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World Poker Tour

Stern, 2006 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

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World Poker Tour hides a deep ruleset behind a layout that looks simple. Six red-arrow shots run across the lower playfield, sixteen drop targets sit in three banks, and a full second deck floats above it all. Understand this before anything else: the game runs two economies at once — the poker hand you build with the ramps, and the pot you build with the spinners — and your payout is one multiplied by the other.

The layout

Left to right: left orbit, left ramp, the VUK, the scoop, right ramp, right orbit. Each orbit carries a spinner. The VUK is the longest shot on the machine, firing the ball off the back of the playfield and up onto the mini-playfield, where a second pair of flippers takes over. Up there sit the Ace in the Hole jail and its captive ball, three white standups, a re-light target on the far left, and an exit slot that drops you into the pop bumpers.

Hands and the pot

Either ramp advances your hold 'em hand through Flop, Turn and River. Completing a hand pays the main pot multiplied by the strength of the hand you were dealt, and that multiplier is the whole ballgame — a high card halves the pot, a royal flush pays it nine times over. In tournament play hands arrive in ascending strength, starting with a pair.

The pot opens at 250,000 and grows 25,000 for every hand you finish. Spinner rotations add 5,000 apiece, and that per-spin figure grows by 500 per completed hand. Build the pot before you close a strong hand, never after. When it climbs past the All In figure — 750,000 the first time, 250,000 higher after each one — All In Multiball starts by itself and hands you a free completed hand plus the pot's base value.

The four multiballs

Poker Corner

Every completed hand lights one mode at the scoop, and the relights do not stack — skip a mode and you have burned a hand. Each runs thirty seconds with one goal worth a Trophy, and each Trophy is a million points and raises the Poker Wizard payout later. Learn the goals ahead of time: two Big Blinds, three button shots, sixteen drops, twenty drops, two tells, or eight shots across both decks. In competition the two drop target modes are better ignored than fought, and Change Gears is worth holding until you have a multiball ready.

Chip tricks and triple scoring

Chip tricks are the combo system, and they live on every major shot except the VUK. The left orbit and right inlane flash the left-side tricks; the right orbit and left inlane flash the right-side ones. Chaining flashing shots pays double and triple the base, and your fifth spotted trick starts Super Trick — a rolling ten-second window worth roughly 200,000, then 300,000, then 400,000. Clear every flashing trick during it and an extra ball lights, but it will not carry to your next ball. Separately, completing a poker hand off the drops lights triple scoring on an inlane for three seconds — and it counts as triple progress toward super jackpots, not just triple points.

The wizard ladder

Three modes sit at the top. Poker Wizard opens at the scoop once you have played all six Poker Corner modes, and pays by Trophies earned — 1.6 million a jackpot with two, up to 3.1 million with four. Winning your sixth tournament starts the WPT World Championship, a ramp grind for ten million that pays another ten on completion. Above that is the Keefer Invitational: the Championship plus twenty-five million banked in each of six categories, then one more mystery award to open the door.

A working game plan

How World Poker Tour plays

World Poker Tour is a Texas hold 'em machine: the ramps deal your hand, the spinners build the pot, and a strong hand pays the pot several times over. Win six tournaments and play out all six Poker Corner modes on the way to the Keefer Invitational, the game's final table.

The loop

  1. Shoot either ramp to deal your hold 'em cards from the Flop to the Turn to the River, and rip the orbit spinners to grow the pot before a strong hand cashes out.
  2. Completing a hand pays the pot times the hand's strength and lights a Poker Corner mode at the scoop; each mode goal you finish banks a Trophy.
  3. Knock down drop-target cards to light poker hands on the ladder, and cycle the red targets with the flippers for a cheap bonus multiplier.
  4. Light locks on the left standup for No Limit, work the jail and captive ball for Ace in the Hole, and let the pot trigger All In on its own.
  5. Win six tournaments to open the WPT World Championship, and play all six modes to reach Poker Wizard and, finally, the Keefer Invitational.

