Jackpot Poker Video Poker

There’s a lot of ways to play poker. Too many ways to count in fact. Admittedly most of these ways are just variations on the same theme. Poker after all is a game that nobody owns. It’s not like a Starburst or Cleopatra’s Riches video slot which has a clear developer and brand owner. Poker is in the public domain and thus developers are free to tinker with it as they see fit. Jackpot Poker is one such variation, a game which is about as straight and to the point as these games can get. There are certain things which count in this game’s favour, like the fact that it’s extremely easy to play, with no intro screen and no messing around.

There are also things which count clearly against Jackpot Poker, like the fact that this game isn’t remotely mobile-compatible. Forget about firing it up on your Android or iPhone to enjoy a spot of poker on the go during your lunch break. Sorry but Jackpot Poker ain’t that kind of a game. Instead of utilising HTML5, this online casino game is built in Adobe Flash. As a result you’ll struggle to get it to load in the Chrome browser and will have to click to enable it in the Firefox browser. This isn’t a disaster if you’re content enough to play on desktop but it does mean that in terms of mobile gaming, Jackpot Poker is a non-starter.

J is for Jackpot

Jackpot Poker is powered by Play N Go whose software powers a great many online casinos and poker rooms. This game takes a little while to load and if you leave it dormant for too long it will time out, obliging you to reload the page. When the game does finally load you’ll be greeted by a design that’s straight out of the early aughts. Back when the web was in its infancy, there was a tendency for developers to use scrolling tickers and flashing banners in an effort to grab visitors’ attention. Years later, it was recognised that this technique looked cheap, crass and was ineffective. Clearly the developers of Jackpot Poker have yet to cotton on to this.

The scrolling display which appears across the top of the paytable has the air of an estate agents, or any other business that’s partial to putting those scrolling LED displays in its window. The ticker doesn’t even convey any information of note other than explaining that you can play for free or play for real money. That’s nice to know, but was to be expected anyway. It’s a shame there’s no way to disable the scrolling effect as it swiftly starts to become annoying. The game’s logo, positioned in the top left of the screen, comprises some brightly coloured stars and a big stack of gold coins. It ain’t the best, but it works.

Perfect Pairs

A blue background is inoffensive enough, allowing gamblers to focus on the five cards that are laid out face down in front of them. Before you get stuck into the great game of poker, you’ll want to set your bet level. The coin size can be set to 1 and the number of coins can range between 1 and 5 and there’s also a max bet button for convenience. When you’re ready, click deal and five cards will appear.

The sound effects which accompany the clicking of buttons and dealing of cards are extremely clanky and wouldn’t be out of place in a 16 bit computer game. Jackpot Poker is many things but it sure ain’t modern. “Choose which cards to hold and then click deal” explain the instructions at this stage. And that’s really all there is to it. Jackpot Poker is about as simple as poker gets. The game works reasonably consistently in full screen, but attempting to shrink the window will play havoc with the aspect ratio. That’s the trouble with games like these: they don’t utilise responsive design.

Poor Performer

Jackpot Poker is a poor game which is really showing its age. There are some positives, like the fact that you can win up to 4,000 coins for scoring a royal flush. In that respect, this casino game is certainly worth your time. In every other respect however, there are way better games out there. Try a poker game that works on mobile and which has a responsive design. Try a poker game which has sharp graphics, smooth animations and realistic sound effects. In short, try a game that’s everything Jackpot Poker is not. You deserve better than this. So choose better.