Double Jackpot Rules. Double Jackpot is played with the same basic rules that you'll find at most Jacks or Better video poker machines, as well as at Double Double Jackpot machines.The minimum hand to receive a payout is a pair of jacks and every hand stronger than that is paid out according to the pay table that's posted at the top of the machine. The strategy for Double Double Jackpot Poker is more complex than Double Jackpot Poker because certain cards are now worth considerably more. The 9/6 version of Double Double Jackpot Poker has a great return of over 100 percent. The variance is relatively high and the strategy somewhat complex, however. Jan 23, 2019 Double Jackpot Poker Introduction. Double Jackpot, a.k.a. Double Aces and Faces is characterized by paying more for a four of a kind.
Double Double Bonus video poker is the most popular video poker game in casinos, but it’s not generally considered a possibility for advantage play. In other words, if you’re looking to make a profit at the casino, then this probably isn’t the game for you. That being said, Double Double Bonus is a lot of fun, and strategy makes as big a difference in this game as it does in Jacks or Better or Deuces Wild.
The reason this game is so popular is because of the large payout for the “four aces with a kicker” hand, which happens almost 3 times as often as a royal flush in Jacks or Better. The payout for this hand is half of that for the royal flush, though—2000 coins instead of 4000 coins.
Play Double Double Bonus Poker
If you understand the basics of Jacks or Better, you’ll have little trouble figuring out how to play the game. But some of the strategies are different, and this page covers those strategy differences below.
Double Double Bonus Payout Charts
The first element of every decent video poker strategy has nothing to do with how to play individual hands. Game selection is crucial. Choosing the games with the best payout tables is the most important skill you can develop as a player.
Video Poker Double Double Down
Like Jacks or Better, the payouts at Double Double Bonus change for the full house and flush hands, and the annotation for that is the same as in Jacks or Better. For example, when we talk about full pay, or 9/6 Jacks or Better, we’re talking about a game that pays out 9 coins for a full house and 6 coins for a flush.
The best Double Double Bonus games offer a theoretically positive expectation if you play perfectly. These are the 10/7 and 10/6 versions of the game, which offer a payback percentage of 100.17% and 100.06% respectively. Those pay tables are rare indeed, though, but they’re still worth looking for.
The more common payout structures are 9/6 and 9/5 Double Double Bonus, which offer payout percentages of 98.98% and 97.87% respectively. These numbers aren’t as good as a full pay Jacks or Better game, but they both still beat the payout percentage for 8/5 Jacks or Better.
Two More “Meta-Strategy” Tips
A few other considerations are more important than how to play specific hands. I call these “meta-strategies”. These include playing for maximum coins. This should be a no-brainer, but the top jackpot is only available to players who have wagered all 5 coins. If you wager fewer coins than that, you’re giving back a huge percentage to the casino—1.33%, in fact.
Being a member of the slots club is another no-brainer. Slot club members get back between 0.2% and 0.4% of their wagers in the form of rebates from the casinos. This doesn’t sound that significant, but if you’re playing max coins on a quarter machine, you’re wagering $1.25 per hand. The average video poker player is in action for 600 hands per hour, which is $750. That’s an average of around $2/hour in benefits for being a member of the slots club.
Strategy Tips for Double Double Bonus Video Poker
Correct strategy for Double Double Bonus video poker is a little more complicated than correct strategy for Jacks or Better, but it’s not at all beyond the average person’s ability to comprehend. If you use good game selection and follow these tips, you’ll be at close to break-even with the casino, which means you can have a great time at the casino while enjoying a theoretical mathematical loss of close to nothing.
The first thing to know is that it’s always correct to hold onto a hand with four aces, deuces, threes, or fours with a kicker. This is in line with some of the other general strategy advice I offered in another page on our site, which is to let the machine deal you a winning hand.
If you have a four of a kind of the above description without a kicker, then discard the fifth card and draw, hoping to get a kicker. It’s still a winning hand, but it will win even more when you occasionally hit your kicker.
Never hold a kicker with any three of a kind, though.
Again, keeping in mind that you want to let the machine deal you a winner, you’ll almost always hold any winning combination. But there are some exceptions:
Double Double Poker Odds
- If you have a full house with three aces, keep the three aces and discard the other two cards.
- If you have a flush or a straight, you’ll draw to a 4 card royal flush.
- If you have two pair, and one of those pairs is AA, then you’ll draw to the aces.
- If you have a high pair, you’ll break it if you have 4 cards to a royal flush or to a straight flush.
A four card straight flush is better than a three card royal flush. Both of these hands are better than ANY other hand that isn’t already a winner.
- A four card flush is better than a low pair or a four card straight.
- A low pair is better than a four card straight.
- A three card straight flush is a playable hand, but some hands are better—including a four card flush, a low pair, or a four card straight.
Differences from Jacks or Better Strategy
You should notice that a number of strategy differences exist between Double Double Bonus and Jacks or Better. For example, in Jacks or Better, you would never break a full house, but in Double Double Bonus, you would always break that full house in order to draw to three aces. In Jacks or Better, you’d never break two pair, either, but in Double Double Bonus, you’ll sometimes break two pair when you have AA. Perceptive readers will notice that most of the strategy changes revolve around the high payout for the four aces jackpot.