MultiDraw and Lightning Poker

4 July 2021

By John Grochowski

In the last year or so, I've spotlighted a couple of creative video poker games devised by independent developer Tim Nottke through his company, Realize Gaming.

One is MultiDraw Poker, and we're going to be seeing a lot of that in the coming months through a distribution deal. In that one, a MultiCard symbol can trigger extra cards, hands and multipliers. The other is Trade N' Place Poker, where you have the chance to pick a card to swap for a known replacement card.

Nottke is back with another new game, Lightning Poker with bonus hands and multipliers. A demo version is online at http://realizegamingllc.com/demo/lightningPokerV2/

Lightning Poker gives players a chance to win extra credits through a bonus triggered by a card with a lightning bolt logo.

The demo version is 9-6 Double Double Bonus Poker, but Nottke says it's easily adaptable should the operator want to offer Lightning in other game families such as Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker or others.

Activating the bonus requires a five-coin bet, so if you play you'd be betting 10 coins per hand -- five as a max bet on the main game plus five to activate the Lightning feature.

As in many other games with extra-bet features, payoffs on the main game are the same as they would be with a five-coin bet. If you have two pair, you'll be paid five coins, just as you would on a non-bonus version of Double Double Bonus. You can make all that up, and more, at bonus time.

The Lightning card occurs an average of once per 14 hands. It flashes for an instant before revealing that's part of the hand in play. While you play out the hand, a message occurs onscreen that the bonus will begin on the next deal.

Once you finish a hand and hit "deal" to start the bonus, you have 20 seconds to play without making additional wagers.

Multipliers come into play during the bonus, too. After winning hands, look below the "bonus win" amount and look for a multiplier. If, for example, you have two pair and "4x" appears below the payoff total, you'll win 20 credits instead of five.

In playing with the demo, I saw a 6x multiplier on three of a kind and 5x on a full house. Free winning hands plus multipliers are very kind to your credit meter.

Speed is of the essence at bonus time. You want to play as many hands and give yourself as many chances to win as possible in that time.

If you can play mistake-free, great, but for most players, minor errors will be part of game in making sure you maximize free hands.

Once the rapid-fire Lightning bonus is over, you go back to betting and can play at your own pace.

There is some room for operator adjustment in addition to choosing game families. The once per 14 hand average for appearance of the Lightning card on the demo can be adjusted. Operators also can adjust the speed at which cards are dealt during the bonus event.

Your speed and skill as a player are important factors, but a increasing or decreasing the number of possible hands through deal speed can raise or lower the average return, too.

I played with the demo quite a lot, and noticed more each time through. The first time around, I missed the appearance of the multipliers altogether. But as I got comfortable, I found a game that was fun to play with a big win just a lightning bolt away.

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