Kings of Chicago Pokie
It’s not often that an online casino games developer comes up with something unique, but Net Ent have somehow managed to combine pokies with Video Poker in their innovative Kings of Chicago. Set in the 1930’s when the Mafia was running the town, in effect it’s a 5-reel game, but instead of actual reels with symbols spinning down from the top to the bottom, playing cards are dealt out on the left side and then spread across the table into a 5x3 grid from which winlines are formed.
There’s only 5 paylines running from the left side and rather than players needing matching symbols on adjacent reels across one, they win with Poker hands, ranging from a small prize for 2 of a kind to a huge reward for a Natural Royal Flush. Jokers can stand in for anything and scatter cards will award free deals, which are equivalent to the more conventional free spins that we are used to.
To give the game its distinctive theme, the J, Q, and K cards have replaced the usual images with pictures of various thugs, gangsters’ molls and bosses and to add to the theme, the card table is surrounded by guns, banknotes and jewellery. Even the payline indicators are in the style of Poker chips, so someone at Net Ent has taken a lot of time and effort into both the design and gameplay of the Kings of Chicago video pokie.
Playing Kings of Chicago
The unusual format means that it could be worth practicing on the free Kings of Chicago video pokies that Net Ent have helpfully provided, although the minimum stake is only 0.05 per spin, or deal, while the high limit is 50.00.
All the playing cards from 2 upwards are in use and once the Spin button has been clicked, cards are dealt out by an invisible hand to fill all 15 spots on the table. Wins are calculated as multiples of the amount staked per line and if 3 of a kind, of any value are dealt out across any of the 5 paylines, players win 2x the line bet. The next most valuable combination is for a Straight, where all 5 cards on a payline are in sequence, for example 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, but of course as with any combination in this pokie, they don’t need to land in that order as the software recognises the values and pays out 7x accordingly.
Next up, there’s a Flush, which is a sequence for the same suit and this is worth a prize of 25x and a Full House is valued at 50x. Four of a Kind pays 75, a Straight Flush is worth 250 and a Royal Flush returns a win of 1000x the line bet. Lastly, we have Five of a Kind that’s worth 1500 (and has to include the Joker), with the top wins coming from a Natural Royal Flush of 10, J, Q, K and A, all from the same suit which pays 10000x. Clearly, these high-paying combinations won’t be dealt out very often, but this game still has a good return to player percentage.
Kings of Chicago
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Bonus Cards
The Joker card is in effect, a wild symbol, so it may not be worth anything on its own, but when possible, it will act as any other to complete a winning hand. As an added bonus it will double the value of any combination that it completes, although the highest-value hands can’t have a Joker in them, so there’s no doubling of the 10000x win unfortunately.
There’s a Free Deals round triggered by any 23 or more cards being dealt with a random Scatter ribbon across them. These are simply extra rounds at no extra cost and the number of deals depends on how many scatter cards were seen. An initial scatter payment of between 5 and 500 coins is awarded and then 10, 15 or 30 Free Deals will then play out if 3, 4 or 5 scatters appeared.
Any wins in this bonus round are subject to a 2x multiplier and it’s even possible to re-trigger the games by landing another 3 scatter cards at any point during them.
The Verdict
This unique mix of pokie and Video Poker is going to appeal to fans of both and it certainly deserves attention because it looks good, plays well and comes with some excellent bonus features. Anyone who doesn’t know how Poker hands work should review the pay table before playing, but it’s pretty easy to get the hang of it in just a few spins, or deals as we need to remember to call them.