By: Samantha William

Jacks or Better is probably the most simple and the most popularly played variant of video poker. Essentially when you see the name you immediately know that to have a winning hand you need a pair of Jacks or better. In other words, this is the lowest hand for which a payout will be received. These video poker games offer good returns as long as the correct strategy for play is used and this can be deciphered by simply reading the pay tables.

Now take this concept a step further and think about playing video poker with bonus options. This game been expanded further so that the “four of a kind” pay line offers different bonus games and this obviously means more chances to win more money.

Microgaming is a popular video poker software design, but other software developers will also provide Bonus Video Poker. In the Microgaming version however, hit the four of a kind pay line and there is a split of three different bonus games to play, each with different, but more enhanced pay out options.

Video poker playing purists will go into the odds in-depth and tell you all about average returns to player versus casino. How reductions in some pay lines make up for the bonus amounts, but as I play video poker for fun and if I put $10 in and win $100, I am happy; I won’t go into the mathematics. Let me suffice it to say that if you play bonus video poker games you will be marginally worse off more regularly, but better off more than marginally if you can get into the bonus rounds.

Staying with the same philosophy of bonus video poker, we also find a series of games which are somewhat ingenuously called Double Bonus Poker. I see this game, I say “YAY, double bonus video poker, what a bonus!” Experts see it and say, how will you be better off marginally or otherwise. These games are simply going to double the bonus payouts if you can manage to get in the four of a kind pay line, so you may be worse off in terms of the fact that betting is more expensive, but it is up to you to decide what you are playing video poker for and why you are playing that game.

It is obvious that this is because you want more of a thrill, because if you risk more, you can win more. It doesn’t get more complicated than that; this is what gambling is about!

We all have different risk thresholds and virtually every game you play online whether it is video poker or not, will be put through a postmortem of percentages by some reviewer or other. If you want to get technical, this is fine, but if you just want to have fun like me, then you know these games are available.

By: Samantha Williams

Mega Moolah is not the only extraordinary online slot machine to be found at casino, bingo and slots sites. But we take an slightly in-depth look at this game in order to qualify that literally every new game being launched currently is pretty extraordinary in its own way.

Technology has advanced in leaps and bounds so that the slot machines from the early days of online gaming are almost completely unrecognizable according to what is being played today. Of course there are themes such as classic three reel slots that people never grow tired of and some players will always want to see three reels, cherries, bars and one or three pay lines. So these “one armed bandit” type games will continue to be used and played.

Microgaming is the creator responsible for Mega Moolah, but a lot more very reliable slot machine creators have a strong presence in the industry. Some players have their favorites and mine just happen to be Microgaming and Virtue Fusion, Playtech is also good and this is now part of Virtue Fusion, Wagerworks, Real Time Gaming, Vegas Technology, Rival Gaming and Cryptologic as well as others have a substantial footprint in this industry.

Slot machines for online use are innovative and Mega Moolah was launched in November 2006, so it is hardly brand new, even though it continues to be a favorite. The progressive jackpot prize commences at a generous 1 000 000 (yes 1 million) credits. This then increases daily, based on a percentage of what players pay in. But at the time the first PJP on this game was won, it took a year to get there and was worth over 4.3 million credits. At this juncture the PJP was reset to 1 million credits and just five months later this prize had shot up to 5.6 million credits, when it was won again.

As the popularity of this slot machine grew, the daily growth rate increased to as much as 30 000 credits a day. Then the inevitable happened and someone won again in May 2009. This time the PJP stood at the unbelievable amount of 6.4 million credits. At this point in time it starts to become understandable why this slot machine is called Mega Moolah, doesn’t it?

This progressive jackpot ticker can really notch up the prize money and currently Mega Moohla is the largest progressive jackpot record holder. The next time this game was won, was twice in quick succession, close to the reset level and only allowing the PJP winners, just over 1 million then 1.2 million in October of 2009. Fans were obviously disappointed, and they are currently praying it will grow even bigger than before. The prize at the time of writing is $3 616 715.68, no 70, no 75, wait 89.. you get the picture, this prize grows all the time.