As one of the leading online poker platforms in Asia, Natural8 is always looking for new and innovative ways to enhance its players’ playing experience. In the first quarter of 2022, Natural8 added a new gaming feature for Hold’em Cash Games called the Bet on Flop, which is its latest addition to a string of successful features such as EV Cashout, the real-life-like 3D Card Squeeze, and Snapcam.
If you have ever found yourself predicting the outcome of the flop as you waited for the rest of the players to make up their minds, well then, guess what! Now you can use this power to play and potentially win more than the winner of the pot.
As a feature that places a game within a game, you will now get to place an additional bet on top of your blinds as you predict the outcome of the flop.
Side bets such as the Bet on Flop have long existed, especially for high-stakes poker games. In fact, PokerStars had a feature that was literally called Side Bets, which offered wagering options on future hole cards as well as flops.
So… How Does Bet on Flop Work?
Making a flop bet is as easy as ABC:
Step 1: Click the Bet on Flop button which will be on the bottom left of your screen
Step 2: Choose your preferred betting amount by clicking on the poker chip.
Step 3: Pick one or more preferred outcomes on the board.
That's it! That's all you have to do!
With this feature, you will essentially be playing against the house instead of the other players. The bet size starts from 1BB all the way to 100BB, so no matter what, as long as you are willing to bet, there will be a bet size for you.
Another thing about Bet on Flop is that there are no skills needed, just pure luck. If you are bored or if you don’t have a strong hand but want to gamble a little and potentially win something, feel free to place a bet on any of the available outcomes. You can even close your eyes and just let Lady Luck guide your hand.
With this feature, there’s a high chance that you may be more excited about the flop texture than the whole hand itself, especially if your hand is not one of the premiums.
What About the Payouts?
| Bet Type | Payout | Flop Description | RTP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Red / 2 Black | 2.4x | 2 red cards or 2 black cards on the flop | 95.51% |
| 3 Red / 3 Black | 4x | 3 red cards or 3 black cards on the flop | 94.37% |
| Pair | 5x | 2 cards are the same rank and 1 of another rank | 75.43% |
| Flush | 17x | 3 cards of the same suit not of sequential rank | 82.58% |
| Straight | 25x | 3 cards of sequential rank, not of the same suit | 84.69% |
| Straight Flush or Three of a Kind | 170x | 3 cards of sequential rank and of the same suit OR Three cards of the same rank | 77.35% |
*Table is accurate as per the time of writing
With Bet on Flop, you can potentially win up to 170x your bet, which is the highest payout that you can get. The side bet feature comes with a fixed set of payouts, ranging from 2.4x for more black/red up to 170x for a three-card Straight Flush or Three of a Kind hand. So, a $1 bet on a Flush would return $17 - a win of $16 together with the $1 bet. Players can expect an RTP (Return to Player) of up to 95.51%. An RTP is essentially the game’s average payback rate. For example, if the RTP is 95.51%, that means the game pays back an average of $95.51 for every $100 wagered.
Conclusion
While side-betting features are not something brand new in the world of online poker, they definitely bring a new element of non-poker bets into a regular game of poker. So now, your question while waiting for others to finish their hands should be: what will the flop be? More red or more black? Or perhaps pair, trips, or flush draws?
Remember, with this feature, even if you lose the hand, you can still win.
