Badge tips

Be aware of the 5 minute time limit for Lucky Wave!

For Catch a Wave, don't Stand: make a guess for every card to maximize your chances of getting all 6 cards out. You'll lose a lot though, so bet the minimum if you don't want to chance losing a lot of tokens.

For badges requiring tokens, maximize tokens per hand by drawing until you bust, letting your wager ride on a winning hand, splitting pairs, and doubling down. Note however that you will lose some tokens using these methods.

For High Tide or Jump the Shark, see Game tips.


Game tips

ALWAYS read a game's How to Play, and also check for a Hints or Tips tab and/or Tutorial. They do help!

This is a basic high/low guessing game, where Aces are high. You simply guess if the next card will be higher or lower than the one showing, and you bet against the dealer to see who will guess more cards correctly in each hand.

Watch the dealer's card when making decisions. Never Stand if the dealer has an Ace or 2. If he or she has a mid-range card, your chances are better as the dealer is more likely to guess wrong. Be aware that the dealer must stand on 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10, or on a pair.

Keep power-ups until they're most advantageous. For instance, use Free Draw when you have 5 of 6 cards for a "Ride the Tide", or use No Dealer Draw when the dealer is showing an Ace or King. However, use at least one of your power-ups when you have three or you can't draw another or win one in the bonus game. Also use them before leaving a room as they don't stick.

Use the Reveal Next Card power-up to force the dealer to bust if you have more than one card out and the next card would result in a wrong guess for the dealer.


More about Ride the Tide

When ready to quit playing, leave the game after you earn a jackpot spin as it doesn't save progress towards spins. It also doesn't save power-ups or progress toward the bonus game.

When this game first came out, it seemed to play with "real" odds; however after a week or so it seemed to shift so cards were much more in the house's favor. For instance, it seems that a 2 will frequently follow a 3, or a King will follow an Ace (particularly if you have a gold or silver card or have a large bet "riding"). Coincidence? Maybe.. but this game's How to Play does not carry an "all deals are random" notice that a few games do. Sometimes you can win quite a bit by betting against common sense and standard odds.

This game's layout is almost identical to Casino Island Blackjack.

The Catch a Wave badge was available several weeks before it was officially released, if won in a specific room. But when its release week came around, it didn't show as having been won on Badge Central and those who got it early had to do it again. Those players' stats show it was won earlier than it was released, but they don't reflect multiple wins for having won it early and then again when it was officially released.


The phrase "jump the shark" originated with the old tv show "Happy Days" and an episode towards the end of its run when Fonzie jumped over a shark on water skis - something out of character for the once-somewhat tough guy. "Jumping the shark" has since come to refer to the episode or moment when a hit tv show begins its decline towards cancellation by using contrived plot twists or non-credible character actions.