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.

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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.

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.

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• Overview: Our Free Double Double Bonus Video Poker game obeys the standard video poker rules and is a single hand type video poker machine. It is played with a standard 52 card deck and the cards are shuffled before each hand. Double Double Bonus Poker is similar to Jacks or Better Video Poker however it has 5 enhanced winning combinations which offer higher payouts, these are.
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The simple strategy for beginners and aspiring poker players is rather upfront, but the advanced Double Bonus Poker strategy requires time and training to be perfected. That’s where the Personal Game Advisor comes in play, with two useful features. Right above the Double Bonus Poker layout, you can see the “Warn on strategy errors” box. About Double Double Bonus Video Poker. Real Time Gaming (RTG) have improved on their excellent Double Bonus Poker game with this wonderful little title. Double Double Bonus Video Poker doesn’t really offer you any more money than Double Bonus Poker, although it does offer you a few more options in terms of winning hands, which is always going to be appreciated. Overview: Our Free Double Double Bonus Video Poker game obeys the standard video poker rules and is a single hand type video poker machine. It is played with a standard 52 card deck and the cards are shuffled before each hand.

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.

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:

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• 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.

Double Double Bonus Poker is a variation of Double Bonus Poker. In fact, you
can trace the lineage of this game back to Bonus Poker and its father, Jacks or
Better.

Jacks or Better video poker, of course, is the most basics form of video
poker. Bonus Poker games resemble Jacks or Better closely, with a major
difference – you get bigger payouts on 4 of a kind hands. These bonus payouts vary
based on the ranking of the cards in the 4 of a kind. In Double Double Bonus,
the kicker also affects how big the bonus payout is.

This page is meant to be the most comprehensives guide to Double Double Bonus
Poker on the internet. We go into detail about the basics of gameplay – even if
you’ve never played video poker before, you should be able to play a smart game
of Double Double Bonus Poker using no other information than what we’ve included
on this page.

We also go into detail about the pay tables, probabilities, and payback
percentage for the game.

The Basics of Double Double Bonus Poker

If you’ve never played video poker before, you might be forgiven for thinking
that a game like Double Double Bonus Poke is just a tricked-out slot machine
with a playing card theme.

But the differences are bigger and more significant than that.

Both slot machines and video poker games use symbols on a payline. They also
both use random number generators to determine which symbols come up in which
combinations on any given “spin” or “hand”.

But on a slot machine, the symbols and associated probabilities are
determined arbitrarily by the slot machine manufacturer. You might have a cherry
symbol with a 1/24 chance of appearing, a bar symbol with a 1/12 chance of
appearing, and a wild symbol with a 1/48 chance of appearing.

You have no way of knowing what the probability of getting a specific symbol
is. That’s a crucial piece of information if you want to get an idea of the odds
for the game, by the way.

The way you calculate the payback percentage for a gambling machine (or any
other gambling game, for that matter), is to compare the probability of winning
with the amount you win. In almost all casino games – besides slot machines – you
know both the payoff and the probability of winning.

In roulette, a single number bet pays off at 35 to 1. The odds of winning are
37 to 1. You have 38 numbers on a roulette wheel, so you have 1/38 probability
of getting a specific number.

On a slot machine, you know what amount you win with various combinations,
but you don’t know what the probability of winning is.

Video poker, on the other hand, uses the same probability as a deck of cards.
We know there are 52 cards in a deck. We also know that there are 4 suits with
13 ranks within each suit. The probability of getting a specific card is 1/52, a
specific suit, 1/4, and a specific rank, 1/13.

Slot machines have opaque probabilities, but video poker games have
transparent probabilities.

We prefer games where we have more information about our chances of winning.

You measure the odds on a gambling machine by looking at its payback
percentage. We’ll discuss that in detail in the next section, but for now,
understand that the payback percentage is an estimate of how much money you’ll
get back, on average, every time you bet. It’s a long-term expectation. The
higher the payback percentage, the better the game.

Slot machines average a payback percentage of 94% or 95% or less.
But video poker games average a payback percentage of 95% or more.

If you
play well and stick with the games with the right pay tables, you can even find
video poker games with a 99% payback percentage or greater.

As a result, we’re big fans of playing video poker games instead of slot
machines.

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Video poker games like Double Double Bonus Poker also offer the player the
chance to make meaningful decisions. The games are based on draw poker, so you
get to choose which cards to keep and which cards to discard. Make good
decisions, and you’ll win more often. Make bad decisions, and you’ll lose more
often.

