VIDEO POKER CALCULATOR EXTRA COIN MODES & ASSUMPTIONS

Level-Up -- Level-Up is a Microgaming video poker variant with 4 levels. The first level plays like normal video poker. If the player gets a paying hand on the first level or receives a free ride card, he plays another hand on the 2nd level where wins pay double. If the player gets a paying hand on the 2nd level or receives a free ride card, he advances to the 3rd level where wins pay quadruple. Similarly after a winning hand or free ride card on the 3rd level, the player advances to the 4th level where wins pay 8x normal. Microgaming does not publish their free ride rates, but they do publish payouts, which are slightly more below 99% for Level-Up games. The listed free ride rates for Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Joker's Wild, Aces & Faces, and Double Joker were chosen to match the Microgaming's published payouts. The free ride rates won't be exact, but should be close enough for near optimal strategy in the strategy calc and trainer. You may modify the free ride rates in the corresponding menu.

Game strategy differs for each of the 4 levels, so the strategy calc requires selecting a level, as well as whether a free ride card is active. Level 4 and hands with a free ride card play with standard strategy for the paytable. Lower levels favor plays with an increased chance of a winning hand. For example, if the player draws a 6/6/J/Q/8 in Jacks or Better; the player should hold the unsuited J/Q on levels 1 and 2 since there is a greater chance of a paying hand than the pair of 6s. However, on levels 3 and 4, the player should hold the pair. The payout calc may appear slower in Level-Up than normal mode because it needs to compute strategy for each of the 4 levels before printing the overall payout.

Multi-Strike -- Multi-strike is an IGT multi-level game that is very similar to Level-Up. The main differences are Level-Up offers an auto-complete pat royal flush small bonus on unplayed levels (usually improves house edge by under 0.01%), while Multi-Strike does not; Multi-Strike has different free ride rates that are usually more generous; and Multi-Stike supports some different video poker games.

Quick Quads -- Quick Quads is an IGT 6-coin feature in where 4 of a kind hands can be formed by either matching rank or summing ranks. 4/4/4/2/2 would be scored as 4 of a kind with quick quads because 2+2=4. Aces are ranked as 1 for the purposes of summing, so 4/4/4/3/A would also be scored as 4 of a kind.

Super Times Pay -- Super Times Pay is an IGT 6-coin feature in where at random times payouts are multiplied by a random factor. All IGT Super Times Pay games I am aware of state the following in the paytable, "an average of 1 in 15 games awards an average multiplier of 4.05." The payout calculator has hard coded this 1 in 15 rate with a multiplier of 4.05, which increases overall payout by (4.05-1)/15 at a cost of 0.2 coins for a net payout increase of (3.05/15 - 0.2) * (6/5) = 0.28%. Super Times Pay does not appear in the strategy calc or strategy trainer because the feature does not impact game strategy.

Ultimate X -- Ultimate X is an IGT 10-coin feature where winning hands increase the payout of the following hand by a preset multiplier. For example, if the player gets a flush in Jacks or Better, his next hand will get a large 11x multiplier. The calcs require inputting the Ultimate X multiplier values for each hand, as well as the standard paytable values. The Ultimate X video poker calcs assume that the same strategy is used regardless of average active multiplier, which typically reduces net payout by ~0.04%. The payout calc adds in 0.04% to its calculated value to compensate. The payout calc also uses a non-infinite iterative approach, which is another potential source of error. Nevertheless, the payout calc results are usually quite close to IGT's figures. For example, IGT reports a 99.42% for 10-line Ultimate X 8/6 Jacks or Better. The payout calc also returns 99.42%. IGT reports a 99.13% payout for 3-line Ultimate X 25/15/9 Deuces Wild. The payout calc reports 99.12%.

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