How to Play World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker stands as one of the most unique and involved versions of video poker around. It’s a game that changes the basic format of video poker to more closely resemble the Texas Hold’em game that’s popular among casual poker players. And it also adds in the multi-strike element with escalating multipliers for a winning streak, as well as a few other features.

World Poker Tour LogoOne of the qualities that people love most about video poker is how varied it can be. From the basic game known as Jacks or Better, many different versions of the game have sprung up. These games include special pay tables, wild cards, extra features, and many other unique twists to ensure that you never get bored.

For the most part, these video poker games stick to the basic game play format of Jacks or Better. It’s the same style of play found in the card game Five-Card Draw. You get five cards, hold some and discard others, and draw new cards in an effort to form the best possible five-card poker hand.

But World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker is one version of the game that dispenses with this format. Instead, as the name implies, it borrows from the table game known as Texas Hold’em, which is the game of choice on the World Poker Tour.

For those who watch Texas Hold’em on television or have played it, you receive only two cards in your deal. The rest of the hand is determined by five community cards that everyone receives. Your final hand is the best five-card poker combination you can make might be out of the seven total cards.

In World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker, you choose between two sets of two-card deals. Once you do, you see what the five community cards are. If you have one of the winning hands listed on the pay table, you win money back.

But the game doesn’t stop there. You can bet up to four hands which you will unlock as long as you keep winning hands. In other words, win the first hand and you get to move up to Level 2, win on Level 2 and you get to move up to Level 3, and win on Level 3 and you get to move up to the top level, Level 4.

As you move up to each level, rising multipliers will be attached. You also have the chance at a so-called “Bad Beat” bonus. This occurs when you get a good two-card deal but can’t turn it into a winning hand.

Finally…

There are certain starting hands which are automatically eligible for multipliers on that hand. Basically, you have the chance at multipliers and can expect most winning hands to be amplified.

While all of this might seem great, there are some drawbacks to World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker. You have less control over the game, and the size of the maximum wager for playing all four hands is pretty sizable, because bets come in two-coin increments instead of one.

In the following article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker. We’ll go into the way the game is played and walk you through all of the different special features that apply. Finally, we’ll also talk about pay tables, payback percentage, and strategy for this unique game.

Why People Love Video Poker

You can probably tell by the length of the name that World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker is a bit involved in terms of special features. In truth, it’s actually a little bit simpler in terms of the decisions you have to make than if you were playing a basic Jacks or Better game.

As different as it might be, though, it still holds all of the advantages found in other, more basic video poker games. Video poker takes elements from both slot machines and table games. And it ends up being something much greater than the sum of its parts.

Video poker is a game that is as gambler-friendly as any you can find in a casino or on online gambling sites. Want to know why? Take a look.

  • Video poker is simple to play. Don’t be fooled by the long name of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker. You an actually get the hang of what you have to do each hand in seconds; the game itself will do the rest.
  • Video poker is played solo. You don’t need to be interrupted by casino employees or bothered by patrons. There is privacy and autonomy coming your way when you play video poker.
  • Video poker rewards good strategy. Even in World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker, which is one of the simplest video poker variations in terms of decision-making, what you choose to do will impact play. It gives you some control over the proceedings.
  • Video poker pays back well. Some games, including certain versions of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker, actually give the player an advantage over the house. That is rare in the world of casino games.
  • Video poker is transparent. The probabilities of making winning hands are based on a standard 52-card deck of cards and never really change. Meanwhile, how much you get paid for each winning hand is right there on the pay table in front of you.
  • Video poker allows for great variety. We talked about this a little bit already, but it can’t be stressed enough. You never have to play the game the same way twice if you don’t want to do so.
  • Video poker is ideal for online play. Top gambling websites offer video poker games by the dozen. And the online experience for playing video poker is pretty much the same as if you were playing the game in a casino.

Now you know why you should be playing video poker. It’s time to learn how to play this unique variation on the game known as World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker.

Playing World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

Your Bankroll

Establishing a bankroll while playing World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker is no different than if you were playing normal video poker. You put money into a machine to get started. If you do find the game online, you’ll need to fund a gambling account.

You’ll see your bankroll show up on the screen in terms of coins, or credits. Each of these units will equal one unit of the denomination that you’re playing. For example, a 10-coin wager on a five-cent machine will mean a 50-cent bet (10 times .05).