The gameplay for a video poker game like Double Double Bonus couldn’t be
easier, either. Let’s break it down, step by step:

1. You choose a machine.

   Smart players
   account for the denomination of the machine, their knowledge of the strategy for
   the game variation, and the pay table.

2. You insert money, and the machine
   converts that money into credits.

   For example, if you’re playing a quarter
   machine, and you insert $100, you’re given 400 credits to play with.

3. You choose how many coins you’re going
   to bet per hand.

   You can bet between 1 and 5 coins on every hand, but you should
   always bet 5 coins. The payoff for the royal flush is the big jackpot for the
   game, and it pays off at 800 for 1 when you make the 5-coin bet. If you bet 1,
   2, 3, or 4 coins, you only get 200 for 1 or 250 for 1. That’s a huge difference
   to your bottom line.

4. You press the “DEAL” button.

   When you
   do this, the machine deals you a 5-card hand. The game uses the same probability
   as if you were dealing yourself a poker hand from a real deck of cards.

5. You decide which cards to keep and
   which ones to discard.

   To keep a card in video poker, you can press the “HOLD”
   button which corresponds to that card. Or you can just touch the screen,
   although older video poker machines don’t offer that option.

6. You press the “DEAL” button again, and
   the machine replaces your discards.

   The machine then compares your final hand
   with the pay table and pays you off based on the hand you wind up with.

It can be useful to think of Double Double Bonus and other VP variations as
being a video game mash-up of solitaire and 5-card draw poker. The game
resembles solitaire because you’re not competing with other players or other
hands. And the game resembles 5-card draw because you get a 5-card poker hand
and get to discard cards.

It’s appropriate to go into some detail about payouts and pay tables, and
that’s what we cover in the next section.

Pay Tables, Payback Percentages, and Double Double Bonus Poker Probabilities

Here’s an example of a pay table for a Double Double Bonus video poker game:

The first thing you should notice is the huge disparity between the payoff
for a royal flush when you’ve bet 5 coins as opposed to the other options you
had. That 4000-coin jackpot is the goal when you’re playing almost any video
poker game. Always bet 5 coins.

The next thing to notice is the multiple possible payouts based on 4 of a
kind. In a standard Jacks or Better game, a 4 of a kind pays off at 25 for 1.

The reason this is a Bonus Poker variation is because you get bigger payoffs
based on the ranking of the cards in the 4 of a kind.

And the Double Double comes into play when you account for the kicker to get
even bigger payouts.

This is also a good example of how video poker differs from traditional
poker. The hand rankings are roughly the same in general, but in a real poker
game, you’d prefer a higher rank for your 4 of a kind. A hand with 4 kings would
beat a hand with 4 deuces.

But in Double Double Bonus Poker, the hand with the 4 deuces pays off quite a
bit more.

The pay table, by the way, is the crux of the game. Since we know the
probability of getting certain hands, we can calculate the expected return for
each of them. When you add all those possibilities together, you get the overall
payback percentage for the game.

Here are some examples:

A pair of jacks or better comes up about 21.1% of the time. Since it pays off
at even money (1 for 1), the expected value for that hand is 21.1%.

2 pair only happens about 12.3% of the time, and it also pays off at even
money. That’s worth 12.3%.

3 of a kind, though, pays off at 3 for 1. The hand comes up less frequently,
only 7.5% of the time, but you get to multiply that by the payoff of 3 for
22.5%.

Those 3 hands combined make up 21.1% + 12.3% + 22.5%, or 55.9% of the payback
percentage. All the hands above that make up less of the game’s payback
percentage.

The payback percentage for the Double Double Bonus game listed above is
98.98%. We always recommend that players stick with video poker games where the
payback percentage is 99% or higher, but we’re not going to quibble over 0.02%,
either.

That’s a common enough pay table for the game, but you’ll see other, less
favorable pay tables often. Here’s an example of one of those:

The payback percentage for this pay table is only 97.9%, which is
significantly lower than the first pay table we shared with you.

How Big a Difference Is It?

Let’s project how much a player expects to lose per hour on each of the 2
games. We’ll assume that the player is playing on a dollar game and making the
full 5-coin bet. She’s betting $5 per hand.

We’ll also assume she’s playing with perfect strategy, and that she’s playing
about 600 hands per hour (which is average).

