Build a Wheel Poker

You might think of Build a Wheel Poker as a hybrid between Wheel of Fortune slot machines and traditional video poker games. The game’s distinguishing characteristic is the way in which the player fills up the prize wheel and then gets to spin it. Whenever you get a 3 of a kind or better, you get to fill in the prizes on the prize wheel—when the prize wheel is filled up, you get to spin the wheel.

This page includes full details about how to play Build a Wheel Poker. It also includes an analysis of the pay tables and the correct strategies for playing. We also include information about how and where to play the game online for free or for real money.

Like many video poker variations with bonus games, you can opt to play a Build a Wheel Poker like a standard video poker game. In case you don’t know how those games work, here’s a quick summary:

Video poker games look like slot machines, but only on the surface. The differences are significant, though. Both video poker games and slot machines pay out prizes based on the combinations of symbols on the monitor.

But on a video poker game, the odds of getting a particular symbol are known. That’s because each symbol is that of a playing card, and the odds of getting that card are the same as they would be if you were playing with a real deck of cards.

Armed with that information, we can calculate the house edge for such a game. And since you get to discard cards and replace them, video poker includes a skill element that slot machines lack. Here’s how that works:

You start by betting between 1 and 5 coins per hand. We suggest always playing for 5 coins, because that’s a requirement to get the top possible jackpot—800 to 1 on the royal flush. If you play for 4 coins or fewer, the payoff for that hand is only 250 to 1.

Once you’ve placed your bet, you’re dealt 5 virtual cards on the computer screen. You can choose which cards to keep and which cards to discard. The game deals you replacement cards for your discards, and you get paid off automatically based on the pay table and which poker hand you wind up with.

In Build a Wheel Poker, you activate the special feature by placing an additional bet on each hand. Since Build a Wheel Poker is usually played as a 3-play or 5-play multi-hand game, the amount of this additional bet can add up quickly.

You start with a prize wheel with 6 blank spots on it. Besides those blank spaces, you also have a spot worth 4000 coins. And you have a progressive jackpot on one of the slices, too—it starts at 10,000 coins and increases over time just like any other progressive jackpot.

Any time you get a 3 of a kind or better, you get to fill in one of the blank spots with an additional prize. The amount of this prize is determined randomly.

If you get a full house or better, you not only get to assign a random amount to one of the blank spots, you also get to fill in all of the other blank spots on the wheel.

When there are no blank spots left on the reel you get to spin the wheel and collect your prize for doing so.

You should know that any time you play a gambling machine with a prize wheel, the odds of getting the various prizes vary based on the prize amount. According to one reputable source we consulted, the player awarded spots are equally likely to come up, but the 2 larger prized spots have longer odds.

If you decide to quit playing before you’ve filled in all the blank spots on the prize wheel, you’re offered a “surrender” amount to reset the prize wheel. You also have the option of leaving the prizes on the wheel. There’s no good mathematical reason for doing this, but if you’re scouting games and can find one where some of the spots on the wheel are already filled in, you can increase your expected value by doing so.