Spin Fever Poker now available for all

[New2vp]

What I am VERY curious about (and would have to know before ever considering playing it in a casino) is if the wheel spin "cares" about what your multipliers are.  I would like to know if the 1000 and 4000 come up more often if you spin every time you get a 1x multiplier and if they come up a lot less if you fill up the arrows with higher multiplier amounts.Also, I don't want to go too off topic but I have often wondered the same thing about games such as Super Times Pay and Good Times Pay.  It seems like lower multipliers come out when I get better hands and higher multipliers come out when I get dealt garbage.  Is that just "random" or is it built into the program?  I am unaware of IGT releasing any specific data regarding their specialty games.I know the regulations do not require each wheel stop to have equal probability.  I do not know if the regulations require the probabilities to be independent of the final hands.Nevertheless, the help screens specify the expected value of the bonus round for each
final hand of flush or more.  The playing strategy to maximize expected
value would then be the same no matter how the wheel stops worked and a game expected return can still be determined.

[New2vp]

I believe the extra 3 coins to play this wheel do not come close to justifying the chance of the wheel hitting anything big. The randomness of this game is exactly why i never put a nickel in a regular slot machine. this reminds me too much of the Wheel of Fortune!!! Each of the Spin Fever games online at this site have a higher return than the base game.  In some cases, that means that the return on the extra 3 coins per hand is over 100%.  The lowest marginal return for the extra 3 coins is 99.45%.But you really need to make some fairly drastic changes to the playing strategy if you want to get the higher return for the wheel-bonus coins.  If you do not change from the base game strategies, instead of getting your money's worth for the last 3 coins, you may well be getting a yield in the 80% range.  The most important changes in strategy increase the number of final-hand flushes.  The Jacks or Better Spin Fever strategy yields 92% more flushes than the base game strategy. 









5 coins
8 coins
Extra 3 coins          Extra 3 coins




Base
Spin Fever
Base Strategy
Spin Fever Strat.


Jacks or
Better
98.39%
98.85%
80.59%
99.61%


Bonus

95.78%
98.09%
92.86%
101.94%


Bonus
Deluxe
98.49%
98.93%
80.76%
99.65%


Double
Bonus
99.11%
99.66%
88.63%
100.58%


Double
Double Bonus
98.98%
99.16%
79.39%
99.45%


Triple
Double Bonus
98.15%
98.77%
81.24%
99.80%










Average

98.15%
98.91%
83.91%
100.17%

Even if you do make strategy changes, about 8 out of 9 wheel spins will be below average.  You need your share of the other 1 out of 9 spins when the pointers end on bigger values to attain that expected return.  So, it is not that surprising to have some big negative results on these games, even though the EVs are relatively favorable.  The negative scores have to offset those positive scores that we see each day from the leaders.

[TsuDoNihm]

After playing about 40 sessions I had noticed that the vast majority of my spins came at the very low end of the scale so I decided to keep track for 20 spins to see what the results were. This is of course a very small sample so it doesn't really have much statistical value, but I thought some people might find it interesting.   

I currently stand at 66 sessions played in the contest, with a high score of 5425 which included a 3900 wheel win. I didn't complete all of those 66 sessions though, abandoning some when it seemed futile to continue, (Game number 14 below, with only 3 flushes, no FH's and one 4 OAK probably would have been abandoned as well except I hit 4 2's with a kicker on the very first hand). As I recall my lowest score for a completed game was 825, (yikes!). I didn't keep track of it but I believe the highest wheel value I had hit prior to this was 350. I did hit a 225/400/275 after finishing the 20 games recorded below, which I believe is my best spin out of the 50 or so games I completed to date.

Since I was going more for flushes I didn't get many 4 OAK; 6 in the 20 sessions, (which doesn't include the partial sessions, which number around 5 or more and didn't include any 4 OAK), but I did get 2 straight flushes. With my overall results I'd probably stay away from this one in the casino, but then again it appears the way it will play in the casino may be somewhat different from this anyway. From:

http://grochowski.casinocitytimes.com/a ... 2010-59356

"IGT steps up the Wheel Poker concept with Spin Fever, featuring three wheels in a community bonus. As you play, you're looking for eligibility and then extra multipliers on each of three wheels --- one for flushes, one of full houses and one for four of a kind or better."

