Adam analyzes...
World Poker tour, now that is an interesting request. This game has to be one of the most misunderstood games in Stern’s lineup. A crappy theme with a weird layout, way more drops then would ever be necessary and some terrible early software were the downfall of this game. But if you get into the meat and bones of this game it’s actually pretty interesting especially for the price. I liked it when I owned it but can’t remember why I sold it though. I’m trying to think of where to start, there are 3 different multi-balls:
Ace in the Hole
There is the captive gate on the mini playfield and you bang away on the bars to lock a ball and then bang away again on the ball once captive to start the multi-ball. In early revisions of the software the problem with this multi-ball was you could just keep getting it over and over again. It just took more hits each time but Keefer eventually got back to the software a put a much smarter rule in.
Now once you have played this multi-ball you have to start a mode before you can even attempt to start it again. So to start a mode you have to complete one hand of poker and then shoot the right hole which is right beside the right ramp and center set of drop targets.
This is a good multi-ball in you have to keep track of things on the upper and lower PF. Once the ball releases if you can get a ball back in the hole right away you get an add a ball. The multi-ball starts out as a 2 ball and can be immediately become a 3 ball. If you miss, you just have to hit 3 or 4 jackpots down on the lower playfield or on the upper once you get back up there to get the bars to open so you can lock the ball back in there and go after the super. Now the other thing to mention is that in usual Keefer fashion everything stacks if you do it right. You can’t start a mode during multi-ball but you can start one before so obviously you would be locked out of starting it again during another multi-ball if you haven’t started another mode before hand.
High Stakes
This is a great multi-ball which I don’t understand it’s scoring 100% but I like that you have to start it off the spinner. World Poker Tour is one of the few modern games where the spinner actually matters.
Each poker hand has a pot value usually starting off at 1 million max. You can raise the value of the pot by hitting the spinner. Once you get to that max value you start the multi-ball. I knew how to start it but I never figured out what the scoring was and it was usually something I stacked in and never played on it’s own. I know it has some decent points on it and multi-balls are always a good idea.
No Limits
This multi-ball is a tough lock shot which is the standup target on the left hand side to light lock. You need to hit this 3 times for 3 locks. Lock 3 balls and you have No Limits, again I never got around to fully understanding the rules of this multi-ball.
I also forgot there is a 4th multi-ball you can stack into all of this but I don’t remember the name. You are probably asking yourself what is the point of all those drop targets. The drop targets are used to complete the hands on the center inserts of the playfield.
By shooting the corresponding drops you complete the insert. So as an example to get a pair you would just need to shoot two drops to create a pair. So either the 10’s or J’s or whatever. Once you complete all the hands there is a 4th multi-ball which again the name escapes me, and the rules I don’t remember. So without even getting into the nitty gritty of each multi-ball there is already a lot to do in this game.
But there is still the 6 modes all of which can be stacked into the multi-balls if you start it first and then start a multi-ball. Keep in mind I’m not a poker guy so I don’t understand the terms but the modes are:
Steal the Blind
All shots on the playfield will be lit and most of them will be a small blind but there will be one shot that is a big blind. You don’t know which shot it is usually you just make the shot and it will tell you if it is the Big or Small blind and the points you stole as a result. I think there is a way to increase the blind via either the spinner or bumpers but I don’t remember.
A Chip and a Chance
This is a great mode to stack into a multi-ball as it’s all about nailing the drops as much as possible.
Spot the Tell
This one is kinda funny as it has faces for a bunch of Stern employees and you have to spot their tell. If you watch the display you will see a “tell” and then you need to hit the shot associated with that person.
Change Gears
This mode is kinda odd and you hit any shot on the lower playfield and you get a Low Gear value. If you hit anything on the upper playfield and get a High Gear value.
Play the Button and Know Your Outs
I don’t remember anything specific about these modes, sorry :?
Anyway earlier I mentioned that the spinner is important because while all of this is going on you are also playing poker hands that are worth a certain value which start out at 100,000 and can be raised via the spinner to the max posted. That max then starting High stakes. What is cool is that once you play High Stakes multi-ball it then raises the value for the next High Stakes multi-ball. So this is really a genius rule as it increases the difficulty of getting that multi-ball while at the same time raising the value now for your poker hands. Now you can get larger pots out of your poker hand while at the same time working toward your multi-ball if you want. Now the pots go back down to the base value (which also raises when you start the High Stakes multi-ball) so initially it’s 100,000 and then 250,000 after the first multi-ball.
