International Game Technology is a major competitor in any category of electronic casino games. In video poker, it stands alone, with few companies competing for even a piece of the market.
At the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, IGT showed a video poker variation that would keep me coming back. It’s called Power Quads, and it has you to create a log-on, then go about collecting four-of-a-kind hands. When you’ve drawn quads in all 13 card denominations, you collect a 2,000-coin bonus.
That’s not something you’re going to do in one short session. In 9-6 Jacks or Better, four of a kind turns up an average of once per 423 hands. Figure a player at an average speed of about 500 hands an hour draws quads a little more than once an hour, and a fast player might get the average to twice an hour. To get all 13 — and if you get the same four of a kind multiple times, you still need all the others at least once — is going to take some time.
Hence the log-on. Use it, and Power Quads will remember you when you come back. Your previous quads will be remembered only on a return trip to the same property. But even if it takes several visits to complete your Power Quads, the bonus will be more than welcome. 
Another new video poker variation, Fast Fours, plays much like Quick Quads. If you have three of a kind and the other two cards add up to the same denomination, it’s paid as a four of a kind. In the earlier game, face cards are not eligible for Quick Quads bonuses, and Aces count only as 1. In Fast Fours, Aces count as 1 or 11, and faces count as 10. So Ace-Ace-Ace-6-5, with the 6-5 counting as 11, is a Fast Four, as is King-King-King-6-4. It costs an extra coin per hand to buy into the feature.
