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Spin Fever is a video poker game where you get multipliers every time you get a flush or higher as your final hand. These multipliers are applied toward the bonus, which is a spin of the prize wheel. You get to play the bonus game any time you have a multiplier, but once you spin the prize wheel, the multiplier resets to 0.
How to Play Spin Fever Poker
Spin Fever Poker, like many video poker games, is available as a multi-play video poker game. You can play 3, 5, or 10 hands at once. To activate the bonus feature, you have to bet max coin (5 coins, which you should be doing anyway if you’ve read our other video poker pages), and you also have to bet an extra 3 coins per spin. So you’re looking at an 8-coin bet multiplied by the number of hands you’re playing, which means you’ll be betting 24 coins, 40 coins, or 80 coins.
The game is then played like any other video poker game. You insert your money and choose how many coins you’re going to bet. You are then dealt a 5 card poker hand. This hand is identical across the 3, 5, or 10 hands that you’re playing—at least until after the draw. You get to decide which cards to keep and which ones to throw away. (It works like 5 card draw.) You get paid off based on the poker value of your final hand after drawing.
The wrinkle with Spin Fever is that you get to earn multipliers to use on your bonus spin. You get bonuses in one of 3 categories:
- Flush
- Full house
- 4 of a kind or better
You can spin the “Spin Fever” wheel any time you have at least one multiplier, but you can also opt to just keep letting the size of the multiplier increase over time as you play more hands. The game also has an interesting multi-player interactive feature. The games are found in “banks”, and if you have a multiplier, you can participate when someone else decides to spin the wheel too. You have to decide within 10 seconds if you want in on the other player’s spin, though.
The prize wheel is similar to the prize wheel on the Wheel of Fortune slot machine. It’s sliced into 20 wedges, each of which is worth anywhere from 20 to 4000 coins. Unlike the Wheel of Fortune prize wheel, though, this game has 3 different pointers, one for each of the 3 categories listed above. They’re designated by color:
- The red arrow is for the flush.
- The yellow arrow is for the full house.
- The blue arrow is for the 4 of a kind or better.
Since it’s possible to have more than one multiplier in each category, you might be winning amounts based on each of those arrows.
Example
Let’s say you’ve been playing for about an hour, and you have the following multipliers accumulated:
- 2 flush multipliers
- 1 full house multiplier
- 1 4 of a kind multiplier
Let’s say the blue arrow is pointing at 300, the yellow arrow is pointing at 400, and the red arrow is pointing at 225. You would win 450 coins for the red arrow (2 X 225), 400 coins for the yellow arrow (1X400), and 300 for the blue arrow (1X300) for a total bonus payout of 1150 coins.
Unlike some video poker games, Spin Fever Poker provides reasonably detailed information about the average payouts for their bonus spins. According to the manufacturer, the average wins based on the type of multiplier are as follows:
- Flush – 79.6
- Full house – 103.8
- Four of a kind or better – 138.6
The manufacturer accomplishes and calculates these payoffs by giving the different wedges different probabilities of coming up. Some of them are “weighted” to come up more often than others. By taking into account the size of the prizes, the casinos and manufacturers are able to get specific granular amounts for their average prizes.
Spin Fever Poker Pay Tables and Odds
You’ve probably noticed that up until this point, we haven’t included any information about the odds or pay tables. Spin Fever is like many video poker games—it’s based on other games, but it has a different name based on its bonus feature—in this case the prize wheel. The games on which these are based are called (naturally enough) the “base game”.
In the case of Spin Fever, the following base games are available:
- Jacks or Better
- Bonus Poker Deluxe
- Double Bonus Poker
- Double Double Bonus Poker
- Triple Double Bonus Poker
The return for the base game is based on which pay table is used, but activating the bonus feature with the 3 extra coin bet always increases the payback percentage.
Here’s an example:
The best return on this game is when Double Bonus is the base game. The pay table for that game looks like this:
| Hand | Return |
| Royal Flush | 800 to 1 |
| Straight Flush | 50 to 1 |
| 4 of a Kind, aces | 160 to 1 |
| 4 of a Kind 2s, 3s, or 4s | 80 to 1 |
| Any other 4 of a Kind | 40 to 1 |
| Full House | 9 to 1 |
| Flush | 7 to 1 |
| Straight | 5 to 1 |
| 3 of a Kind | 3 to 1 |
| 2 Pairs (or Pair of Jacks or Higher) | Even Money |
The payback percentage for that game is 99.66%, making it one of the best games in the casino. The house edge, which is just the payback percentage subtracted from 100%, is only 0.34%. That’s an even better game than blackjack. The payback percentage for the game played with 5 coins and that pay table is only 99.11%, so there’s a significant bonus involved in placing the additional 3 coin bet.
Here’s a list of the payback percentages for the various games available:
| Hand | Return |
| 8/6 Jacks or Better | 98.85% |
| 8/5 Jacks or Better | 97.54% |
| 6/5 Jacks or Better | 96.16% |
| 8/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe | 98.93%/td> |
| 9/7 Double Bonus | 99.66% |
| 9/6 Double Double Bonus | 99.15% |
| 8/5 Double Double Bonus | 97.11% |
| 9/6 Triple Double Bonus | 98.77% |
| 8/5 Triple Double Bonus | 96.72% |
| 7/5 Triple Double Bonus | 96.05% |
The number before the name of each game is the payout for the full house and the flush. These games are all based on Jacks or Better or Bonus Poker, and those are the key numbers in the pay table that determine the payback percentage.
Example
The 9/7 Double Bonus Poker version pays off at 9 to 1 for a full house and at 7 to 1 for a flush.
Keep in mind that even though the house edge for this game is lower than that of blackjack, you are dealing with a more volatile game. You’ll see bigger swings in your bankroll over the short run before the long term expectation kicks in. That’s because of the relatively rare nature of the hands that trigger the big bonus payouts. If you play long enough, they’ll eventually kick in.
Spin Fever Poker Strategy and Tactics
The multipliers and bonus payouts have a major effect on the strategy for this game. In fact, if you played using the conventional strategy for each of these games, you’d lose about 7%, which is huge. The strategy has to take into account the higher payoffs for the hands that are better than a flush.
Here are some strategy deviations to keep in mind:
- You wouldn’t normally hold on to 2 suited low cards if that were all you had. But since there’s a bonus payoff for a flush, it’s worth it to take a shot at the flush in that instance.
- You would almost always keep a low pair, but if you have 3 to a flush, you will sometimes go for the flush instead.
- You would normally never discard a straight to draw to a 4 card flush draw, but the bonus makes it the correct move to go for the flush instead.
You can find instructions for generating an accurate strategy chart for the game you’re playing at Michael Shackleford’s site. Most of the information used to create this guide to the game was found using his site and the free example game at VideoPoker.com. IGT’s page on the game provided additional details.
Conclusion
Spin Fever Poker is a great video poker variation that provides increased volatility but also provides higher payback percentages. The catch is that you’re forced to modify your strategy based on the bonus payouts for the relatively rare hands involved in catching the bonuses. Also, if you’re a fan of games where you get to spin a prize wheel, this might be the right game for you.
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