Video Poker Game with 5 + wager for bonus

My group is working on adjusting a video poker game which happens to be one of my favorite games called Slide Poker. Basically, Slide Poker if your typical video poker game but what makes it stand out is the bonus. In the game, anytime a player's ending hand contains an adjacent pair or better, the game will trigger the slide bonus. In the bonus, one card at the opposite end of the hand is removed, the remaining cards slide down toward that side of the hand and a new card from the remaining deck is dealt into the open card positions. This continues until the adjacent pair arrives at the other end of the hand so this results in a bonus game using the pair and creating up to three additional hand variations. Here is a short video showing the game play in a three hand format.



As you can see in the video, we are currently using the 5 + 10 wagering format which I'm sure will scare some people away. My goal of this post it to try to get this down to 5 + 5 wager without drastically altering the double double pay scale and keeping the components of the slide bonus intact.

Here is what we are looking at now and I'd love to hear what video poker players and mathematicians have to say, so please feel free to comment about the good, bad, and ugly.

Option 1 - Keep the existing format of 5 + 10 wager, multipliers, and a 98.7% RTP
Option 1 Original Version

Option 2 - Keep the existing 5 + 10 wager, remove the multipliers, change the pay scale to provide a 2 for 1 for both two pairs and jacks or better and a 97% RTP
Option 2 No multipliers


Option 3 - Use a 5 + 5 wager, no multipliers, regular pay scale, and a 107% RTP
*We know this is not possible, but this is our goal and I wanted to share where we are at right now.


Option 4 - Use a 5 + 6 wager, no multipliers, regular pay scale, with a 97% RTP
*I don't mind the wager, but I know some people won't like it. I view it as 11 credits to play the game, but he bonus happens quite frequently, so I don't mind paying a bit extra for it. Also, changing the pay scale to 8/5 double double bonus didn't help us get down to the 5 + 5 wager we desired.
Version 4 5 + 6 wager


Option 5 - Using a 5 + 5.5 wager with some multipliers allows us to creep very close to the 100% RTP and allow us to adjust a number of things. I'm not a big fan of this version even though it would work. I'd be comfortable with it in an online setting, but I don't see it ever being an option for land based casinos.


So, with all that being said, what does everyone think? As always, I welcome all types of feedback

I also forgot to include that if the ending hand contains three cards to a royal flush, a free bonus is offered where the player will get a chance at the royal flush by removing the two non-royal cards and dealing two additional cards for the royal chance. This doesn't alter the RTP very much at all.

I am confused about the mechanics of slide poker.

In the video you provide, the bottom two hands have made trip tens (3oak) but the slide mechanism eliminates one of the tens and the additional card that is drawn is not helpful. Do I understand that correctly? Not exactly a joyful moment for the player, is it?

Quote: gordonm888

I am confused about the mechanics of slide poker.

In the video you provide, the bottom two hands have made trip tens (3oak) but the slide mechanism eliminates one of the tens and the additional card that is drawn is not helpful. Do I understand that correctly? Not exactly a joyful moment for the player, is it?
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gordonm888 I can explain the game play mechanics for you.

A typical game of slide poker involves a bonus game whenever an adjacent pair, trips, or quads appears in the ending hand. Those adjacent cards stay together and "slide" to the other end of the hand, one card position at a time. Depending on the direction of the slide, the end card is eliminated from the hand which allows all the other cards in the hand to slide down one card position in that direction. This creates and open card position in the hand where a new card from the remaining deck of cards is dealt into the hand. This slide process continues until the adacent pair, trips, or quads reaches the end of the hand. Depending on where the triggering pair, trips, or quads is located and the direction the slide bonus goes, determines if the player gets 1, 2, or up to three different hand variations all building on the triggering cards.

In the video we show a triple play game of slide poker. The player obtained an adjacent pair which triggers the bonus game. In this particular bonus, the player has a chance to chose which direction the adjacent pair will move in the hand. (Most of the time this is automatically done by the cpu and other times in the case of two pair, or trips in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th card positions, the player can choose which direction to slide as shown by the green direction arrows). You'll notice in the video the bottom hand and the middle hand obtained an adjacent pair of ten's. Based on the card positions of the 10's, sliding the adjacent pair to the left is done by the cpu because that movement provides the player with two slides compared to only one slide if the pair moves to the right. The top hand is interesting since the 10 of clubs landed in the third card position. In this scenario, the player may choose to have the pair slide to the left two times, but it will eliminate the 10 of hearts from the hand. The better move is to choose the adjacent 10's to slide to the right one time since it provides the player with an opportunity for a four of a kind even though it will only be one slide.

Give the option 4 demo link a try and choose some of the premade hands from the pull down at the bottom of the screen to get a better understanding of the slide process. It is a fun game which gives player more opportunities for four of a kinds by sliding the cards, removing cards, and adding new cards to the ending hand.

Thanks for asking for clarity on the game.

We are very close to getting the game down to the 5 plus 5 betting amount, just have to clean up some small decision making slides by the CPU. Hope to have a playable demo with the new math soon.