Your Bet

There are two decisions that you have to make when betting on World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker. First of all, you have to decide the size of your wager per hand. And then you have to decide how many hands you wish to be eligible to play.

In terms of bet per hand, you can choose two, four, six, eight, or 10 coins. Betting 10 coins increases your payback percentage over the other levels. That’s because both of the royal flush hands available in World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker take a jump in payback at the 10-coin level.

When considering how many hands you will wager, remember that even if you bet multiple hands, you only get to play them all if you make winning hands to activate them. In other words, if you bet on two hands, you’ll only get to play the second if you win the first (or get a “free ride”).

But you also have to keep in mind that the multipliers you might achieve rise as you play more hands. And the more hands you play, the more you’ll be eligible for the other special multiplier bonuses that can come up when you play World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker.

When it comes to overall payback percentage, which is what you can expect to return on average from your initial gambling investment, it is at its highest level for World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker when you bet the maximum. That means a bet of 40 coins, which is ten coins for all four hands.

It’s understandable if you feel like this is too much of a wager for you to make. But you have to realize that you are short-changing yourself if you bet anything less when playing World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker.

Playing a Hand

When you play normal, five-card video poker such as Jacks or Better, you have to decide which cards to hold and discard out of a five-card deal. There are 32 possible combinations of holds and discards from which you have to select.

But each hand of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker presents you with a single choice of one or the other. You’ll see two two-card deals appear before you on the screen once you make your wager and hit the “deal button.” When you do, you have to choose the one which is best.

By best, we mean which two-card deal is more likely to produce a five-card winning hand when combined with the five community cards you’ll be dealt. This process mimics the process used when playing Texas Hold’em, which you can see often on television. After all, it’s the game played in the World Series of Poker and is also the game at the heart of the World Poker Tour.

When you make the choice between one of the two-card combinations, the two cards you did not choose will go back into the deck. You’ll then receive five cards from the deck which provided the deal, now containing 50 cards (the standard 52 minus the two you kept for the final hand).

Keep in mind that each deal and community draw is completely random. Software inside the machine ensures this. Don’t go looking for any patterns to form as you play.

In terms of what you’re seeking to make in terms of winning hands, here is the list:

  • Two pair
  • Three of a kind
  • Straight (five cards of consecutive rank, like 3-4-5-6-7)
  • Flush (five cards of same suit)
  • Full house (three of a kind and two pair in the same hand)
  • Four of a kind
  • Straight flush (straight with five cards of same suit)
  • Royal flush (ten, jack, queen, king, and ace of the same suit)

The combinations toward the top of the list will appear relatively often during gameplay but don’t pay that much. Meanwhile, the hands at the bottom of the list are rare but pay a lot. That contrast makes it a scenario of risk versus reward when deciding which pair of cards to keep out of your two choices.

Let’s take a look at an example of how this all might play out. Imagine that you get the following two-card deals on a hand of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker:

Hand 1:
Ace of Hearts, Ten of Hearts

Hand 2:
 Nine of Clubs, Ten of Diamonds

In Hand 1, you have a pair of suited cards. That would give you a head start toward a flush.

In addition, you have an ace. When you get to the pay tables for World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker, you’ll see that four aces provides a big payoff.

Most intriguing of all is the fact that the ace and ten of hearts put you two-fifths of the way toward a royal flush. That’s one of the highest-paying hands in the game.

Meanwhile, Hand 2 gives you a pair of cards of consecutive rank. That’s a big bonus because it put a straight very much in play.

Let’s say for the sake of this example that you decide to go with the ace and ten of hearts. The nine of clubs and ten of diamonds then go back into the deck. Five community cards will then be drawn.

Imagine that these are the five community cards that you get:

Ten of Diamonds, Ten of Clubs, Two of Hearts, Five of Hearts, Six of Hearts

On the one hand, you ended up with three of a kind with a trio of tens. But you also ended up with a flush, since you have five cards of the same suit. (Remember that winning hands are determined by five cards within the hand and not all seven, so you don’t need to have all seven cards be hearts in this case to make the flush.)

In a case like this, the software within the World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker game will automatically recognize the flush is the highest paying hand. It will award you payback based on the flush.

Also note that you received the ten of diamonds as one of the community cards. Remember that was one of the cards you received in the two-card deal you discarded. This example proves that you can get a discarded card back in the community group.

