Bovada Launches Jackpot Sit & Go
Better late to the party than never, if I may get creative with a cliché. The recently resurrected Bovada Poker has added the Jackpot Sit & Go to its poker game offerings, finally getting in on the Lottery Sit & Go fun.
Bovada’s Jackpot Sit & Go is nearly identical to the ever-popular Spin & Go on PokerStars. It is a three-handed affair where players begin with puny 500 chip stacks and blinds increasing every three minutes. It is a fast game, allowing players to get some poker in without much of a time commitment.
Of course, the big hook of the Jackpot Sit & Go is the randomized prize pool, revealed by a spinning reel before the game starts. Most of the time, the prize pool will be just twice the buy-in, but it can be as much as 5x, 15x, 120x, 240x, or, in the rarest cases, 1,200x the buy-in.
Here is a breakdown of the prize pool multipliers and their corresponding probabilities:
2x – 74,995 in 100,000
5x – 24,887 in 100,000
15x – 105 in 100,000
120x – 9 in 100,000
240x – 3 in 100,000
1,200x – 1 in 100,000
As you can see, there is not much of a point in hoping for anything more than 5x the buy-in. The 2x and 5x multipliers account for 99.882 percent of the random outcomes; you can do the math for the rest of the multipliers.
The bottom three multipliers are winner-take-all, while the top three multipliers awards something to each player.
Looking at how the Jackpot Sit & Go at Bovada compares to PokerStars’ Spin & Go, Bovada’s offering has two fewer multiplier levels. The top three multiplier tiers are the same on both sites, as is the bottom tier. Bovada ups the second-lowest tier slightly, making it 5x compared to PokerStars’ 4x. The most significant difference in the prize tiers is in the middle, where Bovada just as the 15x level, while PokerStars has 6x, 10x, and 25x.
Because PokerStars has more prize tiers, it has to spread out the probabilities of each hitting. Therefore, there is a better chance of hitting the second lowest tier on Bovada than there is on PokerStars, plus Bovada’s second lowest tier is better. At Bovada, though, there is nearly a zero chance to hit any of the top four multipliers, whereas on PokerStars, there is still a somewhat reasonable chance to land on the third lowest – the 6x – multiplier.
PokerStars also adjusts the prize probabilities depending on the buy-in, whereas Bovada does not. Jackpot Sit & Go buy-ins on Bovada are $2, $7, $15, and $30. On PokerStars, Spin & Go buy-ins are $0.25, $1, $3, $7, $15, $30, $60, and $100.
A couple other differences to note are while the 1,200x multiplier jackpot on Bovada is nearly impossible to hit, the chances of hitting it are ten times better than on PokerStars, as the probability is 1 in 100,000 versus 1 in 1,000,000. Additionally, for the top three tiers, Bovada takes the second and third place prizes from the total prize pool, whereas on PokerStars, the second and third place prizes are added by the poker room.
Rake is better at Bovada than on PokerStars at the lowest buy-ins, which is great for the majority of players, since most players are low rollers. Bovada Jackpot Sit & Go rake is 7 percent across the board. At PokerStars, the Spin & Go rake is 8 percent at the $0.25, $1, and $3 buy-in levels and 7 percent for the $7 buy-in games. At $15 and $30, though, the PokerStars buy-in is lower: 6 percent. At $60 and $100, it is an even lower 5 percent.
One thing that stinks right now about Bovada Jackpot Sit & Go’s is that players will not earn loyalty points for them. I am not sure why, but perhaps it is because the games are so fast that they would allow Sit & Go players to build up points more quickly than Bovada would like. That’s just a wild guess – I really don’t have a clue. Bovada says that it is “for the moment,” which would imply that points will be able to be earned some time in the future. Maybe management needs to figure out a new points calculation for the Jackpot Sit & Go’s, or maybe points just haven’t been programmed into the new game for some reason.
COMMENTS