DraftKings Casino players in New Jersey now have their chance to try Electric Poker, the first multi-player poker game available on that platform. It’s a lightning-fast, three-handed tournament format in which the winner gets a random multiplier applied to their payout. That means a chance to win casino-like payouts while only needing to defeat two poker opponents in a matter of minutes.
Electric Poker debuted in Michigan in August 2024 and came to Pennsylvania soon thereafter. New Jersey, despite having had legal online poker since 2013, has had to wait the longest among the big iGaming states. But it could be worse! Players in Connecticut and West Virginia are still waiting, and they don’t have other poker sites to keep them busy in the meantime.
DraftKings’ take on the Jackpot Sit-and-Go
The game is a pretty typical example of what poker insiders sometimes call “Jackpot Sit-and-Go” or “Lottery Sit-and-Go.” The French poker site Winamax invented the format in 2013 with a game called Expresso, although it was PokerStars that brought it to an international audience the following year, as Spin & Go.
All these games share the same basic features:
- Three-handed
- Small starting stacks and rapid blinds
- Randomized prize pool, usually 2x the buy-in but with a chance for higher multipliers
- Winner-take-all, except for the top multipliers, which may offer consolation prizes for the losers
The specifics of buy-in, rake, and prize probabilities vary a little from operator to operator. We’ll get down to those brass tacks in a moment, but from a casual player’s perspective, the most important difference with Electric Poker is that it’s a game you’ll find in the casino. There’s no separate “DraftKings Poker” app that you’d have to download, and no other formats to worry about.
If you’re already a DraftKings user, you’re good to go. If not, even better, as you’ve got a sign-up bonus waiting for you.
DraftKings Electric Poker buy-ins, rake, and prize details
Electric Poker does have one feature that other games of this format lack. After a certain time elapses, Electric Mode activates, forcing players all-in every hand until a winner is decided. Strategically, that doesn’t change very much, as the later stages of any game of this type cause stacks to be so shallow that all-in is usually the best move anyway. However, it does speed things up.
Electric Poker offers buy-ins ranging from $1 up to $25, though the game’s rules page contains payouts for a $50 version, suggesting that higher stakes might arrive eventually. The payout for winning a match can vary between 2x and 10,000x the buy-in, although you’ll only see that top prize once in a million games.
Almost half the time (47.8%) you’ll be playing for twice the buy-in. The 3x and 4x prize levels are also quite common, but anything bigger than that only comes up about once in 20 games, or 5.1111%, to be precise.
On average, the prize pool works out to 2.79 times the buy-in, equating to a rake of 7%. That’s pretty aggressive for such a fast format, but the nice thing is that it’s consistent across all buy-ins. Some operators charge more rake to low-stakes players, but DraftKings keeps it simple and fair for all.
Here’s the full payout table for Electric Poker:
| Multiplier | Probability (Approx.) |
|---|---|
| 2x | 47.8% |
| 3x | 36.0% |
| 4x | 11.1% |
| 5x | 4.6% |
| 10x | 0.5% |
| 100x | 0.01% |
| 1000x | 0.001% |
| 10,000x | 0.0001% |
Should you play DraftKings Electric Poker?
In my honest opinion, DraftKings Electric Poker is a great product for beginners and infrequent poker players. If that’s not you, then you probably already know whether you’re interested or not.
Here’s why. Firstly, it’s in the casino, along with the slots and other games you’re already playing. You can play a few hands of blackjack, spin up an Electric Poker tournament, then try your luck on the slots. Other poker products represent more of a commitment—there’s a separate app, maybe a separate account balance, you have to learn to navigate the lobby to find the games you want to play… it can be a bit intimidating.
More controversially, I think the apparent downsides of Electric Poker work in a beginner’s favor. The somewhat high rake and lack of other poker formats is something that’s going to bother serious players, especially people trying to play for a living. However, if you’re not a veteran player, the competition matters more to your chances of winning than the game structure.
For someone grinding out a small edge over lots of games, the difference between, say, 5% rake and 7% is a big deal. However, if you’re just playing a few rounds now and then, you’re not going to notice that difference—it just means the mid-sized payouts like 3x and 4x are very slightly less common.
What you will notice is whether your opponents are other people just having fun, or people who’ve memorized tables and strategies to make themselves almost unbeatable in the long run. You wouldn’t expect to find a lot of that second group playing a game like this—they’re all playing on the dedicated poker sites.
Electric Poker strategy
The basic strategy for Electric Poker and similar formats is pretty simple. Because stacks are so shallow, a lot of the game is push-or-fold. If you want to avoid complications, you can play that way from the start. However, in the first blind level it is an option to make minimum raises and play some post-flop poker if your opponents are interested.
The important thing to remember for push-or-fold strategies is that you need a stronger hand to call than you do to raise all-in. That’s because when you’re the one going all-in, you have two ways to win: you only have to win a showdown some of the time, because most of the time, you’ll win because everyone folds. On the other hand, when you’re calling an all-in, the only way to win is to have the better hand.
But here’s an important secret that I discovered when I won 3,000x many years ago, playing another Jackpot Sit-and-Go game: When the prize is big, you can get way more aggressive. People who aren’t used to playing for that much money will tend to get scared and fold way too much. I won that game by going all-in with any two cards every time I had the opportunity to open the pot. By the time either opponent had the nerve or the cards to call me, I already had most of the chips in play.
One limitation of that strategy for Electric Poker is that “Electric Mode” puts a limit on how long your opponents can keep folding. Eventually, the game itself will force them to play a hand. However, if you have the biggest stack by then, you’ve achieved the objective.
Your mileage may vary, but that’s my take: when there’s a big prize on the line, expect the other players to fold.
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