If you’re a video poker regular who is used to playing the game in the traditional five-card format, you might be a little surprised at World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker. You’ll find that you have less control over the proceedings. Most times, a winning or losing hand will be determined by the community draw, which is completely beyond your control.

Still, you do get the chance to at least choose between the initial two-card deals. And it can be a lot of fun to play World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker when you see those five cards revealed and they turn out to be beneficial to you.

Multi-Strike Action

Multi-strike is a special feature that can be applied to just about any kind of video poker that you like. The idea behind it is that you get to move up a kind of ladder of sorts with each hand that you win. At each new level, a higher multiplier can be found.

In the case of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker, you have the chance to play up to four hands on this ladder. But it is entirely dependent on how much you bet.

For example, if you only bet one hand, it won’t matter if you form a winning combination with that hand. You can’t move up to another level and you’re not eligible for multipliers in that fashion.

You have the choice of betting on between one and four hands. However, many hands that you bet represents the highest level you can reach. A higher multiplier awaits at each of the levels on the way up.

A multiplier works just as you imagine it might. Imagine, for example, that you are playing a level of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker where there is a 4x multiplier attached. That means that whatever you win will be multiplied by four.

Let’s say that you play out the hand and end up with a winning hand that pays 40 coins. In this case, the multiplier would be applied, making it 4 times 40. You’d walk away with a 160-coin payoff.

In World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker, the multiplier at Level 1 is 1x, which doesn’t affect the payout at all. After all, any number multiplied by itself is the number. But the multiplier doubles at each subsequent level.

  • Level 2 = 2x
  • Level 3 = 4x
  • Level 4 = 8x

Again, you can move up to each level by getting a winning hand on the one below it. The only other way you can move up is if you get a “free ride” card. You’ll see this card flash briefly on the screen during your community draw before disappearing to reveal the actual card below it.

When you get a “free ride” card, you move up to the next level regardless of whether or not you win that hand. It will appear at random and not very often during World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker play, but it is a boost when you do see it.

Keep in mind that multipliers only affect winning hands. If you have a multiplier in place and you don’t win the hand, you won’t receive any payback.

That’s why an ideal round of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker would be one where you win all four hands, giving you access to all the multipliers. If you can match these multipliers to some high-paying hands, your bankroll could soak pretty quickly.

Bad Beat Bonus

If you’ve watched a lot of Texas Hold’em, you’ve probably heard the term “bad beat” mentioned by the commentators. It refers to a hand where it seems like one player is almost a sure thing to win only to end up losing because of a severely unlucky card that gets drawn and helps another player.

In the case of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker, a Bad Beat bonus is one way to account for this phenomenon. It comes into play when you get a seemingly good two-card deal only to fail to get a winning hand in the end.

The requirements for the Bad Beat bonus are as follows:

  • A two-card deal (which you choose to keep) of at least a pair of jacks or better
  • A subsequent draw which produces a five-card hand of less than two pair (i.e. a losing hand)

If the two of these possibilities take place on a hand of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker, you will receive a bonus equal to what you bet on a given hand. In other words, you get your money back for that hand.

Keep in mind that would only apply to a bet on a single hand. For example, if you made a 40-coin wager to play all four hands of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker and got a Bad Beat on a single hand, you’d receive just ten coins in return.

Also keep in mind that a Bad Beat bonus doesn’t qualify you to move up the ladder for the multipliers. And it does not get multiplied if you’re at a level where a multiplier is in place already.

Basically, the Bad Beat bonus is just another way to earn some extra coins playing World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker. It might not come into play very often, since your chances of getting that great deal and then losing the hand are pretty small. But it is just a little perk that you might occur now and then.

Starting Hand Bonus

There’s one more way that you can earn multipliers while playing World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker. It comes when you are dealt certain two-card combinations. If you choose one of these combinations to hold and go on to make a winning hand, you’ll get a multiplier.

How much is the multiplier and what are the winning combinations? Well, the amount of the multipliers can sometimes differ depending on what pay table you’ve found on a World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker machine. But the winning combinations are always the same.

