Spin Poker Is An Interesting Slot/Video Poker Hybrid
As Tim Robbins’ character once sang in the great political parody ‘Bob Roberts’ ‘the times are changing back.’ Such is the case in casinos both online and in Nevada where trends come and go. Recently, however, an element of the past has become an increasingly popular trend at least in one game gaining traction with players.
Back in the early 1980’s, slot machines ruled the floor at casinos worldwide. That began to change in the decade that followed as video poker and its myriad variations became increasingly popular with players. Video poker offered a similar playing experience as slot machines–you didn’t need to deal with a dealer or other players, for example–but had the advantage of a strong strategy element and superior payouts to slot machines. Slot machines have made a strong comeback in recent years–thanks primarily to the growing trend of ‘themed’ games featuring well known pop culture franchises–but video poker continues to hold a significant portion of the casino floor space.
Spin Poker combines elements of the two games. Like video poker, the player is dealt five cards initially but instead of the cards being ‘dealt’ they spin into place on slot machine line reels. The player choses which cards to hold, and then ‘spins’ the remaining reels. The hand is graded after this spin and the process starts over.
Multihand video poker games are nothing new, with machines offering variations including three pay, five pay, ten pay and even 100 pay where the first ‘held’ cards are shared among hands. Spin poker does this, but with a twist. Instead of individual hands, the player can qualify additional ‘pay lines’ with higher bets that qualify hands across all three reels, diagnolly back and forth over the screen, etc. One major difference between the ‘multihand’ games is that the spin poker is dealt from one one deck while each hand on the multihand variation comes from a separate deck.
Although the play experience is more ‘slot like’ the strategy is just like the game’s video poker cousins. There are spin poker versions of most popular video poker formats including ‘jacks or better’, ‘deuces wild’, ‘jokers wild’, ‘bonus poker’ etc. The only major difference in terms of payout percentages is a greater short term variance in spin poker payouts. Otherwise, strategy is the same.