Nine Knights — RTP 94.34%

The chronicle · entry 49370

Nine Knights, read closely

01Not a pokie — read this first

This chronicle is a roll of pokies, and Nine Knights does not belong to it as one. There are no reels, no paylines and no free spins. Instead you get a green baize table, a dealer, a card shoe and three cards dealt each round.

I'm flagging it clearly rather than dressing a card game up as a slot review. If you came looking for a pokie, this isn't one — but here's an honest account of what it actually is so you can decide.

02What it actually is

Nine Knights is a colour-battle card game. Each round the dealer turns three cards, and you back a side before the deal: RED or BLUE (each paying 1:1), a TIE (paying 24:1), or a TRIPLE COLOR side bet (paying 8:1) that all three cards land the same colour.

A red knight token and a blue knight token mark the two camps, and a numbered track runs 1 to 9 with a BUST cap — the card values feed that track. Result banners flashed 'BLUE WIN' and 'RED WIN' across my session as the majority colour of the three cards decided each round.

03How a round plays

You place chips — the demo offered 0.1, 1, 10, 100 and 1k denominations — on RED, BLUE, TIE or the TRIPLE COLOR strip. The dealer calls 'NO MORE BET', turns the three cards, and pays the winning side at the stated odds.

Side histories run along the bottom and right: bead-plate and big-road roadmaps tracking past results, exactly as you'd see on a baccarat table. A ×2 trophy icon sat by the deal, hinting at an occasional doubled payout on qualifying rounds.

04The odds on offer

The paytable here is bet odds, not symbol multipliers. RED and BLUE are even-money at 1:1, the TIE pays 24:1, and the TRIPLE COLOR bet pays 8:1. Those are the real figures I read straight off the felt.

The pool lists a return of 94.34% and, fittingly for a table game, no maximum-win multiplier or volatility rating — those are pokie measures that don't apply. Treat the RTP as a house-edge guide across the bet types rather than a reel figure.

05Who it suits

If you enjoy quick, even-money colour bets with a couple of long-odds side plays — the sort of thing baccarat and dragon-tiger fans like — Nine Knights is a tidy, good-looking version of that. The roadmaps will please pattern-watchers.

If you actually want a pokie, look elsewhere in the chronicle; this won't scratch that itch. Whatever you play, set a limit before you sit down and treat it as entertainment — the even-money bets can run through a balance fast. Free, confidential support is at safergambling.org.nz and the Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655. 18+.