Ask the Slot Expert: These are a few of my favorite video poker gimmicks

Last week I wrote about a few video poker gimmicks and described why gimmicks are so popular. They add more excitement to video poker by creating bigger swings in your bankroll and they give players something that can't be quantified, namely an unexpected win, which players perceive to be worth more than an expected win of the same amount.

I asked you to tell me your favorite gimmicks. Among the usual suspects of Dream Card, Ultimate X, Multi-Strike, et al., was one I had never heard of: Deuces Wild Double Double Bonus Poker.

When I get a natural hand playing Deuces Wild, I sometimes wonder whether it would be possible to have a paytable that pays a little bit more for hands without deuces. Here's a paytable that does exactly that. As you might have guessed from the second half of the name, the hands whose payouts are goosed are natural four-of-a-kinds, with and without kickers.

What does this largess for natural quads cost? Just an extra credit per hand.

I was going to say that I didn't think this paytable was in Las Vegas, but then I found this video on YouTube recorded at Green Valley Ranch about a year ago. According to the voiceover, there's no strategy online, but one of the people on the video has developed a strategy. If he's correct, the strategy is a hybrid between a Deuces Wild strategy and a Double Double Bonus strategy.

The reader who told me about this paytable summed it up: "It only takes one extra coin to activate!!! And combines the excitement of both games."

This paytable is not what I envisioned for the new paytable that I had in mind. My natural enhancement for Deuces Wild would not have required an extra bet. I just wanted to add a few natural hands to the paytable and adjust the payouts.

Betting one additional credit to be eligible for a gimmick is not bad. Betting two extra isn't so bad either. A gimmick that requires two extra credits per hand that I've played in the past is Triple Wheel Poker.

In exchange for the extra bets, you get to spin one of the wheels when you're dealt a pat hand. The better your hand, the better the values on the wheel you spin. One of these machines crashed and rebooted on me while the wheel was spinning.

I use three criteria to evaluate video poker gimmicks.

1. Extra bet: The lower the extra bet required, the better.
2. Frequency: The more often the gimmick is triggered, the better. Randomly triggered gimmicks can be expensive if you don't get your fair share of triggers. The best possible frequency is every hand.
3. Fun Factor: The first two criteria can be ignored if the gimmick is lots of fun to play.

My favorites (today, at least):

• Honorable mention: 5 Card Plus 2. Doubling your bet sometimes buys you two extra cards.
• Honorable mention: 3-Way Action. Tripling your bet buys you payouts on three hands -- the five cards you're dealt, your 5-card draw hand, and the draw hand plus two extra cards. I don't really consider that this game requires an extra bet because you're buying additional hands.
• First runner-up: Super Draw 6. Doubling your bet buys you a sixth card on every hand.
• Winner: Multi-Hand. Like 3-Way Action, I don't consider this game as requiring an extra bet because you're buying additional hands. You also get the benefit of the gimmick on every play. It may not be the most fun gimmick on the slot floor today, but it scores 100% on my first two criteria.

If you would like to see more non-smoking areas on slot floors in Las Vegas, please sign my petition on change.org.

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