We’re looking at $3000/hour in action.

If you subtract the payback percentage from 100%, you get the house edge. On
the first pay table, the house edge is 100% – 98.98%, or 1.02%. On $3000 worth
of action per hour, that’s a projected loss of $30.06 per hour.

On the second pay table, we’re looking at 100% – 97.9%, or 2.1%. That’s
$62/hour in projected losses.

It’s the same game and presumably has the same entertainment value for the
player.

But one version of it costs $30.06/hour to play, while the other costs
$62/hour to play.

We suggest that players treat gambling like any other entertainment expense
and make decisions accordingly. Let’s look at these 2 games from that
perspective.

You’re at a movie theater, and you can choose to watch the new Star Wars
movie in theater A for $30.06, or you can watch it in theater B for $62. You’d
clearly choose theater A.

But most gamblers don’t bother to educate themselves well enough to know what
the tickets cost. Many of them wander unknowingly into theater B.

Don’t be one of them.

Where Does the Change in Payback Percentage Come From?

If you were paying close attention, you probably saw that the payoffs for the
following hands were reduced by 1 coin each:

• Full house
• Flush
• Straight

Those hands come up 10%, 11%, and 12% of the time, respectively. Reducing the
payoff on each of those results in a net loss on your overall expected return of
1%.

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Of course, those are numbers you won’t see in the short run, anyway.
Probabilities represent long-term expectations. The entire casino industry works
on this basis, by the way. If no one ever won in the short term, no one would
play. And if everyone won in the long run, the casinos couldn’t stay in
business.

And when we say long run, we’re talking about thousands and tens of thousands
of hands. You’ll only see a royal flush, on average, once every 40,000 hands,
for example.

Of course, to see even these kinds of returns, you must make the
mathematically correct decisions. We’ll discuss that in the strategy section.

Double Double Bonus Strategy

Double Double Bonus strategy doesn’t differ much from other games. If you’re
familiar with the basic strategy for Jacks or Better, you’re most of the way
there.

But there are some differences.

Let’s first talk about why there’s a strategy in the first place.

Double Double Bonus is a game of decisions. You have 5 cards. You have 2
possible decisions for each card. This leaves you with 32 total ways to play
each hand.

Each of those possible decisions has an expected return. The correct play
(mathematically) is the one with the best expected return.

That sounds harder than it is. Most of the time, the right move is easily
understood, especially if you’ve spent some time playing cards in your life.

Video poker strategy charts are organized into hierarchies of hand types. You
start at the top and look for a hand that matches yours. Those are the cards you
keep. In many cases, especially when you’re dealt a pat hand, the right decision
is obvious.

But not always.

Here’s an example strategy list for this game:

• Royal flush

  Of course, if you’re dealt a royal flush, you’ve hit the jackpot. You’ll naturally just hold
  this hand and thank your lucky stars.

• 4 of a kind with aces, 2s, 3s, or 3s WITH an ace, 2, 3, or 4 kicker

  This is the 2nd best pat hand you can
  hope for. You don’t try to improve this hand.

• 4 of a kind

  This is a pat hand, yes, but you’re going to often draw on that 5th card that isn’t part of
  your 4 of a kind to try to improve your kicker. This is different from most
  video poker games where the kicker doesn’t matter.

• Straight flush

  Another pat hand that needs no improvement. Notice that you won’t draw to a royal flush
  with this hand even if you can. An example is a hand with the 9, 10, jack,
  queen, and king of spades. You might be tempted to discard the 9 and hope for an
  ace, but that’s not the right move.

• 4 to a royal flush

  You’ll always go for the royal flush over any other pat hand on the list, besides the
  ones already listed. This sounds like a lot to remember, but keep in mind that
  the 4 of a kind will never also be 4 to a royal flush. It’s impossible.

• 3 of a kind, aces

  You are, of course, hoping to trade up to a 4 of a kind made up of aces, which is a
  big hand. Notice that you’ll even break up a full house in favor of 3 aces to go
  for that 4 of a kind.

• Full house, flush, or straight

  These are all good hands and make up some of the bread and butter of
  the game. You will break up a pat straight or a pat flush if you have a chance
  at 4 to a royal flush, though.

• 3 of a kind

  Any other 3 of a kind falls into this category – we already talked about what you do with 3
  aces.

• 4 cards to a straight flush

  No explanation should be needed here. This hand has a big payout, so it’s
  worth drawing to if you don’t have anything better.

