Atomic Fever Video Poker

Video poker games aren’t normally like slot machines, where they contain
bonus features and fun graphics. Instead, video poker is predicated upon cards
and blue screens.

But Atomic Fever differs because it has a unique bonus round that offers a 2x
multiplier. This not only creates more excitement than the average video poker
game, but it also makes for potentially bigger payouts.

Let’s continue discussing Atomic Fever video poker by covering how to play,
payback, pay tables, where to find this game, and strategy.

The Basics of Playing Atomic Fever Video Poker

Atomic Fever video poker is made by IGT, which has created a number of unique
video poker machines. And one good thing about playing IGT’s alternative games
is that you can choose your pay table beforehand.

This means that Atomic Fever is basically like any other video poker game.
The lone exception is that you can activate a bonus feature with a sixth coin.

We’ll discuss more on the bonus feature along with how you play Atomic Fever
below.

Betting Process

Like other video poker games, Atomic Fever lets you bet between 1 and 5 coins
on each hand.

Most land based video poker machines have $0.25 coin denominations, meaning
your base bet will be between $0.25 and $1.25 per hand.

Low rollers may feel like only betting $0.25 per hand. But you gain more
value by wagering the 5 coin max because you can win a larger royal flush
payout.

Assuming you bet all 5 coins, you’ll have the option to wager a sixth coin to
activate the bonus. As we’ll cover in the Payback and Pay Table section, this is
another bet that you need to make from a strategy perspective.

To summarize our advice on Atomic Fever betting:

• Always make the 5 coin base wager.
• Always add the optional sixth coin for the bonus round.
• Be prepared to bet $1.50 total (6 coins).

Atomic Fever Bonus

When you’ve bet all 6 coins on a hand, the bonus feature is activated.

This is indicated by 4 atoms that spin around on both the initial deal and
the draw round. The goal is to get all 4 balls charged so that you trigger the
bonus.

Here’s how the process works:

1. You receive your 5 card hand.
2. The atoms spin around, with some / all charging or not charging.
3. You complete the draw round and the atoms spin again.
4. If all 4 atoms are charged, you receive a bonus round; if they’re
   not all charged, you don’t get a bonus.

When you trigger the bonus, you’ll receive 5 free games (hands) with a 2x
multiplier. And you can retrigger the free games up to a maximum of 100 games.

Playing Hands

Every hand begins with you making a base wager of 1 to 5 coins, along with
the optional 6th coin bonus bet. You can also click Deal if you want to repeat
the previous bet.

When you click Deal, you’ll receive your initial 5 card hand. The atoms will
also spin around, with one or more possibly becoming charged.

You then hold the cards you want (if any). When satisfied, choose the Draw
(Deal) button to finalize your hand.

Non held cards will be discarded and replaced to complete your hand. Any
uncharged atoms will spin around a second time to give you another chance at the
bonus.

Once your hand is filled out and the atoms stop spinning, you get to see if
you’ve won a payout and / or triggered the bonus.

Onscreen Display

Atomic Fever has a different onscreen setup than most video poker games. But
it also has many standard onscreen elements too.

Beginning with the standard aspects, you’ll see game info and buttons at the
bottom, cards in the middle, and the pay table at the top.

The pay table is different, though, because most of it is cut off when you
bet 5 or 6 coins. We bet the max and only saw payouts for 4 and 5 coin bets on
the version we played.

An even bigger difference is the atom / bonus display. In the top right hand
corner, you’ll see the 4 atoms.

You get to watch these spin after the initial deal and the drawing round.
Whenever an atom is charged, it lights up in the top right hand display.

Variations

As covered earlier, Atomic Fever is one of the IGT games where you can change
the variations you’re playing. Here are some available variants you can choose
when playing Atomic Fever.

• Bonus Poker

  Bonus Poker offers
  special 4 of a kind payouts for four aces, four 2s to 4s, and four 5s to Ks.
  If you get four aces on a 5 coin bet, you’re looking at a 400 coin payout. 8
  / 5 Bonus Poker – 8 coins for a full house and 5 for a flush – is the
  highest paying version at 99.17% payback.

• Bonus Poker Deluxe

  This game’s
  name comes from the fact that it offers a 400 coin payout (5 coin bet) on
  any 4 of a kind hand. 9 / 6 Bonus Poker Deluxe is the highest paying version
  at 99.64%.

