Lightning Poker - Version 1

We have finally finished our first build of our new video poker game called Lightning Poker. (Thank you to all the helpful members in the Game Inventors thread!) The game features a bonus round that is initiated by a Lightning Card appearing in the hand which awards 30 seconds of wager free play. The wager in this build is a 5+5 and the bonus card appears in the hand about 14 out of 100 times. The RTP for a player averaging 6 hands within the bonus is 98.88%

Version 1 Demo Link: http://realizegamingllc.com/demo/lightningPoker/

High Frequency Bonus Demo Link: http://realizegamingllc.com/dev/lightningPoker/

What is the RTP for people playing 7, 8, 9 and 10 bonus hands per round? That is where you you will be vulnerable to AP.

Quote: DRich

What is the RTP for people playing 7, 8, 9 and 10 bonus hands per round? That is where you you will be vulnerable to AP.

Good luck to play 8-9-10 hands in 30 seconds! At least if your not a robot and play perfect strategy w/no errors
Using desktop / mouse I can play 6 hands maximum with 20%-30% of accuracy
Touch screen has an UX speed advantage, but a small screen kills my poor vision.
I am 32 inch monitor guy with a mouse

Ok. Some notes.

I've played about 500 hands of V.1 in 2 sessions.

I've had no quads, and am running at a steady loss.

The bonus is coming every 7.2 hands in the first session of 200 and every 4.3 hands in the last 300.

The last 15 min I've played the bonus timer is at 30, but the bonus turns itself off after 15 seconds. Are you guys messing with it while it's live, or is it buggy?

Strategy notes.

I think it's likely that best strategy during bonus will be to learn which hands are roughly equivalent and select the fewer held cards instead of optional picks in some paytables.

For example, 2pr pays the same as JOB. Strategy is hold aces only. But if you get an extra bonus hand out of the speed of holding 1 pr vs 2pr, it may be best to hold job pairs. Same with small pair over 4 to a flush.

I think it will also be worth keeping moving if you make a mistake in some cases. If you grab an ace quick rather than the small pair you saw a moment later, unholding the ace and holding the pair just cost you a hand. Keep moving, IMO and without the numbers.

Errata

My touchscreen jumps and slides a lot when I'm trying to play the bonus. It's probably operator error, but the mapping changes when the timer is on the screen, and the cards frequently have to be touched twice. So there may be something on the overlay that could be improved.

Quote: DRich

What is the RTP for people playing 7, 8, 9 and 10 bonus hands per round? That is where you you will be vulnerable to AP.

DRich,

Click on the "I" button in the game to get more information about the math. Below is a quick screen of the RTP when playing n number of hands in the bonus.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Ok. Some notes.

I've played about 500 hands of V.1 in 2 sessions.

I've had no quads, and am running at a steady loss.

The bonus is coming every 7.2 hands in the first session of 200 and every 4.3 hands in the last 300.

The last 15 min I've played the bonus timer is at 30, but the bonus turns itself off after 15 seconds. Are you guys messing with it while it's live, or is it buggy?

The frequency of the bonus card is right around the 14%. I may not be correctly reading the numbers you provided correctly, but it seems like the bonus is coming up quite a bit more than 14%.

I haven't experienced any issues with the game, specifically the timer bonus that you mention, but I will keep an eye on it. Once we upload the final build, we view it as complete unless we need to do a major update or change to it. When we were testing, I did have an issue with the bonus when using Edge browser, but that has been cleared up. What browser are you using?

Quote: beachbumbabs

Strategy notes.

I think it's likely that best strategy during bonus will be to learn which hands are roughly equivalent and select the fewer held cards instead of optional picks in some paytables.

For example, 2pr pays the same as JOB. Strategy is hold aces only. But if you get an extra bonus hand out of the speed of holding 1 pr vs 2pr, it may be best to hold job pairs. Same with small pair over 4 to a flush.

I think it will also be worth keeping moving if you make a mistake in some cases. If you grab an ace quick rather than the small pair you saw a moment later, unholding the ace and holding the pair just cost you a hand. Keep moving, IMO and without the numbers.

Great point on your strategy notes. I also agree that selecting roughly equivalent hands and trying to limit the number of cards you have to hold may be a better approach to the bonus. I personally hate when I get four to a straight or flush and I have to take the time to hold each of the four cards. This may change once we get the multipliers in the bonus, but we will see. Keep moving is the key IMO too!

We will take a closer look at the touchscreen jumps and slides you mentioned. I also get this when playing on my phone, but it is due to me not directly touching the screen the right way. At times I slide my finger across the screen which causes the screen to minimize or go off-center. We will look into improving the overlay to avoid having to touch the cards twice. I also recommend playing on the touch screen laptop as none of those issues are present.

Thanks for the feedback, BBB.