sure that they still get some of that play time on device regardless of how their luck is going that day.”
The earliest bonus experiments led to monster hits like Spin Poker, which blended video poker into a slot-style, multi-line array. More hits came with Ultimate X Poker and Super Times Pay Poker, which both add random multipliers to one or more hands. Hot Roll also adds a random multiplier, but does it with flair as a a multiplier of 2X to 12X is determined with a video roll of the dice.
The bonus games have multiplied as IGT has rolled out new versions of the most popular earlier games. According to Fredella, the bonus-style video poker variations are spawning sequels as players continue to flock to their favorite bonus features.
“There are some players out there that will try virtually any new title that they see as they’re passing by the floor, just because of the simple fact that it’s new, they like poker, they want to try something new and different,” Fredella said. “But there are others that are familiar with a particular characteristic of some of our bonus titles.”
Ultimate X Gold, released early this year, was one of the most recent of these sequels. In Ultimate X, a multiplier is applied following a winning hand. In Ultimate X Gold, the multiplier applies to a pay table category, and it sticks until the player hits that pay table result. “You never waste a multiplier, because anytime it applies, it’s applying to a winning hand,” said Fredella.
In the newest version of the Super Star Poker suite is Ultimate X Bonus Streak, in which a multiplier, once applied, can stick for a random number of hands. “Ultimate X has always been the main driver of play on Super Star,” Fredella explained, “so with Ultimate X Bonus Streak, we’re adding the ability to play multiple hands with multipliers attached. We feel that’s a tremendous addition to the Super Star set.”
Also new in the Super Star suite is Spin Poker Deluxe, which increases the classic Spin Poker game from nine lines to 20 lines. And then there’s Super Times Pay, which was first reprised with Double Super Times Pay, which, for a seven-credit bet, awards two random multipliers to a hand instead of just one—a multiplier on the deal and a multiplier on the draw.
The latest evolution of the popular Super Times Pay family of games is called Super Times Pay Super Stacks, which brings an intriguing feature over from the slot world—expanding reels, or in this case, expanding hands. When the random feature triggers, two icons appear on the cards—a multiplier of 2X to 10X, and a number of stacked hands up to three times the hands played. Thus, on Triple Play Poker, the screen can expand to nine hands. And the multiplier applies to all the hands.
Another new title that reprises a favorite is Super Hot Roll. In Hot Roll, a random roll of the dice determines a multiplier for a hand. Super Hot Roll adds that multiplier, whether it is on one hand or several hands in a multi-hand format, to the next hand. “So, you get two chances with a multiplier rather than one, which is unique for a random multiplier,” Fredella said.
Other specialty games apply simple bonuses that are easy to understand and to appreciate. In Lucky Suit Poker, the player picks a “lucky suit” at the start of a hand and receives a multiplier of up to 12X whenever the first card dealt matches the suit. In Super Triple Play, a one-credit ante doubles the pay for four of a kind. “It’s an attainable jackpot that can give you a good amount of credits and keep you going,” said Fredella. “It’s fun to hit, and it’s attainable.”
“We have some titles like Super Times Pay,” he added, “where there’s a random multiplier, so we’ll come out with a new title that also has a random multiplier, but serves it up in a different fashion. We’ll see players come over and give that some new trial. They’ll pick and choose new games they see with characteristics that they already enjoy.”
According to Fredella, new players often are already familiar with the games, because IGT puts many up of videopoker.com, the popular free-play website, several weeks before they are released to casinos.
A complete lineup of the new, bonus-style video poker variations can be found in the Super Star suite of games, which means inclusion on bar-top units in many locations. “Those bonus video poker titles that have performed the best on the floor get wrapped up into a bundle called Super Star and placed on the bar-top, and we’ve added some of the best titles that we’ve come out with in the past five to 10 years that had not been on previous versions of Super Star,” Fredella noted.
Fredella says video poker players are not likely to tire of all the new variations. “Video poker is a game with a degree of skill in
it, but one that can be mastered,” he said. “And once you do master it, it’s a natural progression for players to take that skill and say, ‘What’s next?’
“Let me add a bonus feature and see if that makes the game a little bit more enjoyable, or brings a new element of fun and excitement to it—which is typically what we find it does.”
Fredella thinks there is definitely room for this genre to grow. “We’re actually looking for growth opportunities in three different places,” he said. “One of those is evolution of already-existing, successful titles. We’ve found success with that, and players seem to respond well to it.
“The second way is the constant search for the next completely new concept that we can bring to the market and ‘wow’ poker players with. The third thing we’re looking at: What else can we do with basic single-hand poker? We saw quite a bit of success looking at the VLT market and taking some of their game concepts and bringing them over in the keno world. Can we do the same for video poker?
“Can we get the next Double Double Bonus Poker? Time will tell,” he continued. “But we do believe there are growth opportunities out there, and that there may be other ways to get some more excitement into that base single-hand game that we may not have tried. So, we’re certainly exploring those opportunities actively right now.”
Through it all, IGT will retain the best appeals of the games that made the genre popular in the first place. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Fredella. “Especially with single-hand poker, we’ve maintained that attack. We’ve got that combination of elements that the players are familiar with—the feel of the game, the flow. It’s an easy game to play. It’s an entertaining game to play.
“I don’t think there is one particular thing you can point to that makes IGT’s video poker product special, but rather a combination of many different things that we’ve been very conscientious to keep moving forward from years past. At the end of the day, we’re making a product for entertainment and fun. And the more you have to analyze it or change the way you’re playing different pay tables, it becomes a little bit more laborious. So we make sure to avoid that, and keep the best of the best going forward with our classic products yet still put forward new and compelling products that the existing players will enjoy—and can do so effortlessly.”
