The newest game out of the IGT/Action Gaming stable is called “Chase The Royal.” Although the game comes in a few configurations, the basics of the game are as follows:

When dealt a pair of jacks, queens or kings (without a four-card royal, four-card straight flush, four of a kind, full house, three of a kind or two pair in the same hand), the player gets the choice of trading that pair in for a three-card royal flush.

      Since usually, a three-card royal isn’t as valuable as a high pair, the game juices up the return on the flush and straight so that it is always a good bet to “chase the royal.” And since the game is found in Triple Play, Five Play and Ten Play versions, this means you will get three or five or 10 chances at a two-card draw for the royal. Quite exciting!

You will receive a qualifying pair on slightly less than one out of 10 deals. When you do, the machine will present you with a randomly selected three-card royal. It might be A K Q, or A K 10, or maybe Q J 10. We are all used to this draw, but in this game it is not quite as good as we are used to. In a normal video poker game, when you start with a hand such as K Q J 5 3, the odds against completing the royal are 1,080 to 1. In this game, the odds are 1,175 to 1 against you.

      Why the difference? In a regular video poker game, the cards you threw away (in this case the 5 and 3) cannot be part of the final hand, so you need to get two perfect cards out of 47. In Chase the Royal, there are no cards you throw away, so you need to get two perfect cards out of 49, which is about 9% less likely.

      If you were playing Five Play, how often would you connect on this “special chance” royal? About one out of 235 shots at it, which is about one out of 2,400 initial hands overall. This is in addition to the one royal out of about 8,000 initial hands that you usually get when you are playing Five Play.

      In round numbers, you will get over four times as many royals playing Chase the Royal Five Play as you will get playing regular Five Play. There is a price for this. You will lose considerably more between royals when you play Chase The Royal. This makes for a highly volatile game. You will either win big or lose big. If you have a conservative gambling personality, stay away from this game. But if you like the challenge of big swings both ways, this might well be the game for you.

      There are 10 different three-card royals you might be randomly assigned. They are not the same in value. The lowest-valued ones (A-K-10, A-Q-10 and A-J-10) have only two high cards and no chances for a straight flush. The mid-valued ones (A-K-Q, A-K-J, A-Q-J, K-Q-10 and K-J-10) have either three high cards and no straight flush chances, or two high cards and one straight flush chance. The highest-valued ones (K-Q-J and Q-J-T) have either three high cards and one straight flush chance or two high cards and two straight flush chances. Whichever of these you are randomly assigned, you should opt to chase the royal whenever you get the chance, but your odds are better on some than on others.

      Almost every video poker game comes in a variety of pay schedules, as does Chase The Royal. Since the Chase The Royal feature adds real value, the original pay schedule needs to be reduced to compensate. In Jacks or Better, for example, the 9/5 game (i.e. 9 for the full house and 5 for the flush) returns 98.45%. But the same schedule in the Chase The Royal game returns 99.82%. The complete lineup of available schedules offered in this game is as follows:

      As in every video poker game, winners pay attention to the pay schedule. But even though the 9/5 Chase The Royal Jacks or Better game is a better game than 9/6 Jacks or Better in its “normal” mode, there are a number of strategy variations between the games. For example, with Q J 4 5 6, Q-J is the correct play in the 9/5 game and 456 is the correct play in the 9/6 game. Similarly, with K J 10 8 7, hold K-J in the 9/5 game and J-10 in the 9/6 game. With every change in pay schedule, similar strategies abound.

      Let's assume you are playing the 9/5 Jacks or Better version and were dealt the hand shown in Figure 1—that is, J J 9 4 A. Assume you are given the royal chance of J A 10. You should take the option, of course, but the question is what effect does the A you received on the initial deal have on your chances to get a pair of aces (or two pair or three of a kind) after you take the option?

      The answer is that it has no effect whatsoever. The three-card royal you get on the option is from a totally fresh deck, so there are no “penalty card” considerations at all in whether or not you should go for the royal. Notice that when you are going for the royal, the payout for the flush is increased from 5 to 12 (i.e., from 25 to 60 on a five-coin basis), and the payout for the straight is increased from 4 to 10.

      Here is a puzzle for you. Are you more likely to get the Chase The Royal feature when you start from a pair of kings or a pair of jacks? Although being dealt each one is a 30-to-1 shot (approximately), a pair of jacks is more likely to be in the same hand as a four-card straight flush. That is, a pair of kings can be accompanied by a suited K-Q-J-9, K-Q-10-9 or K-J-10-9, a pair of jacks can be accompanied by a suited K-Q-J-9, K-J-10-9, Q-J-10-9, Q-J-10-8, Q-J-9-8, J-10-9-8, J-10-9-7, J-10-8-7 or J-9-8-7. This means that you will get the Chase The Royal feature more often starting from a pair of kings than you will from a pair of jacks.

If you are a person who doesn’t bet maximum coins all of the time, then this probably isn’t the best game for you. If you are dealt an otherwise-qualifying pair of jacks, queens or kings when you haven’t bet the maximum, you do not receive the Chase The Royal feature. And if you don’t include the value of this feature, the pay schedule on these games is likely to be inferior to those on other machines in the casino. On the other hand, if you do play maximum coins, in some casinos this will be one of the best games in the house.

      Another interesting feature of the game is that if you are dealt a royal, you receive 2,000 coins per coin bet rather than the normal 800 coins per coin bet. This is a 650,000-to-1 shot, but it does happen. (It is primarily a function of how much you play. In 2000, I received two dealt royals. In 2001, I received one and Shirley received two. Who knows how many we will receive in 2002?)

      This return can often be triggered by ending up with a royal on every line after the draw, but this is even rarer than being dealt a royal. Although whether you are playing Triple Play, Five Play or Ten Play doesn't affect your chances of being dealt a royal, you are 2,200 times more likely to convert a suited A-K-Q-J into three royals on Triple Play than you are to convert the same hand on Five Play.

      Don’t even dream that this could happen at Ten Play. This bonus for royals on all lines adds almost .2% to the return, and is already included in the figures listed earlier.

This article originally appeared in Strictly Slots Magazine