• Deuces Wild

  All 2s are wild in
  this game, which makes for wild royal flushes and 5 of a kinds. The full pay
  Deuces Wild version offers 100.76% payback, which has made this game famous.

• Bonus Deuces Wild

  This Deuces
  Wild version includes bonus payouts for five aces, five 3s to 5s, and five
  6s to Ks. The best paying version of Bonus Deuces Wild is 99.86%.

• Double Bonus

  As the name
  suggests, Double Bonus offers even larger payouts for 4 of a kinds. This
  includes 800 coins for four aces; 400 coins for four 2s to 4s; and 250 coins
  for four 5s to Ks on a 5 coin wager.

• Double Double Bonus

  If you like
  bonus payouts, then you’ll really appreciate the huge ones offered in Double
  Double Bonus. These include 2,000 coins for four aces with a 2 to 4 kicker;
  800 coins for four 2s to 4s and an A to 4 kicker; and 800 coins for four
  aces on a 5 coin bet.

• Jacks or Better

  The lowest
  qualifying payout in this game is a pair of jacks, hence the name. Jacks or
  Better features the simplest pay table and is great for beginners.

• Triple Double Bonus

  This game
  takes bonus payouts to an even greater level. Four aces with a 2 to 4 kicker
  pay 4,000 coins; four 2s to 4s with an A to 4 kicker pay 2,000 coins; four
  aces with a 5 to K kicker pay 800 coins; four 2s to 4s with a 5 to K kicker
  pay 400 coins; and four 5s to Ks pay 250 coins.

Pay Back and Pay Tables in Atomic Fever Video Poker

As you may know, a video poker game’s payback indicates how much it’s
scheduled to pay over the long term. Here’s an example:

• 9 / 6 Jacks or Better (JoB) has
  99.54% payback.
• If you bet $1,000 on this game,
  you’d theoretically win back $995.40.

We emphasize the word “theoretically” because video poker features a lot of
volatility. This means that your short term results will almost always differ
from the programmed payback percentage.

Nevertheless, it’s good to know what payback you can expect with each game
and pay table.

An added element to consider with Atomic Fever is that the bonus feature
changes payback.

According to Michael Shackleford, a.k.a. the Wizard of Odds, the bonus adds
roughly 0.47% payback to any game. In the case of 9 / 6 JoB (99.54%), this
pushes payback to 100.1%.

We’ll list payback figures for other Atomic Fever variations later. But let’s
first discuss a few different pay tables.

Atomic Fever Pay Table

If you’ve played video poker before, then you won’t have any trouble
adjusting to the pay tables featured in Atomic Fever.

After all, these are the same tables used in other games – it’s just that
payouts can be doubled with the 2x bonus multiplier.

Let’s start by looking at a regular 9 / 6 JoB pay table:

9 / 6 Jacks or Better (Regular)

Hand	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1,000	4,000
Straight flush	50	100	150	200	250
4 of a kind	25	50	75	100	125
Full house	9	18	27	36	45
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
3 of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
2 pairs	2	4	6	8	10
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

The reason why this game is called 9 / 6 JoB is because the full house and
flush pay 9 and 6 coins, respectively. If these payouts are lowered, then you’ll
be dealing with lower payback too.

Also note the jump in royal flush payouts from a 4 coin bet (1,000) to a 5
coin bet (4,000). This disproportionate increase is why you want to make the 5
coin max wager every time.

Now, onto the doubled pay table when you’re betting 6 coins and trigger a
bonus:

9 / 6 Jacks or Better w / Atomic Fever 2x Bonus Multiplier

Hand	5 coins
Royal flush	8,000
Straight flush	500
4 of a kind	250
Full house	90
Flush	60
Straight	40
3 of a kind	30
2 pairs	20
Jacks or better	10

As covered before, the bonus gives you 5 free games along with a 2x
multiplier. And this leads to some very big payouts, as you can see with the
8,000 coin royal flush.