But you need to watch your hand as the better the hand the more points it will be worth. By that I mean if you only have Ace High on the display on the playfield the hand will only be worth half value. But if you get say Full House you will get 4x value or something. So it’s pretty cool as you have to understand poker a bit as you need to know when you should be trying to nail the spinner and raise the hand value so you can get a better payoff.
This was the downfall for me in the home environment. For everyone else it would be fine but I play all my games in tournament mode and each hand of poker is exactly the same. From a tournament perspective it would suck for one player to get Ace high as an example and the other to get a Royal Flush while playing the same game. That is why I got rid of mine because while I could turn it off from tournament mode and get back to the variety of random hands it would bug me if I ever lost on the machine due to someone else getting a better hand.
So I have talked a lot about the multi-balls and modes but there is still one more very important feature that I haven’t mentioned that really plays a big factor in the game and that is the shot doubler. The in lanes you will see a 2x shot insert and when that insert is lit you roll over it. This means your next shot will be double the value. You light the 2x by completing a single hand on the drops so those drops that we talked about earlier that also work toward a multi-ball also light this 2x insert.
This thing is huge because it can really mean big points if you are smart and know how to use it. So not only does that mean that you could potentially double any jackpot shot you make but where the big payout is on the poker hands. What you need to think about is this, poker hands are advanced and completed by shooting the left and right ramp.
As I mentioned earlier you can raise the value via the spinner and the ending pot value is also multiplied depending on your poker hand. So the ideal setup is you see that you have a good hand, such as a full house, now raise the value of the pot via the spinner as high as you can without starting the High Stakes multi-ball. Then get the hand to the point that where you can finish the hand in two shots. Shoot one ramp to advance the hand to one shot left, roll over the doubler and then shoot the shot to finish the hand to then double. Now your 4x pot from the full house is now 8x! It’s a really smart rule and it’s really all about knowing what to do and when.
Now after all of this I’m sure you are saying this game sounds great but why doesn’t it show up in tournaments?? Keefer did a great job of finishing the rule set to make the game great but he didn’t get the time to polish it properly. So there are a number of bugs that ruin it for tournament play such as modes that never end, wonky scoring and a few other things.
World Poker Tour is a very in-depth game with some great strategy but it suffers from terrible artwork, bad music and horrible theme integration (as shown below) but if you can get past all of that, you will get one hell of a great game.
World Poker tour, now that is an interesting request. This game has to be one of the most misunderstood games in Stern’s lineup. A crappy theme with a weird layout, way more drops then would ever be necessary and some terrible early software were the downfall of this game. But if you get into the meat and bones of this game it’s actually pretty interesting especially for the price. I liked it when I owned it but can’t remember why I sold it though. I’m trying to think of where to start, there are 3 different multi-balls:
Ace in the Hole
There is the captive gate on the mini playfield and you bang away on the bars to lock a ball and then bang away again on the ball once captive to start the multi-ball. In early revisions of the software the problem with this multi-ball was you could just keep getting it over and over again. It just took more hits each time but Keefer eventually got back to the software a put a much smarter rule in.
Now once you have played this multi-ball you have to start a mode before you can even attempt to start it again. So to start a mode you have to complete one hand of poker and then shoot the right hole which is right beside the right ramp and center set of drop targets.
This is a good multi-ball in you have to keep track of things on the upper and lower PF. Once the ball releases if you can get a ball back in the hole right away you get an add a ball. The multi-ball starts out as a 2 ball and can be immediately become a 3 ball. If you miss, you just have to hit 3 or 4 jackpots down on the lower playfield or on the upper once you get back up there to get the bars to open so you can lock the ball back in there and go after the super. Now the other thing to mention is that in usual Keefer fashion everything stacks if you do it right. You can’t start a mode during multi-ball but you can start one before so obviously you would be locked out of starting it again during another multi-ball if you haven’t started another mode before hand.
High Stakes
This is a great multi-ball which I don’t understand it’s scoring 100% but I like that you have to start it off the spinner. World Poker Tour is one of the few modern games where the spinner actually matters.
Each poker hand has a pot value usually starting off at 1 million max. You can raise the value of the pot by hitting the spinner. Once you get to that max value you start the multi-ball. I knew how to start it but I never figured out what the scoring was and it was usually something I stacked in and never played on it’s own. I know it has some decent points on it and multi-balls are always a good idea.
No Limits
This multi-ball is a tough lock shot which is the standup target on the left hand side to light lock. You need to hit this 3 times for 3 locks. Lock 3 balls and you have No Limits, again I never got around to fully understanding the rules of this multi-ball.
