Tap House Poker

Introduction

Tap House Poker is a video poker variant by IGT. I first noticed it on December 27, 2013 at the Suncoast casino in Las Vegas. The thrust of the game is that if the player is dealt a two pair or better, in non-wild games, then he will get to play a bonus. For deuces wild games, a straight or better on the deal is required to play the bonus. The bonus will consist of one hand at five-play, with each of the five hands on the draw having a multiplier up to 10x. The player bet an extra five credits to enable the bonus feature.

To be honest, I'm not sure what the format of the game has to do with a tap house.

Rules

Standard video poker rules are followed, except as noted below.

1. Tap House Poker can be based on 3- or 5-play video poker.
2. To enable the bonus feature, the player must bet an extra five credits.
3. If the player is dealt a two pair or higher then he shall play the bonus.
4. The bonus will play like 5-play video poker, with each hand on the draw given a random multiplier.
5. The possible multipliers will depend on the hand the player received on the draw. The table below shows the averages.

Example

In the hand above I was dealt a three of a kind, which entitled me to the bonus.

Note the multipliers along the left. Then press "deal" to begin.

I was dealt a pair of queens.

I held the pair of queens.

The replacement cards were dealt and the hands scored. The total bonus win was 2×5 + 4×5 + 5×10 + 5×10 + 2×5 = 140.

Odds

IGT, the game maker, was kind enough to provide me with the following tables showing all the base games available for Tap House Poker, the average multipliers, and total return (assuming optimal strategy).

The following table is for non-wild card games.

The following table is for deuces wild games.

Analysis

Let's calculate the return for 3-play 9-5 Jacks or Better.

The following table shows the probability of each hand on the deal and the expected multiplier for the bonus hands. The lower right cell shows that for each hand on the deal the player can expect an average multiplier of 2.650984 on every bonus hand, assuming the player earns the bonus.

• The probability of earning the bonus is 198180/combin(52,5) = 0.076254.
• The number of hands in the bonus is 5.
• The return of the base game is 0.984498.
• The average win per bonus is 5 × 2.650984 × 0.984498 = 13.049442.
• The expected win per bonus, before it is earned, is 0.076254 × 13.049442 = 0.995067.
• The player bets five credits per base hand.
• The total return of the game is 5×(3×0.984498 + 0.995067) = 19.742803.
• The player must bet 20 credits.
• The overall return is 19.742803/20 = 0.987140.

Written by: Michael Shackleford