Here are the starting hand bonuses for the highest-paying pay table available on World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker:

  • Jack and queen of same suit = 2x
  • Queen and king of same suit = 2x
  • Jack and king of same suit = 2x
  • Jack and ace of same suit = 3x
  • Queen and ace of same suit = 4x
  • Pair of face cards (jacks, queens, kings) =4x
  • King and ace of same suit = 5x
  • Pair of aces = 7x
  • Pair of red aces (hearts or diamonds) = 10x

These bonuses are in place no matter what level you’ve reached. However, if you’ve reached one of the World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker levels where multipliers are already in place and you get one of these starting hands, you don’t combine the multipliers in any way. The higher one takes precedence.

In other words, if you were on Level 3 (where the multiplier is 4x) and are dealt a jack and ace of the same suit (which earns a 3x multiplier), the 4x multiplier takes precedence. The software will recognize this each time.

The cool thing about the starting hand bonus is that it is attached to pretty good starting hands. Your chances of making a winning hand with one of these combinations are very solid. As a result, having the multipliers attached to these hands will tend to have a solid impact.

Pay Tables and Payback Percentage for World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

The pay tables are always an important part of video poker because they show you how much you’ll win for each winning hand. But they’ll also tell you about strategy. You should always aim to make the winning combinations that are the most lucrative if at all possible.

In the case of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker, you don’t have as much control over what winning hands you’re targeting. Since the majority of the hands that you play will come from the community draw, you just have to hope that the two-card hand you’ve kept matches to how the draw turns out. Or hope that the community cards are so good it doesn’t even matter what the deal was.

There are a few things you need to know about a World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker pay table to understand it completely. Let’s take a look at one first. This is the pay table for the highest-paying, or full-pay, version of the game.

Coins/Hand 1 Coin 2 Coins 3 Coins 4 Coins 5 Coins
Royal flush on board 1,500 3,000 4,500 6,000 10,000
Royal flush 150 300 450 600 1,000
Straight flush 100 200 300 400 500
Four aces 50 100 150 200 250
Four of a kind (any other) 20 40 60 80 100
Full house 10 20 30 40 50
Flush 6 12 18 24 30
Straight 5 10 15 20 25
Three of a kind 3 6 9 12 15
Two pairs 1 2 3 4 5

First of all, you might notice at the top of the list the hand names “royal flush on board.” This refers to any time that the community draw forms the royal flush all on its own.

If this occurs, it doesn’t matter what two cards you have, because you’ll still be getting the top payoff. It’s just complete luck when this happens.

On the other hand, a regular royal flush occurs when at least one of the two cards you held on the deal were involved. For example, imagine that you received and held the following two-card deal.

Eight of Hearts, King of Spades

And then imagine that you received the following community draw:

Ten of Spades, Jack of Spades, Queen of Spades, Ace of Spades, Five of Clubs

By including the king of spades from your deal with the other four spades from the community cards, you have a royal flush. You’d get paid 1,000 coins on a five-coin wager. By contrast, the royal flush on the board pays off 10,000 coins with the same bet, because it is a rarer occurrence.

Also, the above payouts are based on a single-coin increment between bets. But remember that World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker requires you to bet in twos. Essentially, one coin is to play the hand and the other is to account for the extra features.

It’s important to understand this because it will affect your profits. Remember that a max bet on a hand is 10 coins, not five, even though there is no five-coin column.

If you hit a flush with such a bet on the pay table above, you’d get 50 coins, or a 40-coin profit. Your payoff would be 5 to 1, not 10 to 1 as the pay table implies.

The above pay table returns a payback percentage of 100.32%. In other words, $10,000 wagered would result in an average bankroll of $10,032. You could expect a $32 profit.

That’s not to say that you’ll have those results every time. Short sessions of World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker will be guided by luck more than anything else. But after you play the game for a long time, the luck will even out and you can expect that 100.32%, or something very close to it, to hold sway.

There are few video poker games, or casino games of any type for that matter, that bring a payback percentage of over 100%. Such games eliminate the house edge. Assuming you can find such a World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker machine and can play it with ideal strategy, you could expect to win money in the long run.

Of course, finding that pay table is the hard part. You might encounter lesser World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker pay tables. These pay tables will often discount payback for the full house, flush, and straight hands compared to the full-pay version.