• A pair of aces

  This is listed differently from other pairs, because even if you have 2 pair, you’ll
  discard the other pair for the shot at 4 of a kind.

• 2 pair

  Unless one of them is a pair of aces – see above.

• JQK suited

  This is, of course, 3 cards to a royal flush. It’s speculative, but there’s potential for
  improvement to 3 of a kind or a big pair. You could also hit a flush or a
  straight.

• A pair of kings
• TJQ suited

  Like JQK suited, but not as good. If the 10 pairs, you don’t get paid.

• A pair of jacks or queens
• 4 cards to a flush draw

  This is a relatively easy draw to make. After all, you have 9 cards left in the
  deck which can fill your hand.

• Any other 3 cards to a
  royal flush
• 4 cards to a straight draw

  The straight payoff isn’t that impressive, but if it’s an open-ended straight
  draw, you have 8 cards which can complete your hand. You don’t draw to an inside
  straight here. The difference is where the missing cards are. 6789 is an
  open-ended straight draw. Any 5 or 10 will complete your straight. But 5679 is
  an inside straight draw – the only card that will make your hand is an 8. And
  there are only 4 of them in the deck.

• Any other pair

  You are, of course, hoping to hit 3 of a kind or 4 of a kind. You can also hit a full
  house with one of these pairs.

• Inside straight draw
• 3 to a straight flush
• Speculative hands

  Once you get this far down the list, it’s time to make judgment calls. You should be
  more aggressive with draws that have remote possibilities of hitting one of the
  big hands with the big payouts above.

The strategy, as presented, isn’t perfect, and you’ll be losing a percentage
point or so over a perfect strategy. But memorizing a perfect strategy would
involve memorizing over 40 lines or strategy, which is unwieldy and probably not
worth it for most casual players.

The more important strategy considerations here involve game choice and slot
club membership.

If you choose a version of Double Double Bonus Poker with a lousy pay table,
it doesn’t matter how well you play each hand. The best possible payout
percentage for the game won’t be enough to make it worth your while.

Playing at a casino where the slots club pays off well is worth thinking
about, too. Casinos use slot machine clubs to reward players who bring a lot of
action. They assign you a card which you insert into the machine to track your
play.

Some people who don’t know what they’re talking about think inserting this
card interferes with the players’ chances of winning. They don’t understand that
the best indicator of profitability on a gambling machine is time spent on the
machine. The casino doesn’t care if you’re winning or losing in the short term.
If you keep playing, they’ll eventually make their money because of the house
edge.

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The casino rebates you a tiny percentage of your hourly action in the form of
comped meals, hotel stays, event tickets, and travel perks.

This percentage usually averages around 0.2%, but with specials, it can be
even more. Many casinos try to ramp up business during slow periods by offering
triple points during certain hours. For example, a casino offering triple points
between 1pm and 4pm is offering 0.6% instead of 0.2%.

You get to add that to the expected return for the game. In some cases, this
can turn a negative expectation game into a positive expectation game – one where
you have the edge over the casino.

This requires near-perfect play on your part, of course. It also requires a
great pay table.

But don’t quit your day job, yet.

Any edge gained this way is likely to be less than 0.2%. Which means
projected winnings of $6/hour or so on the Double Double Poker games we’ve
discussed on this page.

But in terms of getting the most for your entertainment dollar, being a
member of the slots club is critical to your success.

Where to Find Double Double Bonus Poker

Double Double Bonus Poker is a common video poker variation. You can find the
game at almost any casino online or off. If you’re playing at online casinos,
you can play free versions. The only drawback to the free version is that it’s
impossible to win any money when you’re playing. (And honestly, isn’t that the
reason we’re playing in the first place?)

Still, if you want to get a feel for the game, playing the free version is a
fun way to practice.

We recommend several online casinos on our site. All of them have been vetted
for honesty and good customer service. Most of them offer Double Double Bonus
Poker, as it’s one of the more common variations available.

Conclusion

Double Double Bonus Poker is a commonly-found variation of Bonus Poker, which
is, in turn, a variation of Jacks or Better. The difference in this game and
other Bonus Poker games is the extra payoff for a 4 of a kind with a certain
kind of kicker.

Finding a variation of this game with a pay table that provides a 98.98%
payback percentage is relatively easy, too. You just need to play with a strong
enough strategy to realize this potential return.

In many casinos, Double Double Bonus Poker is the best option available.