WMS’ G+ Deluxe line, as a sequel to their popular G+ line, was originally released in 2010 and has been a workhorse on casino floors across the country for nearly a decade.
While the hardware they run on is slowly being decommissioned off of casino floors in favor of newer games and hardware, the games persist in many locations and feature the origins of games with modern iterations such as Bier Haus and Kronos, sequels of popular games like Jungle Wild, and games that get particularly heavy play even now like Mystical Unicorn and the original King of Africa.
One popular feature about the game, when configured in its most standard form, is the two “Must Hit By” progressives, a Minor and a Major, that the games contain. For AP players, this is one of the earlier examples of a game to watch, and in today’s post I’ll go over the basics, what makes them special, and what AP players tend to look for.
The Basics of G+ Deluxe
A few waves of G+ Deluxe games came out in the early 2010s, a few dozen in all, which have the jackpots on them in their default form. (Some casinos have the jackpots disabled and some multi-game cabinets have them without progressives, but it’s very clear when this is the case in the top box.)
The two progressives work as follows on a standard penny machine:
- The Minor starts at $25, and must hit by $50
- The Major starts at $50, and must hit by $500
The progressives increment based on wins, with each meter going up a penny for every $1.70 in wins. This is why the game says that betting higher increases chances for progressives; higher bets will mean higher wins when a line hit or bonus is paid, simply because it’s multiplied by the bet level. With the big wins that G+ Deluxe games can generate, a progressive can be icing on the cake after a massive win.
All of these numbers are proportional for higher demons; for instance, for a nickel denomination, you’d mutliply all of the above numbers by 5.
How the Jackpots Work
Each time a spin is a winner, it will push the meter forward, as noted in the previous section. Since the meter progresses based on the amount of the win, so larger wins will progress the meter further than smaller ones.
The games advertise that the progressives can be won randomly on any winning spin. This leads to occasionally interesting scenarios where a tiny line hit is followed by a massive big win from a major jackpot progressive also being awarded.
When a jackpot reaches 90 percent of the must hit by value, or 80 percent from the minimum to the maximum, a light border will rotate around the edge of the progressive, as seen in the hero image at the top of this article. And of course, if they hit the top number without having been won, they will be awarded.
On occasion, because the progressive moves based on the size of the win, you could actually win a number above the top advertised progressive, as the win will push it past the must hit by number and then it will award at the end of the count up. It’s rate, but there’s examples of this on YouTube.
The Advantage Play
In the discussions I’ve seen of Advantage Play on these jackpots, some players won’t truly go after these until they’re in the $49/$490 range because the games themselves tend to be pretty volatile, and the meter doesn’t increase for dead spins. Others will go after it at a lower level in the hopes that wins or a good bonus can push the meter along fast enough while keeping them in the game.
I personally can’t remember having seen one of those jackpots that high that often. The picture up top I captured this week, and before that it had been awhile since I saw one.
One thing to remember about Advantage Play is even if it’s gambling with a higher likelihood of success, it’s still gambling. And so there’s not always a guarantee of a win. But if you have pretty poor possibilities elsewhere and this is an opportunity on the floor, you might be willing to take the risk earlier on at a chance at a few hundred dollars more in your pocket.
Anything below that light border amount of 90% of the jackpot is probably less likely to be a strong AP, but the closer it gets, the more you should at least consider it in the absence of other options on the floor. And each dollar closer on either progressive is $170 in wins you don’t have to deliver, so obviously finding one that’s closer is better than not.
Do you Advantage Play these machines? What’s your rule of thumb?
