An innovative mixture of slots and poker, Kings Of Chicago from NetEnt is an interesting slot title with a form of game play unlike any other. The game plays on five ‘reels’ displaying three rows each, but each drop of symbols is laid out as a poker deal, rather than a slots spin.
A green baize table serves as the backdrop, with poker chips indicating the 5 pay lines. Snatches of elegant piano music signify the wins.
The other innovation is that all the winning combinations involve winning poker hands, like straights and flushes. The usual slots rule of all symbols needing to be in unbroken succession from Reel 1 on a pay line also falls away.
All combos must appear on the same pay line to win, but as long as a poker hand is formed on the pay line, even with non-winning cards in between the scoring ones, a prize is won.
Exploring the Card Values Available in Symbols
As the name suggests, Kings Of Chicago is set in a mobster gambling den. All 53 cards in a deck are used, plus the Jokers, but because so many different poker combinations win prizes, this plethora of available symbols doesn’t reduce the game’s winning percentages.
The picture cards all add an extra nod to the theme; with Aces decorated with ornate pips incorporating guns and other tattoo designs, the Kings all featuring mob bosses, the Queens using gangsters’ molls, and the Jacks featuring mob hit men.
Prizes begin at 2 coins for three of a kind, followed by 7 coins for a 5-card straight. A flush wins 25 coins, and a full house wins 50. The prize for four of a kind is 75 coins, and for a straight flush it is 250 coins. A royal flush including a Wild wins 1,000 coins. The Wild can also form five-of-a-kind hands, worth 1,500 coins. For a natural royal flush, with no Wilds present, the player wins 10,000 coins.
Random Scatters Awarded
Any card from the deck can become a Scatter symbol at random; a bar with the word Scatter on it appears over the card to indicate its status. Two or more scatters win immediate prizes, and three or more Scatters also trigger a bonus round of free deals. First, the Scatter pays a coin prize for two or more icons anywhere on the reels: 5, 15, 50 or 500 coins.
Three Scatters also trigger a bonus round of 10 free deals, four Scatters add 15 free deals, and five Scatters win 30 free deals. During free deals, all wins are increased by a multiplier of X2. Free deals can be re-triggered by another three or more Scatters during the bonus round. Although all 5 pay lines are fixed, players can adjust bets per line from 1 to 1,000 coins, making this one of the more flexible and potentially lucrative online slots.
The Joker Wild
Not surprisingly, the Kings Of Chicago Wild symbol is a Joker. Like wilds in many Mac pokies, it wins no prizes for its own combinations, but it will stand in for any other card to make more winning combos possible.
Any wins which feature a Joker Wild are doubled.