Trade and Place Video Poker

1 October 2020

By John Grochowski

A couple of years ago, I wrote about Multi-Draw Poker, a video poker game developed by Tim Nottke for Realize Gaming LLC.

The game was a niche success, Nottke is back with a new creation, Trade N’ Place Poker, and you can check out a demo version at https://www.realizegamingllc.com/demo/tradeNPlace3x1/?fbclid=IwAR0cGiRJcOB6zQKGSF-r03r7ANeQW5nyZeUPLeDEbOPNLR-VDayZCHQJNKw

Trade N’ Place isn’t the five-card draw that you find in nearly all video poker games. It’s a nine-card game with three rows of three to make three five-card hands.

Here’s how it works.

Cards include those in a standard deck plus one card with a stylized “N” that has an up arrow at top right point and a down arrow at the bottom left.

If an “N” card appears when cards are dealt in a 3 x 3 matrix, that signals a swap opportunity.

The “N” card, dealt on 48.3 percent of hands, flips to display a regular card. Then the machine asks you to choose trade or no trade. To trade, click on two cards, then hit the trade button.

After you’ve made or declined a trade, another card appears toward the left side of the screen. That’s a replacement card – you touch a card in your hand to discard, then click on “Place,” and the replacement appears in the designated spot.

Let’s try a sample hand before checking what happens in hands with no “N.”

In the demo, my three cards across the top were Ace of diamonds, 2 of diamonds, 10 of clubs. In the middle came 10 of hearts, Jack of diamonds, and an “N” that turned in the the 4 of clubs. Across the bottom, I had Jack of spades, King of hearts, 4 of hearts.

For the trade, I clicked the Jack of diamonds and 4 of hearts. That moved the Jack down to the bottom hand to match the other Jack for a high pair. It also moved the 4 of hearts up to the same line as the 10 of hearts and 4 of clubs.

I was offered a Queen of hearts as the replacement card. I clicked the 4 of clubs, leaving me with three hearts for a middle-hand flush.

What if there is no “N” on the deal? Then you’re offered two replacement cards.

Dealt Ace of spades, 7 of clubs, 6 of hearts on top, 10 of clubs, 10 of hearts, 8 of spades in the middle and Jack of hearts, Jack of spades, 9 of hearts on the bottom. I was offered a 5 of diamonds. I used that to replace the Ace and form a straight on top. Then came a Queen of spades, which brought no help.

For a 45-coin bet, payoffs on the demo are five coins for a high pair, eight for a flush, 10 for a straight, 150 for three of a kind, 200 for a straight flush and 300 for a three-card royal.

Smaller pays won’t get your money back. You want to create opportunities for three of a kind, straight flushes and royals. With expert play, the demo pay table returns 99.43 percent.

Nearly three quarters of that comes from the top three hands. Three of a kind comes up on 8.77 percent of hands but accounts for 29.39 percent of payback. Straight flushes are 8.71 percent of hands and 38.92 percent of returns and royals are 0.86 percent of hands and 5.73 percent of returns.

I found the game fun and intriguing with its trade and replace opportunities. Just bear in mind that using your trades to create big-pay opportunities is part of the game.


Look for John Grochowski on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/7lzdt44) and Twitter (@GrochowskiJ).