Golden Casino's The Reel Deal

Golden Casino's The Reel Deal is a fun take on the popular game show Deal or No Deal. The game is a 20-line, five-reel slot that features models, cash, hosts, checks, gold bricks, briefcases and scatter buttons for symbols.

There is plenty of fun to be had in "regular play" with the potential to earn 15 free spins with three scatter symbols. But the real excitement begins when three briefcases trigger the bonus round.

The bonus round operates just like the TV game show. There are models with 26 briefcases holding varying amounts of cash. Players have to choose one briefcase for themselves, and then start opening briefcases (in bunches at the beginning and individually towards the end). The goal is open briefcases with the smallest amounts of money in them, thus increasing your chance to win the large prizes. After each round of opening briefcases, the banker makes an offer. Players can take the deal, or reject it and continue to open more briefcases. If briefcases with large amounts of money are eliminated, the dealer will offer very little cash. If the large prizes are still in play, the offers will be more substantial.

In this test game, I played (with play money) until the bonus round was triggered. Then, taking the "counter-intuitive strategy approach," I decided to protect case 13. From there, in ascending numerical order, I opened all briefcases being held by blondes. Then I moved onto opening briefcases (in ascending numerical order) held by brunettes. The strategy proved sound as I generally opened briefcases on the left side (low denominations) board. The offers from the banker were good, but I rejected them all (hey, it's play money). After eliminating the final brunette from play, I moved onto the redheads.

Once again, I started opening the cases in numerical order. Eventually (play slows down toward the end because the dealers starts to make offers after each case is opened), I ended up with two cases on the board -- $60 and $100,000. I rejected the final deal the game put both cases into play and asked me to pick the "winning case" – or the case I would take home. I stuck with my "counter-intuitive" strategy and picked case 13. Sure enough, it held $100,000 and I was the big winner. Too bad it was play money.