Let’s check out one more example involving another game:

9 / 6 Double Double Bonus (Regular)

Hand	1 coin	2 coins	3 coins	4 coins	5 coins
Royal flush	250	500	750	1,000	4,000
Straight Flush	50	100	150	200	250
4 aces + 2 to 4	400	800	1,200	1,600	2,000
4 2s to 4s + A to 4	160	320	480	640	800
4 aces	160	320	480	640	800
4 2s to 4s	80	160	240	320	400
4 5s to Ks	50	100	150	200	250
Full house	9	18	27	36	45
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
3 of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
2 pairs	1	2	3	4	5
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

This pay table is a bit more complicated than JoB because it has five bonus
payouts. Of course, this also means that you have more chances to win big prizes
when during the Atomic Fever bonus round.

Here’s how the 5 coin payouts increase during the bonus:

9 / 6 Double Double Bonus w / Atomic Fever 2x Bonus Multiplier

Hand	5 coins
Royal flush	8,000
Straight Flush	500
4 aces + 2 to 4	4,000
4 2s to 4s + A to 4	1,600
4 aces	1,600
4 2s to 4s	800
4 5s to Ks	500
Full house	90
Flush	60
Straight	40
3 of a kind	30
2 pairs	10
Jacks or better	10

Not only do you have an 8,000 coin royal flush to play for in the bonus, but
you also have bonus payouts ranging from 500 coins to 4,000 coins. This makes
the bonus round extra special when you trigger it.

Odds of the Atomic Fever Bonus Happening

The Atomic Fever bonus feature doesn’t come around very often. Otherwise,
casinos would be losing money left and right due to the 2x multiplier and 5 free
games.

The probability of any single atom being charged during the initial deal or
draw round is 20.6%. The probability of completing all 4 charged atoms within a
hand is 1.87%.

The following info from Shackleford shows your chances of triggering the
bonus based on the number of charged atoms:

Initial Atoms Charged	Probability	Probability on Draw	Total Probability
4	0.18%	100%	0.18%
3	2.78%	20.60%	0.57%
2	16.05%	4.24%	0.68%
1	41.25%	0.87%	0.36%
0	39.75%	0.18%	0.72%
Total	100%	0.00%	1.87%

Having a 1.87% chance at getting the bonus doesn’t seem like good odds. In
fact, this may make you question risking a sixth coin on each hand.

But the long term payback increases by approximately 0.47% whenever you bet
the extra coin.

Atomic Fever Pay Back

Here’s payback for different Atomic Fever games and pay tables, based on the
added 0.47% that the bonus adds.

Bonus Poker

• 8 / 5 Bonus Poker = 99.64% payback
• 7 / 5 Bonus Poker = 98.48%
• 6 / 5 Bonus Poker = 97.33%

Bonus Poker Deluxe

• 9 / 6 Bonus Poker Deluxe = 100.12%
• 8 / 6 Bonus Poker Deluxe = 98.96%
• 8 / 5 Bonus Poker Deluxe = 97.87%

Deuces Wild

• 25 / 16 / 10 / 4 / 4 / 3 Deuces Wild = 100.20%
• 25 / 15 / 9 / 4 / 4 / 3 Deuces Wild = 99.38%
• 20 / 12 / 10 / 4 / 4 / 3 Deuces Wild = 98.04%

Deuces Wild Bonus

• 9 / 4 / 4 / 3 Deuces Wild Bonus Poker = 99.92%
• 13 / 4 / 3 / 3 Deuces Wild Bonus Poker = 99.27%
• 10 / 4 / 3 / 3 Deuces Wild Bonus Poker = 97.83%

Double Bonus

• 9 / 7 / 5 Double Bonus = 99.58%
• 9 / 6 / 5 Double Bonus = 98.27%
• 9 / 6 / 4 Double Bonus = 96.83%

Double Double Bonus

• 9 / 6 Double Double Bonus = 99.45%
• 9 / 5 Double Double Bonus = 98.34%
• 8 / 5 Double Double Bonus = 97.25%

Jacks or Better

• 9 / 6 Jacks or Better = 100.02%
• 9 / 5 Jacks or Better = 98.92%
• 8 / 5 Jacks or Better = 97.76%

Triple Double Bonus

• 9 / 7 Triple Double Bonus = 100.05%
• 9 / 6 Triple Double Bonus = 98.62%
• 9 / 5 Triple Double Bonus = 97.48%

Where to Find Atomic Fever Video Poker – Online, Offline, Free, or Real Money

Atomic Fever is exclusively found in brick and mortar casinos. If you visit a
larger online casino that has IGT products, there’s a strong chance that you’ll
find Atomic Fever too.

