Page 7 - June 2002 • Southern California Gaming Guide

by Billie Lee Bartell
The tried and true video poker machine is getting a make-over! Move over Draw Poker for the new generation video poker machine. Austin PowersTM Poker talks and sings and the FembotsTM do their thing (Oh, behave!). Austin Powers Video
Poker? A movie franchise video poker brand? Those clever gaming designers know what they’re doing. This is the start of something really big!
Video poker, in all its permutations, has become immensely popular in the last few years. This game has great appeal, as it gives slot players the rare opportunity to use skill and exercise choice as opposed to pushing a button and depending on luck. Not to men- tion the potential payback (in the long run when playing with the correct strategy) of video poker. Savvy video poker players can determine the expected return of a machine by looking at the pay tables. (Ed. Note: This—and other strategy info are the domain of one of video poker’s best-known experts, Bob Dancer, who talks about the game on page 15 of this issue. Future issues will feature a regular column by Dancer lled with video poker strategy hints.)
Number Two has a business proposition for you—trade your ten active hands for 50 shots at a Royal Flush! Yeah, baby!
The Early Days of Video Poker
In the 1970’s an enterprising gaming inventor (the even-
tual founder of IGT, and a legend in his own time) William “Si” Redd, came up with the idea of using poker, the grand old American card game, as the basis for a computerized slot machine. He created the game as a novelty, thinking it
would be fun to play before hitting the tables, or a diver- sion from the fruit and bar slots. Almost overnight the video poker phenomenon was born.
There are many different varieties of video poker machines, most of them based on five-card draw. The clas- sic triumvirate video poker plays include Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, and Joker Poker.
Each one of the famous three
g a m e s
demands a unique strategy. And each of these games has been electri ed and video-ed into the well-known and ubiquitous multi-play Bonus Poker series that includes Double Bonus and Double Double Bonus Poker, and the best-known Draw Poker series that feature Triple Play, Triple Play and Five Play, Ten Play, Fifty Play, and most recently Hundred Play slots. Other popular video poker games include Pick ’Em Poker on the Game Maker platform.
The New Face of Video Poker
So it was only a matter of time before a game design- ing brainiac looked at the immense popularity of video poker and decided to incorporate some of the
more exciting features of video slots—fun, entertaining bonus rounds with more
opportunities to create those elu- sive Royal Flushes—thereby cre-
ating a hybrid slot machine 50% video poker—still based on ve-card draw
principles—and 50% animated, super-fun,
engaging bonuses to keep players search-
ing for more cash! So, here is the
“Man of Mystery,” the Sixties Swinger, the sexy beast, Austin Powers and the whole cast of Mike Myers characters—Dr. Evil, Mini-Me,
Number Two, Frau Frabissina, Mr. Bigglesworth, Vanessa and Felicity—they’re all here! Capitalizing on the success of the Austin PowersTM video slot, the brand new video poker game comes just in time for the release of the third movie, Austin PowersTM in Goldmember this
summer. Austin PowersTM Poker is a fun themed col- lection of poker games, using traditional pay tables and dynamic bonus rounds, all based on the popular Mike Myers character. It offers two traditional proven poker games: Triple Play Poker and Ten Play Poker, and deals up two brand new poker games with great bonuses. The games use the popular Austin PowersTM images and sounds, and the traditional face cards and jokers have been replaced with animations of Felicity and Vanessa as the queens, Dr. Evil as the kings, Austin, himself as the aces, and the FembotsTM as the jokers. When dealt three-of-kind, Austin says “Yeah, Baby!” For three aces, Austin shouts, “Smashing, Baby,” “Groovy Baby,” or he’ll ask, “Shall we shag now or later?” The bonus rounds are lled with more Austin sound bites, but also include some great gambles. When playing the
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June 2002
Page 7
THE SAN DIEGO GAMING GUIDE