Online casinos offer different games categories like slots, video poker, roulette and blackjack. Sometimes software providers create hybrid games by combining the characteristics of two categories. Such innovations are usually popular. The leading software provider Microgaming has in its portfolio a sub category called Reel Play. It is an amalgamation of video poker and online slots. After logging in to their Microgaming online casinos players should select video poker from the games menu. There are several tabs in the video poker menu and one of them reads Reel Play Poker. At present the only variant listed in this category is Jacks or Better. This article describes the game play of Reel Play Poker Jacks or Better.

The player has to first select the betting parameters, just as he does in online slots. Reel Play Jacks or Better video poker has 20 paylines and players can enable any number of these. They can also wager up to 20 coins per payline. The third betting parameter to be selected is the coin size, which varies from 0.01 to 0.25 credits. After completing the selection the player should click the Deal button to display a demonstration reel below the main reels. Five cards are dealt from a single deck in this demonstration reel. The player can select the cards that he wants to hold by clicking on them as in regular video poker games. The Microgaming software marks the cards that already form a winning combination in order to prevent the player from inadvertently breaking that combination. The next step is to click on the Spin button to activate the reels.

The game then shifts to the main reels, which are arranged like a five reel video slot with three rows across the reels. The reels corresponding to the cards that are held are first filled with those cards in a manner similar to multi hand video poker. These reels remain fixed. The remaining reels spin as in online slots and come to rest displaying cards. Here Reel Play Poker deviates from multi hand video poker. In multi hand video poker the hands are evaluated only in the horizontal rows. In Reel Play Poker the hands are evaluated along the activated paylines as in online slots. The winning combinations in the active paylines are independently paid out according to the payout table. But the evaluation of winning combinations differs from video slots in a significant way. In video slots the like symbols have to appear on consecutive reels starting from the first reel on the left. In Reel Play Poker the cards can appear anywhere on the enabled payline and are evaluated according to poker hand rankings.

In Jacks or Better Reel Play Poker the payout table values are automatically adjusted according to the number of coins selected by the player. They will not be multiplied by the number of coins wagered. The payouts are as per the usual Jacks or Better table with one major exception. In the regular Jacks or Better game the payout for a royal flush is 250 coins per coin wagered when up to four coins are wagered. When five coins are wagered this payout is 800 coins per coin wagered. In Reel Play Jacks or Better the payout for a royal flush is 800 to 1 throughout. Reel Play Poker Jacks or Better is live at all Microgaming online casinos like Platinum Play, River Belle and All Slots.