I’m primarily a video poker writer and teacher. That’s my focus. But at this year’s Global Gaming Expo, there were a variety of skill-based games in addition to video poker, so I took a look at several of these other games as well.
I don’t pay much attention to pay schedules at gaming shows. Most games come in 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, and 99% versions, plus or minus, and the slot director at each property can make the choice as to which version is the best fit for his or her property. Often, different pay schedules are chosen for different denominations.
For a professional player, the pay schedule is one of the most important aspects to a game, along with whatever slot club benefits and promotions are available. In this article, I’m looking for games that are intrinsically interesting and relatively easy to understand. If I can’t figure a game out without some coaching, it’s probably not going to be popular in the field.
Let’s take a quick look at the manufacturers that had such games on display this year at G2E. This list is ordered alphabetically and shouldn’t be viewed as a reflection of any personal preference.
Gamblit — There was a card-based version of Deal or No Deal, where multiple players first choose a locked suitcase and then play against each other, competing for cards being displayed. Whichever player ends up with the best five-card poker hand gets an offer of an amount based on the suitcases in play. He can either take this deal or refuse it and open up the suitcase he chose previously. All other players lose their bet. There is clearly some skill involved in figuring out which cards to choose and being quick on the trigger when a good card appears. There was also a one-person version of the same game.
Gamblit also had single-player and four-person versions of Pac Man, where, as in the classic arcade game, you use a joystick to move your critter. You try to pick up bonuses and avoid other players unless you have more points than they do; if you do have more points, you try to gobble them up. The last player remaining wins a prize, and other players lose their original bet. I did not play enough to get good with the joystick, but clearly practice will help.
There were several other games of skill in the Gamblit booth as well. Of this type of game, Gamblit had the biggest selection.
Gaming Arts — Casino Wizard: This is a single-deck blackjack game where you can bet up to three hands with an optional side bet. The cards are shuffled after each hand.
Although the blackjack rules were relatively favorable to players at the show, the rules may well be selectable by the operator; this wasn’t made clear from the promotional literature available. Still, this gives players a choice over current blackjack games that are available with fewer rules.
The Casino Wizard package included games of roulette, baccarat, and craps. While there are some skill elements at avoiding the plays with the worst odds, I do not consider these games of skill.
IGT — With the lion’s share of the video poker market, IGT typically displays more new games than everybody else put together. That was again the case this year.
Double Big Wheel Poker (left): This is similar to Doubl
e Super Times Pay, where you can get multipliers on either the deal or the draw, except that this is a 10-coin game and the multipliers are determined by wheel spins which are then multiplied together. For example, if you get a 2x on the inner wheel and 4x on the outer wheel, your entire hand is multiplied by 8x.
The wheels are set so you get a very small edge by betting 10 coins rather than five. For example, 9/6 Jacks or Better returns 99.54% with five coins and 99.55% with 10 coins.
Lucky 8 (right): This is a Triple Play or Five Play game with a wheel spin where you pay five extra coins per line for the wheel spin and you get one wheel spin for being dealt 3-of-a-kinds. This feels strange, because in Triple Play you pay 15 coins for the wheel spin, and in Five Play you pay 25. IGT says that the wheel is weighted differently for Triple Play than it is for Five Play, and the return is the same.
The game is Chinese-themed and has hanzi (Chinese calligraphy) all over it. Three 8s earn 18, rather than 15 (kind of hard to get excited about that), a full house including three 8s gets 88 coins rather than the 40 or 45 you usually get, and four 8s receives 2888 coins (yes!) rather than 250.
On the wheel spin, you get fairly big numbers ranging from 188 to, rarely, 8,888 coins. You can also land a dragon symbol that gives you another spin where the bonuses are approximately doubled — up to a possible 18,888 coins.
The game has very few strategy changes compared to the regular game. Eights full (e.g. 88833) should always be broken because of the high payout for four eights. Other than that, play the game normally.
Max Action Poker: This is a multi-line game where you can bet between five and 10 coins per line. Each additional line bet improves the return, and the variance. Each additional coin bet also changes the strategy because of the differing ratios between pairs, straights, full houses, quads, etc. Using commercially available software, the player can figure out how much the game is worth. Should that amount be high enough to make it worth your while, practice with the software to master the game.
Multi Strike Wheel Poker: The latest offering in the Multi Strike family charges five coins for the wheel spin, which is activated if you reach the top line and are dealt a winner. Because reaching the top line is worth more than it is in regular Multi Strike, you play more conservatively on your way up to get there. For example, in Level 4x in 9/6 Jacks or Better, from a dealt hand of KQ773, in regular Multi Strike you hold the sevens and in the Wheel version you hold 77. When the game hits the market in January I’ll be writing more extensively about strategy variations.
Stack the Deck (top): This is a 7-coins-per-hand game. When you are dealt trips, full houses, quads, or four to the royal, you receive from three to five extra cards in the deck, depending on the game family, to complete your hand. Let’s say you’re dealt 33366 in Double Double Bonus. You will receive five extra 3s in the pack from which you’re drawing. So throwing away the sixes, which is always correct in this case, instead of giving you a 2-in-47 chance of getting the quad, you have more than four times that chance of getting one, plus a 1-in-88 chance of getting five 3s which is worth 1,600. There is also a bonus for a baby royal, which is KQJT9 of the same suit which pays 2,000 coins. The game requires an entirely new strategy as the six and seventh coins change the ratio of the pay schedule categories. Still, modern software and a bit of simple algebra (how about that for an oxymoron!) allows the player to work out the correct strategy for the few different variations that are affected.
Ultimate X Wheel Poker: In addition to the normal 10-coins per line bet of Ultimate X there is an extra five coins per game required in this variant, meaning 35 coins for Triple Play and 55 for Five Play. For those extra coins, instead of a top multiplier of 12x for full houses (or straight flushes in Deuces Wild variations), you get a wheel spin where you can get 14x, 15x, 16x, 17x, 18x, 19x, or 20x — or sometimes a flat score of 250, 500, 1000, or 2000 (multiplied by whatever multipliers that existed from last hand, if any).
The higher return for the full houses, along with the higher multipliers, changes the strategy in numerous subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
Ultimate X Keno and Super Times Pay Keno: Neither of these are games of skill, and you’ll never see me playing them in a casino, but each of these have added one of the most popular features of video poker to keno. These are obviously geared toward the keno audience, who are largely a separate customer base from video poker players. I predict these hybrids will be popular with the players and profitable for the casinos.
Next Gaming had a number of shoot-em-up variations seemingly taken straight from social media, including Asteroids, Bust-A-Move, and others of that type. I was told that you can get better results from practice, but considering that these games utilize RNG, no player can ever obtain a theoretical edge over the game.
Scientific Games — They said they had some games of skill, but would only let customers see them after the deadline for this article. Whether they were good or not I have no idea.
