DraftKings Michigan launches first online poker games

Once a dedicated daily fantasy sports site, DraftKings has since branched out into regular sportsbook and casino games, and this week launched its first online poker game.

‘Electric Poker’ is the brand name chosen for the operator’s first player-to-player poker games - as opposed to casino-style table games such as Caribbean Stud, or video poker - and the game is now available at DraftKings Michigan.

A three-handed hyper-turbo poker tournament with a randomized prize pool, Electric Poker is DraftKings’ take on the lottery sit & go format. These games have been available under a range of different names, at different sites, including Spin & Go (PokerStars), BLAST (888poker), SPINS (partypoker), Jackpot Poker (ACR), Spin & Gold (GGPoker) and Expresso at Winamax, where they first originated.

How does Electric Poker work?

As with other similar formats, the headline idea of an Electric Poker game is that big money prizes can be won in a short amount of time. Once three players have registered - for $1, $5, $10 or $25 - the prize pool is set at random, ranging from a 2x multiplier on the buy-in to 10,000x.

Blinds go up every two minutes until ‘Electric Mode’ is activated and each player is forced all-in automatically each hand. The number of levels played before Electric Mode is reached depends on the prize multiplier, from three levels at the lowest multipliers to six levels at the highest.

For most prize multipliers the games operate as winner-take-all tournaments, while the top three multipliers - 100x, 1,000x and 10,000x - reward all three players. 5x and 10x multipliers also award a runner-up prize.

The probability of each multiplier hitting, as well as rake information for each stake level, can be found at DraftKings.

Electric Poker in Michigan marks the operator’s first move into the online poker market. Could there be more in store? We’ll keep an eye out, but for now shrewd online poker players in the Great Lakes State may want to check out the player pools at DraftKings’ only poker tables, as the site’s traditional casino and sportsbook players are likely to be less familiar with poker than at some rival sites.