The IGT representative was quoted in that article saying "The multiplier can go up to 99. But when it's deployed, it'll go into the bonus round an average of once every five minutes, so it'll be pretty tough to get to 99."

Maybe this is how it is set up on the Gold side, but I had not seen anything about this before.

-Tsu


1)   20 (x5) 50 (x1) 75 (x0) = 150
2)   25 (x14) 100 (x2) 350 (x0) = 480
3)   75 (x11) 25 (x5) 100 (x0) = 950
4)   25 (x4) 100 (x4) 350 (x0) = 500
5)   25 (x11) 80 (x2) 20 (x1) = 455
6)   25 (x10) 80 (x3) 20 (x1) = 510
7)   90 (x7) 80 (x6) 50 (x0) = 1110
8)   75 (x7) 25 (x6) 100 (x0) = 675
9)   50 (x6) 75 (x2) 25 (x0) = 450
10) 25 (x8) 100 (x8) 350 (x0) = 1000
11) 100 (x6) 350 (x2) 275 (x1) = 1575
12) 80 (x7) 20 (x4) 50 (x0) = 640
13) 90 (x6) 80 (x3) 50 (x1) = 830
14) 20 (x3) 50 (x0) 75 (x1) = 135
15) 50 (x7) 75 (x2) 25 (x0) = 400
16) 90 (x10) 80 (x4) 50 (x0) = 1220
17) 50 (x6) 75 (x6) 25 (x0) = 750
18) 80 (x6) 20 (x1) 50 (x1) = 550
19) 50 (X14) 75 (x2) 25 (x0) = 850
20) 75 (x4) 25 (x8) 100 (x2) = 700

Highest bonus:     1575
Lowest bonus:     135
Average bonus:     696.5

20/50/75    2 times
25/100/350 3 times
75/25/100   3 times
25/80/20    2 times
90/80/50    3 times
50/75/25    4 times
80/20/50    2 times
100/350/275 1 time

[New2vp]

20/50/75   2 times
75/25/100 3 times
25/100/350 2 times
25/80/20   2 times
90/80/50   3 times
75/25/100 2 times
50/75/25   4 times
80/20/50   2 timesHey Tsu,  It looks like you had a fairly typical 20 spins, even if it was just a little bit unlucky.  I would have expected you to get at least 1 better result in 20 tries about 91% of the time.It seems (using a larger sample) about 8 out of 9 spins result in one the nine lowest-valued wheel sections.I noted a problem with your categorization above in that you duplicated one of the sections.  My best guess is that one of these should have been 45/90/80, probably the later one.  But that's just a guess since, like you stated, results in a small sample are not necessarily closely representative of the population (80/50/225 is the next most likely candidate).  And I suppose you could have simply not combined the two lines and hit 75/25/100 5 times in total.Good luck in the last couple days of the contest.

[TsuDoNihm]

Thanks New2VP, I actually made 2 mistakes; the 2nd session originally read "20/100/300", which doesn't exist. It was actually 25/100/300. And I edited the final tally as well, hopefully correct this time.

[New2vp]

You're welcome.  And now, with the inclusion of 100/350/275, you actually had one of the top 11 wheel sections in your sample (expected about 1 out of every 9 spins), so the sample looks more typical.

[Webman]

Spin Fever is now available for all members to play.

[Clayva]

Spin Fever has definitely captured my attention and since I live in the Gambling Capital of the USA I am definitely looking forward to this game in one or more of our many casinos.  I would like to see this game in the El Cortez in particular since that is where I play most often.  My second favorite casino is the Vegas Club so please get this game in either of these casinos as soon as possible.
Clayva>Carol Layland.

[rayj]

I would avoid this game like the plague in a casino!

[Minn. Fatz]

I look on it as another game where one's variance is amped up out of all proportion to the slight increase in expected value. I might play it with comp credits; with "ahead money" I'd be more likely to play something like straight Triple Play.That being said the strategy changes are interesting to say the least. Some of the ones I came up with for TDB using the calculator on the Wizard of Odds site:Four cards to a flush > a pair of Aces or a pat straightThree to a flush > a nonbonus (5-Ten) pairnever hold two nonsuited high cards; hold a low suited card with a high card (except for a 6-9 with an Ace)don't break Aces up as in "regular" TDB; hold both pairshold two low suited cards if there's nothing else, i.e. almost never draw five cards