These lesser pay tables will offer lower payback percentage. Here is a look at them:

Coins/Hand 1 Coin 2 Coins 3 Coins 4 Coins 5 Coins
Royal flush on board 1,500 3,000 4,500 6,000 10,000
Royal flush 150 300 450 600 1,000
Straight flush 100 200 300 400 500
Four aces 50 100 150 200 250
Four of a kind (any other) 20 40 60 80 100
Full house 9 18 27 36 45
Flush 6 12 18 24 30
Straight 5 10 15 20 25
Three of a kind 3 6 9 12 15
Two pairs 2 4 6 8 10
Coins/Hand 1 Coin 2 Coins 3 Coins 4 Coins 5 Coins
Royal flush on board 1,500 3,000 4,500 6,000 10,000
Royal flush 150 300 450 600 1,000
Straight flush 100 200 300 400 500
Four aces 50 100 150 200 250
Four of a kind (any other) 20 40 60 80 100
Full house 8 16 24 32 40
Flush 6 12 18 24 30
Straight 5 10 15 20 25
Three of a kind 3 6 9 12 15
Two pairs 2 4 6 8 10
Coins/Hand 1 Coin 2 Coins 3 Coins 4 Coins 5 Coins
Royal flush on board 1,500 3,000 4,500 6,000 10,000
Royal flush 150 300 450 600 1,000
Straight flush 100 200 300 400 500
Four aces 50 100 150 200 250
Four of a kind (any other) 20 40 60 80 100
Full house 8 16 18 24 30
Flush 6 12 18 24 30
Straight 4 8 12 16 20
Three of a kind 3 6 9 12 15
Two pairs 2 4 6 8 10
Coins/Hand 1 Coin 2 Coins 3 Coins 4 Coins 5 Coins
Royal flush on board 1,500 3,000 4,500 6,000 10,000
Royal flush 150 300 450 600 1,000
Straight flush 100 200 300 400 500
Four aces 50 100 150 200 250
Four of a kind (any other) 20 40 60 80 100
Full house 8 16 24 32 40
Flush 5 10 15 20 25
Straight 4 8 12 16 20
Three of a kind 3 6 8 12 15
Two pairs 2 4 6 8 10

Strategy for World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

We mentioned that the only way that you can play World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker and hit the maximum payback percentage is to play with perfect strategy. How can you do that? You have to make the right choice every hand from the two two-card deals you receive.

Any incorrect choices will lower your payback percentage. Correct and incorrect in video poker are based on the probabilities and the payback involved. It’s a mathematical thing and has nothing to do with any hunches you might have about what cards might appear.

We’ve mentioned a few times already that World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker simplifies your choices, down from 32 possibilities in each hand of normal video poker to two. But that doesn’t mean that strategy is any easier.

After all, there are many different two-card combinations that you can get on any given hand. And many times, the two choices you have can seem quite difficult to separate.

Perhaps you’ll be able to find a strategy chart online which is based on World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker. Such a chart would have all of the possible two-card combinations listed on it and ranked in terms of their value. If you could memorize a list like this, you could conceivably achieve perfect strategy for this game.

But you also have to take into account the fact that the multipliers change the value a little bit as well. When you get one of the combinations eligible for a starting hand multiplier, you have to rank them a little higher. Playing on one of the higher levels might also change the strategy a little bit as well.

That’s what makes World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker so tricky. On the one hand, the payback percentage is very high. But coming up with the right strategy to maximize that payback percentage is much more difficult than if playing a more common game like Jacks or Better or Deuces Wild, where strategic resources are much more readily available to you.

In any case, you should prioritize the following combinations in this order:

  • Pairs
  • Suited connectors
  • Two cards of the same suit
  • Two cards of consecutive rank
  • Any combination with an ace

Doing this and using common sense should help you towards a solid strategy for World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker. Just don’t expect to get it exactly right every time.

World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em Video Poker Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Multipliers are available and you have many different ways to get them
  • You have an easier choice on each hand than if you were playing five-card video poker
  • Excellent payback including a pay table with a positive payback expectation
Cons

  • Much more of the game is given over to the luck of the draw
  • Even though the choices are simpler, it can seem more confusing
  • Difficult to come up with a precise strategy

Conclusion on World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em Video Poker

World Poker Tour Multi-Strike Super Video Hold’em video poker adds some complexity to the world of video poker, with special features and multipliers coming at you from every angle. But the actual game play is quite simple. And it can be quite lucrative as well, which is the bottom line in any video poker situation.