Introduction to Deal With Death
Deal With Death is a casino slot from Hacksaw Gaming, placing you in a one-on-one scenario against a classy skeletal creature with a knack for gambling. We all know what making a deal with the devil is all about, which is usually gaining some mortal pleasures in exchange for one's soul, but dealing with death seems to be much more open for interpretation. In this case, the studio uses the word 'deal' in a more poker-related manner, rather than some sort of pact or agreement, infusing the gameplay with an intriguing feature that transforms symbols on the board into cards and awards prizes for creating poker hands. With four types of Jokers capable of triggering it with potential additional multipliers, three bonus rounds empowering the feature further, and a max win of 20,000x the bet, it's shaping up to be quite a ride!
If you'd like to play some practice hands with the undead gambler before testing your bluffing skills for real, you can try risk-free gameplay in the demo mode at the top of this page.
Theme, Gameplay & Payouts
Deal With Death is a video slot from Hacksaw Gaming with 5 reels, 4 rows, and 14 paylines. You can choose your stake from a range of options, starting from a Min.bet of 0.1, which makes the game particularly affordable, up to a Max.bet of 50. The math profile runs on a default RTP of 96.25%, which is in line with the industry standards, although several alternative variants of 94.30%, 92.25%, and 86.22% are also released, so make sure you check the version you're playing. You can expect more emphasis on the value of wins rather than their frequency due to medium-high volatility, while the max win available on any single round is 20,000x the bet.
In Deal With Death, the main focus lands on our undead host and the playing grid, as there's nothing else that would indicate where you are. All around, thick, grey mist swirls endlessly, perhaps imitating purgatory, a realm between heaven and hell. Since there's nothing to admire regarding the views, you must turn to the smartly-dressed skeletal gambler and the playing panel filled with intricate, colourful symbols. Despite the overall grim exterior of the entire environment, the atmosphere is quite laid-back and enjoyable, thanks to the jazzy soundtrack enveloping the setting. If you're ready to accept the invitation to play a few hands, you can launch the game on any modern device, be it a desktop, a smartphone, or a tablet.
Winning combinations require regular symbols to land in sets of 3 to 5 matching instances running through adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost one on any of the active paylines. The paytable hierarchy contains two groups of paying icons, both made of four cards with suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. Low-paying ones appear as grey cards, awarding from 2x to 3x the bet for a 5-of-a-kind combination. High-paying symbols take the form of four Aces, and they bring payouts of between 10x and 20x the bet when matching 5 on a payline. Wilds are represented by a Joker, while FS Scatters appear as a red card with white 'FS' letters.
Special Features & Slot Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot Deal With Death?
You can win up to 20,000x the bet.
What features are available in the slot Deal With Death?
The features are Poker Mode, Joker Symbols, Bonus Games, and Feature Buy.
Poker Mode
Regular gameplay based on standard symbols and payline wins switches to Poker Mode whenever a Joker symbol lands anywhere on the grid. In Poker Mode, all symbols flip and become playing cards, and each of the four rows becomes a potential five-card poker hand with a specific payout.
Royal Flush = 2,000x
Straight Flush = 1,000x
Four of a Kind = 100x
Full House = 75x
Flush = 50x
Straight = 25x
Three of a Kind = 10x
Two Pair = 5x
Joker Symbols
There are four Joker symbols, each acting as a Wild and triggering the Poker Mode. Some of them can also grant additional boosters. After activating the Poker Mode, every Joker transforms into a playing card that complets the hand in the best way.
Regular Joker = triggers Poker Mode.
Hand Multiplier Joker = triggers Poker Mode and applies a multiplier of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, or 10x to the hand on its row.
Global Multiplier Joker = triggers Poker Mode and applies a multiplier of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, or 10x to all winning hands.
Triple Trouble Joker = triggers Poker Mode and collects all cards from the grid once winning hands have been paid. Next, it shuffles the cards and places them back on the grid, creating three best possible hands from the collected cards.
If more than one multiplier has been activated during the Poker Mode, their values are added together before being applied to the winning hands' payouts.
Bonus Games
Landing 3, 4, or 5 FS Scatters anywhere on the grid in the same spin activates a Deal With It, Dealbreaker, or Fool's Gold Bonus. Each mode awards 10 initial free spins and +2 or +4 free spins for every 2 or 3 FS Scatters landing throughout.
Deal With It = increased frequency of Joker symbols landing.
Dealbreaker = each hand's payout increases by its base value after it's won.
Fool's Gold = maintains the mechanics from the Dealbreaker Bonus and guarantees a Joker symbol on each spin.
Feature Buy
If you don't wish to chase after features in the base game, you can make use of the Buy Bonus menu, where certain functions of the game can be triggered instantly for a fixed price that scales with your current bet.
3x = Bonushunt Featurespins with a 5 times better chance to activate a bonus game.
60x = Flippin' Featurespins guaranteeing a random Joker symbol to land.
100x = Deal With It Bonus with 10 free spins.
200x = Dealbreaker Bonus with 10 free spins.
Final Thoughts on Deal With Death
It seems like some providers' brainwaves have subconsciously synced up in the second half of 2025, given several consecutive releases mixing slot mechanics with card games. Within the last few months, we've reviewed Crescendo by ELK Studios, which embedded playing cards into the five reels of a single-row machine, and Deck of Scurra by Print Studios, which delivered intricate, medieval gameplay, although one that had nothing to do with traditional card game rules. Hence, Deal With Death is much closer to the former, relying on classic poker hands for its most substantial payouts whenever you manage to land a Joker during the base game. It's an elegant solution and quite straightforward at the same time, as all you need to do is sit back and watch the cards flip over, hopefully forming winning hands on individual rows. In fact, it practically makes the base gameplay non-existent and massively insignificant, given only 14 paylines and the highest 5-of-a-kind payout of 20x the bet. Still, the Poker Mode proved to be quite engaging, especially if you trigger it with one of the more powerful Jokers. Like with most Hacksaw's productions, the three available bonus rounds turn up the dial on that core feature, making it more frequent and boosting it with increasing hand payouts, as well as guaranteed Jokers.
As for the setting the creators have picked for this game, it's puzzling. The mix of a robotic, undead gambler floating in the sea of nothingness and vivid symbols on the reels is rather hard to interpret. Whether there's some underlying message here or it's just a random image some designer dreamt remains unknown, although from a pure design perspective, the scene is clean and doesn't try to distract you with any decorations in the background. You may even say it's just as to-the-point as the gameplay, where the only goal is to land Jokers in order to trigger the Poker Mode. No messing around, no overcomplicating, just a trigger and a result, which we appreciate.
Deal With Death is a clean and enjoyable mix of a slot machine and poker gameplay, with straightforward boosters to elevate the thrill.
