Spin Fever

Introduction

I first came across Spin Fever, a video poker variant, at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas back in February 2012. It's noteworthy as the second game I encountered that incorporates community bonuses in video poker, allowing multiple players to benefit at once.

The main concept behind Spin Fever is that each time a player achieves a flush or better, they earn multipliers that contribute to the next bonus opportunity. When a bonus is triggered, a prize wheel spins, and if the player opts into the bonus, their winnings will depend on both where the wheel lands and their total accumulated multipliers. After each bonus round, those multipliers reset to zero, but any player with at least one multiplier can trigger a bonus at any time.

Rules

Players can engage with Spin Fever in traditional formats such as 3-play, 5-play, or 10-play video poker. To activate the bonus feature, players are required to bet the full five coins along with an additional three coins for the bonus fee, making the total stake 24 coins for 3-play, 40 for 5-play, and 80 for 10-play. All rules following this point presume the player has paid the Spin Fever fee.

Whenever a player secures a flush or higher in their hand, they collect multipliers that accumulate until they are utilized for a Fever Spin. These multipliers fall into three distinct categories.

Flush multipliers
Full house multipliers
Four of a kind or higher multipliers

As long as a player possesses at least one multiplier, they can opt to spin the Spin Fever wheel. Moreover, if any other player at the machine chooses to spin, others will have around ten seconds to opt into the spin.

The wheel consists of 20 sections with potential wins ranging between 20 and 4,000. Above the wheel, three arrows indicate specific win types: the red arrow on the left marks the flush win, the yellow arrow in the center signifies the full house win, and the blue arrow on the right indicates wins for four of a kind or higher. Let's pause for an illustrative example.

During my time at the Red Rock, I activated the bonus with one flush multiplier and two full house multipliers. The wheel landed on 400 for the flush, 300 for the full house, and 50 for the four of a kind or better.

With one flush multiplier, my payout for the flush came to 1×400, totaling 400.
Having two full house multipliers meant my payout for the full house was 2×300, which amounted to 600.
Since I had no multipliers for four of a kind or better, my earnings in that category amounted to 0.
Thus, my total bonus win was 400+600+0=1000.

After any Fever Spin that a player activates or joins, their multipliers revert to zero.

According to the information on the rule screens, the average bonus winnings per multiplier per hand are as follows:

• Flush: 79.6
• Full house: 103.8
• Four of a kind or better: 138.6

Considering the odds associated with each wheel stop (which are not uniform), the figures provided are averages. Below are the average payouts to six decimal points.

• Flush: 33750/424 = 79.599057
• Full house: 44010/424 = 103.797170
• Four of a kind or better: 58750/424 = 138.561321

Return Tables

The subsequent pay tables were observed at either VideoPoker.com or specifically at the Red Rock Casino. As is customary with video poker, I prefer to represent the pay table in terms of potential winnings per coin, based on a maximum coin bet. In this instance, the average Spin Fever payouts have also been broken down by 5. The return column is derived from the total payout multiplied by the odds, adjusted by a factor of 5/8, because 3/8 of the total bet is a non-refundable fee.

The table below summarizes the return for each of the pay tables mentioned above, including the corresponding 5-coin returns. It is evident that the returns for Spin Fever are consistently higher across all given games and pay tables.

Four 2-4 + 5-K

Any Spin Fever game requires a unique playing strategy. If you decide to use my Four 5-K , aim for the 1-coin payouts (based on a max-coin wager) and add 15.92 for a flush, 20.76 for a full house, and 27.71 for four of a kind or higher.

Full house Flush Here are some peculiarities regarding this strategy.

• Having two suited low cards is better than discarding everything.
• Holding three cards towards a flush can, at times, be more advantageous than a low pair or two cards for a royal.
• Keep a suited low kicker alongside a single high card.
• Straight

Employing standard video poker strategies in Spin Fever could cost players approximately 7% of their total bets due to errors.

3 of a kind Two pair