Reading the lights

  • Hold 'Em Hands (shot arrows) — lit: Each ramp shot moves your hold 'em hand one street along -- Flop, then Turn, then River -- and either ramp works, so play whichever one your flipper is lined up on. · then: Complete the hand to collect the main pot multiplied by the hand you were dealt, and to light a Poker Corner mode at the scoop. Grow the pot on the spinners first, because the multiplier swings the same pot from half its value to nine times it.
  • Main Pot & All In (status) — lit: The spinners build the main pot -- five thousand a spin, and that per-spin figure climbs with every hand you complete -- so the same pot is both what a finished hand pays you and the trigger for All In. · then: Rip full clean orbits rather than rattled entries to push the pot up fast. Reach the All In figure and All In Multiball starts on its own, handing you a free completed hand and the pot's value the moment it begins.
  • Poker Corner Modes (mode) — lit: Each hold 'em hand you finish arms a Poker Corner mode at the scoop; every mode lasts thirty seconds and hangs a Trophy on one specific goal. · then: Begin the lit mode and clear its single requirement for the Trophy, worth a million and a bump to the eventual Poker Wizard value. A skipped mode does not queue up again -- letting one lapse throws away a full hand of setup.
  • Poker Hand Ladder (ladder) — lit: A hand ladder sits below the centre drop bank, from a single pair on up to the royal flush; drop the target-cards that complete a hand and that rung lights, and a lit rung sticks even after the targets pop back upright. · then: Skip ahead on purpose -- completing a straight before a pair pays for the dark hands beneath it as well. Light every hand on the ladder to start Poker Hands Multiball, the four-ball mini wizard whose ninth jackpot lights a five-million super.
  • No Limit Locks (shot arrows) — lit: Three hits on the left standup light all three No Limit locks the first time through; the second No Limit is stricter, lighting one lock at a time. · flashing: The lock insert flashes when the third lock is lit and ready to bank. · then: Bank the locks at the VUK or the scoop, and if a Poker Corner mode is lit with two balls already down, a single scoop shot kicks off that mode and No Limit at once. The one-million jackpot is the left ramp; a drop bank relights it -- the centre at 1X, right at 2X, and the eight-target left bank at 3X.
  • Ace in the Hole (status) — lit: Knock the jail bars open and go to work on the captive ball behind them -- a third hit springs it loose and launches the multiball, with both balls dropping in up on the mini-playfield. · then: Re-lock a ball the instant the multiball starts for a one-million award and a spare ball, then keep re-locking as the jail reopens so ball save stays live. Deeper in, once a ball is parked back in the jail, each captive-ball strike pays a 1.5-million super.
  • Red Target Lanes (lanes) — lit: The four red targets above the pop bumpers stand in for the usual top rollover lanes; a lit target is one you still need, and it goes dark once you strike it. · then: Slide the lit targets under the ball and clear all four to push up the pops and step your bonus multiplier -- the cheapest multiplier here. Those hotter pops then also feed the side pot in any multiball. · control: Either flipper button: one tap of either flipper button cycles which of the four red targets are lit, so you can slide the lit ones onto the path the ball is taking through the pops rather than trying to pick off one fixed target (while the ball is bouncing around the pop bumpers, before it settles out)
  • Triple Scoring (multiplier) — lit: Sink a poker hand off the drops and triple scoring lights on one inlane for a few seconds; roll that lit inlane and everything triples -- and, easy to overlook, your progress toward super jackpots triples along with it. · then: Put the light where your next shot is, then spend the three seconds on the biggest thing available -- a spinner rip into the pot, or a multiball jackpot. The window is one shot long, so choose it before the hand completes. · control: Either flipper button: one tap of either flipper button shifts the lit triple-scoring insert across to the other inlane, so you can park it on the side the ball is about to return down (in the three-second window after a drop-target hand lights it, before the ball reaches a return lane)

Lane change: the flipper buttons move the lit lane. Tap either flipper button to cycle which of the four red targets above the pops are lit -- they stand in for the usual top rollover lanes. Line the lit ones up with the ball's path and clear all four to boost the pops and step your bonus multiplier. That same tap also shifts the lit triple-scoring insert between the two inlanes, so you can park it where your next shot will come back.

Start scoring

  • Ball one — Watch the skill-shot award cycle and take the Skill Flip when it shows, then deal hands on the ramps and grow the main pot on the spinners before finishing a strong hand. Cycle the red targets for a cheap bonus multiplier. — Skill Shot, Build Hold 'Em Hands, Fatten The Main Pot
  • Building — Bank Poker Corner Trophies at the scoop, start No Limit and Ace in the Hole multiballs, and let the pot trigger All In. Use a drop-target hand to light triple scoring and spend the window on your biggest shot. — Poker Corner Modes, No Limit Multiball, Ace in the Hole Multiball, All In Multiball, Triple Scoring
  • The big one — The deepest run stacks three finales: play all six Poker Corner modes for Poker Wizard, win your sixth tournament to open the WPT World Championship, then meet twenty-five million in six separate categories and take one more Cut the Cards to start the Keefer Invitational, worth twenty-five million and a four-ball multiball. — Poker Wizard, WPT World Championship, Keefer Invitational

Does World Poker Tour have an action button?

No action button on this 2006 Stern. What it does have is a second pair of flipper buttons for the mini playfield upstairs, which takes over once the VUK fires your ball onto the top deck. Down below, tapping a flipper button also slides the lit triple-scoring insert from one inlane to the other.

Goals in World Poker Tour

Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.

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