I also forgot there is a 4th multi-ball you can stack into all of this but I don’t remember the name. You are probably asking yourself what is the point of all those drop targets. The drop targets are used to complete the hands on the center inserts of the playfield.
By shooting the corresponding drops you complete the insert. So as an example to get a pair you would just need to shoot two drops to create a pair. So either the 10’s or J’s or whatever. Once you complete all the hands there is a 4th multi-ball which again the name escapes me, and the rules I don’t remember. So without even getting into the nitty gritty of each multi-ball there is already a lot to do in this game.
But there is still the 6 modes all of which can be stacked into the multi-balls if you start it first and then start a multi-ball. Keep in mind I’m not a poker guy so I don’t understand the terms but the modes are:
Steal the Blind
All shots on the playfield will be lit and most of them will be a small blind but there will be one shot that is a big blind. You don’t know which shot it is usually you just make the shot and it will tell you if it is the Big or Small blind and the points you stole as a result. I think there is a way to increase the blind via either the spinner or bumpers but I don’t remember.
A Chip and a Chance
This is a great mode to stack into a multi-ball as it’s all about nailing the drops as much as possible.
Spot the Tell
This one is kinda funny as it has faces for a bunch of Stern employees and you have to spot their tell. If you watch the display you will see a “tell” and then you need to hit the shot associated with that person.
Change Gears
This mode is kinda odd and you hit any shot on the lower playfield and you get a Low Gear value. If you hit anything on the upper playfield and get a High Gear value.
Play the Button and Know Your Outs
I don’t remember anything specific about these modes, sorry :?
Anyway earlier I mentioned that the spinner is important because while all of this is going on you are also playing poker hands that are worth a certain value which start out at 100,000 and can be raised via the spinner to the max posted. That max then starting High stakes. What is cool is that once you play High Stakes multi-ball it then raises the value for the next High Stakes multi-ball. So this is really a genius rule as it increases the difficulty of getting that multi-ball while at the same time raising the value now for your poker hands. Now you can get larger pots out of your poker hand while at the same time working toward your multi-ball if you want. Now the pots go back down to the base value (which also raises when you start the High Stakes multi-ball) so initially it’s 100,000 and then 250,000 after the first multi-ball.
But you need to watch your hand as the better the hand the more points it will be worth. By that I mean if you only have Ace High on the display on the playfield the hand will only be worth half value. But if you get say Full House you will get 4x value or something. So it’s pretty cool as you have to understand poker a bit as you need to know when you should be trying to nail the spinner and raise the hand value so you can get a better payoff.
This was the downfall for me in the home environment. For everyone else it would be fine but I play all my games in tournament mode and each hand of poker is exactly the same. From a tournament perspective it would suck for one player to get Ace high as an example and the other to get a Royal Flush while playing the same game. That is why I got rid of mine because while I could turn it off from tournament mode and get back to the variety of random hands it would bug me if I ever lost on the machine due to someone else getting a better hand.
So I have talked a lot about the multi-balls and modes but there is still one more very important feature that I haven’t mentioned that really plays a big factor in the game and that is the shot doubler. The in lanes you will see a 2x shot insert and when that insert is lit you roll over it. This means your next shot will be double the value. You light the 2x by completing a single hand on the drops so those drops that we talked about earlier that also work toward a multi-ball also light this 2x insert.
This thing is huge because it can really mean big points if you are smart and know how to use it. So not only does that mean that you could potentially double any jackpot shot you make but where the big payout is on the poker hands. What you need to think about is this, poker hands are advanced and completed by shooting the left and right ramp.
As I mentioned earlier you can raise the value via the spinner and the ending pot value is also multiplied depending on your poker hand. So the ideal setup is you see that you have a good hand, such as a full house, now raise the value of the pot via the spinner as high as you can without starting the High Stakes multi-ball. Then get the hand to the point that where you can finish the hand in two shots. Shoot one ramp to advance the hand to one shot left, roll over the doubler and then shoot the shot to finish the hand to then double. Now your 4x pot from the full house is now 8x! It’s a really smart rule and it’s really all about knowing what to do and when.
Now after all of this I’m sure you are saying this game sounds great but why doesn’t it show up in tournaments?? Keefer did a great job of finishing the rule set to make the game great but he didn’t get the time to polish it properly. So there are a number of bugs that ruin it for tournament play such as modes that never end, wonky scoring and a few other things.
World Poker Tour is a very in-depth game with some great strategy but it suffers from terrible artwork, bad music and horrible theme integration (as shown below) but if you can get past all of that, you will get one hell of a great game.
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