And what’s great about this game is that it comes with plenty of variations,
including the ones we just covered payback for.

Unfortunately, we haven’t found Atomic Fever online. IGT makes their video
poker machines for land based casinos, and Atomic Fever isn’t an exception.

This means that you won’t be able to play this game for free or real money in
online casinos.

Atomic Fever Video Poker Strategy

The one general strategy rule that you want to follow for Atomic Fever is to
always bet 6 coins per hand. This not only qualifies you for the top royal flush
payout, but also activates the bonus.

Other than this general rule, Atomic Fever strategy differs based on the
specific game you’re playing.

We won’t cover strategy for every variation that Atomic Fever can be played
through. But you’ll find sample strategy charts for Jacks or Better and Deuces
Wild below.

9 / 6 Jacks or Better Strategy Chart

1. Royal flush, straight flush, 4 of a kind
2. 4 cards to a royal flush
3. Full house, flush, straight, 3 of a kind
4. 4 cards to a straight flush
5. Two pair
6. High pair (As to Js)
7. 3 cards to a royal flush
8. 4 cards to a flush
9. Unsuited K Q J T
10. Low pair (10s to 2s)
11. 4 cards to an outside straight w / 0 to 2 high cards
12. 3 cards to a straight flush
13. Suited Q J
14. 4 cards to an inside straight w / 4 high cards
15. Suited K Q or K J
16. Suited A K, A Q, or A J
17. 4 cards to an inside straight w / 3 high cards
18. 3 cards to a straight flush
19. Unsuited K Q J
20. Unsuited Q J
21. Suited J T
22. 2 unsuited high cards w / king high card
23. Suited Q T
24. 2 unsuited high cards w / ace high card
25. Jack only
26. Suited K T
27. Queen, king, or ace only
28. 3 cards to a straight flush

Full Pay Deuces Wild Strategy Chart

4 Deuces

• 4 Deuces

3 Deuces

• Wild royal flush
• 3 deuces only – discard any non pair
• 3 deuces only – discard any pair of 9s or less
• 5 of a kind
• 3 deuces only – discard any pair of 10s or less
• 4 cards to a royal flush
• Straight flush or less

2 Deuces

• Wild royal flush
• 5 of a kind
• Straight flush
• 4 of a kind
• 4 cards to a royal flush
• 2 consecutive suited cards
• 2 deuces only
• 2 consecutive suited cards
• Full house or less

1 Deuce

• Wild royal flush
• 5 of a kind
• Straight flush
• 4 of a kind
• 4 cards to a royal flush
• Full house
• 3 consecutive suited cards
• 3 of a kind
• Straight
• Flush
• 4 cards to a straight flush
• 3 cards to a royal flush
• 2 consecutive suited cards
• 3 cards to a royal flush
• Deuce only
• 3 cards to a royal flush
• 2 consecutive suited cards
• 4 cards to an outside straight

0 Deuces

• Natural royal flush
• 4 cards to a royal flush
• Straight flush
• 4 of a kind
• Full house
• 3 of a kind
• Straight, flush
• 4 cards to an outside straight flush
• Suited T J Q
• 4 cards to an inside straight flush
• 3 cards to a royal flush
• Pair
• Two pair
• 4 cards to a flush
• 4 cards to an outside straight
• 3 cards to a straight flush
• 2 cards to a royal flush
• 4 cards to an inside straight (except when you have no deuces)
• 2 cards to a royal flush
• Discard everything else

Conclusion

Atomic Fever has two big things going for it:

1. It’s a fun and interesting video poker variation.
2. The bonus bet improves your chances of winning.

The second aspect is important because we’ve seen unique video poker games
that are fun, but they also have low payback.

Atomic Fever isn’t like this, though, because your average payback gain is
0.47% when making the bonus bet.

The catch is that IGT doesn’t usuallyoffer the best pay tables due to the
advantageous bonus wager. This is where it’s helpful to know the pay tables – or
at least look them up on your smartphone – so you ensure that you’re getting a
good deal.

As long as you find a good game / pay table, we certainly recommend playing
Atomic Fever. The spinning atoms make for an effect that you won’t find in any
other video poker game.