Bonus Texas Hold'em
A Casino Hold'em / Texas Hold'em Bonus variant against the dealer, where you can keep raising at every street and an optional Bonus side bet pays on your starting two cards alone. Staged VRF reveals keep unseen cards genuinely hidden.
How it works
You post an Ante (required) and optionally a Bonus side bet. Then you play a hand of Hold'em against the dealer, with a decision at every street:
Pre-flop (you've seen your two hole cards): Play 2× your ante, or fold.
Flop (after the first three community cards): optionally raise 1× your ante, or check.
Turn (after the fourth card): optionally raise 1×, or check.
River (after the fifth card): optionally raise 1×, or check.
Unlike Ultimate Texas Hold'em - where you raise once and you're done - Bonus Hold'em lets you keep adding 1× raises at the flop, turn, and river after you've committed to playing pre-flop. There is no dealer qualification in this variant.
Cards are revealed in stages, each by its own Chainlink VRF request: the flop isn't drawn until you've played pre-flop, the turn until you act on the flop, and so on. The dealer's hole cards come last. Nothing you haven't seen is ever sitting in contract storage while you decide - which blocks eth_getStorageAt peeking.
How the bets resolve
After the river, your best hand is compared to the dealer's.
Ante - pays 1:1 only when your final hand is a Straight or better and you win; otherwise it pushes on a player win. A tie pushes all main-game bets; a dealer win loses them.
Play and raises (pre-flop Play 2×, plus any Flop / Turn / River 1× raises) - each pays 1:1 on a player win, pushes on a tie, and loses on a dealer win.
The "Straight or better for the Ante to pay" rule is what makes the Ante a genuine bonus on premium hands rather than an automatic even-money win.
Bonus side bet
The Bonus bet resolves entirely off the player's and dealer's hole cards - it's about the quality of the starting hands, independent of the board or who wins. It pays on premium starting combinations:
AA vs AA
499:1
Pair of Aces (AA)
30:1
A-K suited
25:1
A-Q / A-J suited
20:1
A-K offsuit
15:1
KK / QQ / JJ
10:1
A-Q / A-J offsuit
5:1
Pair, 22 through TT
3:1
Anything else
Loss
The top "AA vs AA" tier is capped at 499:1 (net) to match the project-wide 500× ceiling shared with Video Poker's Royal Flush and Ultimate Hold'em's Blind.
Limits
Minimum bet
3 USD (configurable per game via core)
Pre-flop Play
2× ante
Flop / Turn / River raises
1× ante each, optional
Ante pays
1:1 on Straight-or-better player win, else push
Dealer qualifier
None
Bonus top payout
499:1 (AA vs AA)
Cancellation
Admin/resolver only
Supported collaterals: USDC, WETH, $OVER. Free bets are supported through a dedicated placeBetWithFreeBet entry point - but the Bonus side bet cannot be played with a free bet (the side-bet stake can't be cleanly settled through the free-bet system).
User guide
1. Open Bonus Texas Hold'em
Select it from the casino lobby. Set your Ante, optionally add a Bonus side bet, choose collateral.
2. See your hole cards, decide pre-flop
The first VRF request deals your two hole cards. Play 2× to continue, or fold.
3. Flop, Turn, River
Each street's cards are dealt by their own VRF request. At each one you can add a 1× raise or check.
4. Showdown
The dealer's hole cards are revealed by the final VRF request. Hands are compared and the Ante, all your Plays/raises, and the Bonus settle in one transaction.
How it differs from Ultimate Texas Hold'em
Both are heads-up Hold'em against the dealer with staged VRF, but they're different games:
Raise structure
One raise only (3× / 2× / 1×, earlier = bigger)
Play 2× pre-flop, then optional 1× at flop, turn, and river
Dealer qualifier
Yes (affects Ante)
None
Ante pays
1:1 on win when dealer qualifies
1:1 only on Straight-or-better player win
Side bet
Blind (scales with your winning hand)
Bonus (scales with starting hole cards)
Ultimate rewards committing early with a big single raise. Bonus rewards staying in and adding pressure street by street, and its side bet is a bet on the quality of the hole cards rather than the final hand.
Why this matters
Multi-street Hold'em against a dealer only works if the board and the dealer's hand are genuinely unknown when you decide to keep raising. If the turn or the dealer's hole cards were readable from storage, a player could raise only when guaranteed to win. Overtime's staged VRF generates each street's cards exactly when the game reveals them, from independent verifiable random words, with the dealer's hand drawn last. The paytables - Ante rule, raise structure, and the full Bonus ladder - are fixed in code. You can verify, hand by hand, that nothing was ever stacked against you.
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