Double Double Bonus Video Poker. Double Double Bonus, also known as 10/6 video poker, is another popular variant based on Jacks or Better. This game also uses the standard 52-card deck and offers all the same video poker fun and more. What makes this variant special is that it pays a premium for all hands containing Four of a Kind.

• Free Double Bonus Poker Practice

How to score big payouts while avoiding the pitfalls

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2. Double Double Bonus Video Poker. Double Double Bonus, also known as 10/6 video poker, is another popular variant based on Jacks or Better. This game also uses the standard 52-card deck and offers all the same video poker fun and more. What makes this variant special is that it pays a premium for all hands containing Four of a Kind.

By Henry Tamburin

The larger payoffs come at a price; namely, the payoff for two pair is only even money (or 1 to 1). By transferring some of the game’s payouts from the more frequent two pair to the less frequent four-of-a-kind, it becomes a much more volatile game.

Double Double Bonus Poker (DDB) is the most popular video poker game in the country. That’s because it’s possible to hit several big payouts besides the royal flush, and this draws players to the game. Unfortunately, there are also some pitfalls to playing DDB, which most players are not aware of.

Table 1 summarizes the different pay schedules for DDB that you are likely to encounter. The first thing that should jump out at you is the amount of the payoffs for four-of-a-kind hands. They are rather large payoffs, especially if the fifth card in the hand (the “kicker”) is a specific card.

For example, the payoff for four Aces is 160 times your bet but if the kicker is a 2, 3, or 4, the payoff jumps to 400 coins. (That’s a 2000-coin payoff, or one-half the payoff for a royal flush, betting the maximum of five coins.) Likewise, the payoffs for four 2s, 3s, and 4s increases from 80 to 160 coins times your bet with an Ace, 2, 3, or 4 kicker. These mini-jackpots are the magnet that attracts players to this game.

What most players don’t understand is the larger payoffs come at a price; namely, the payoff for two pair is only even money (or 1 to 1). By transferring some of the game’s payouts from the more frequent two pair to the less frequent four-of-a-kind, it becomes a much more volatile game (more about this shortly).

Tabl1 also summarizes the ER for the different DDB pay schedules (bottom of each column). The best DDB game pays 10 coins for a full house and 6 coins for a flush per coin played (see Table 1). The Expected Return (ER) for 10/6 DDB is 100.07%, meaning the player would have a tiny advantage over the house if he played every hand perfectly.

There are many casinos in the Las Vegas area that offer 10/6 DDB. (Just go to either www.vpfree2.com or the video poker page on www.lasvegasadvisor.com to obtain a list of casinos that offer 10/6 DDB at different denominations.) Unfortunately, 10/6 DDB is not readily available in other areas of the country. (Partly the reason for this in that in some gaming jurisdictions, casinos can’t offer a game where the ER is over 100%). Nevertheless, it behooves you to find a casino that has at least the 9/6 DDB pay schedule, which has a 98.98% ER. (I wouldn’t recommend playing the 9/5 or 8/5 DDB games because the ERs are woeful. Again, check www.vpfree2.com for a list of casinos outside Las Vegas that offer 9/6 DDB.)

The high volatility of DDB results in most players going broke rather quickly if they are not lucky enough to hit one of the high payoff hands. In other words, most players play DDB undercapitalized. For example, supposed you were to play 9/6 Double Double Bonus instead of the much less volatile 8/5 Bonus Poker (BP). Both games have roughly a 99% expected return (ER) but the variance for 9/6 DDB is much higher (41.99) compared to 8/5 BP (20.90) Let’s assume you have a $200 bankroll and you want to play for two hours (1000 hands). By using the bankroll function in the Video Poker for Winners software program, you can determine what your chances are of going broke for each game. The results are:

Playing the low-volatile 8/5 Bonus Poker, you will lose your $200 stake only 2.55% of the time on average (that’s roughly 1 out of every 40 sessions).

Playing the more volatile 9/6 Double Double Bonus Poker, you will lose your $200 stake 28.66% of the time (that’s roughly 11 out of every 40 sessions you’ll tap out).

This means you are 11-times more likely to tap out with your $200 bankroll if you play 9/6 DDB instead of 8/5 BP. The point is this: Video poker games that are highly volatile (such as Double Double Bonus) require more bankroll to prevent going broke. (Also, your “emotional” bankroll will be tested in games that are highly volatile because you can experience some long “dry spells”.) Let me repeat this so it sinks in: DDB is very volatile.

Assuming you have the bankroll and the stomach to play DDB, you should master the playing strategy before you risk any money. The playing strategy for DDB is tricky because of the importance of the ace (see my Tip of the Month). You’ll find a playing strategy for DDB on the video poker page at www.wizardofodds.com. You should also consider practicing the strategy at home with video poker training software until your playing accuracy is at least 99% before risking money in a casino. (I recommend Video Poker For Winners or Optimum Video Poker training software, both available on my web site.) I also recommend that you purchase the DDB strategy card by Dancer and Daily and take it with you when you play so that if you are not sure how to play a hand, you can refer to the strategy card.

TABLE 1

Double Double Bonus Poker Pay Schedule

Payout Per Coin Played

* 4000 coins for a five-coin royal flush

Tamburin Tip of the Month

You are playing Double Double Bonus and are dealt the following two hands. How would you play them?

You should break up the full house in the first hand, hold only the three aces, and draw two more cards. In the second hand, you break up the two pair, hold the pair of aces, and draw three cards.

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Henry Tamburin is a blackjack and video poker expert. He is the host of the smartgaming.com website and the editor of the Blackjack Insider newsletter (for a free three-month subscription, visit www.bjinsider.com/free). For a free copy of his Casino Gambling Catalog, which contains books, strategy cards, and software for video poker players, call toll free 1-888-353-3234, or visit the web store at smartgaming.com.

Double Bonus Video Poker

What exactly is Double Bonus Video Poker and how it compares to Bonus and Double Double Bonus Poker?

Free Double Bonus Poker Practice

In order to explain Double Bonus Video Poker, we will need to start with defining Bonus Poker, which is a Jack or Better Video Poker variant that pays bonus amounts for Four of a Kind hand. The payout rate is determined according to the rank of the cards and not all combinations will have the same payout value. For example, Four of a Kind with all Aces will have a payout value of 80 to 1, 2s, 3s and 4s will pay 40 to 1, and all other Four of a Kind hands pay 25 to 1.

In Double Bonus, the payouts for Four of a Kind are increased by 2. On the other hand, to make up for the doubled payouts on one side, Double Bonus variant is decreasing payouts on Two Pair hand, reducing 2 to 1 payout rate to even money. This has also affected the volatility of the Double Bonus variant and resulted in a game that can easily go both ways – generating a massive winning or draining your budget in a relatively short time period.

Double Double Bonus Video Poker goes an extra mile and doubles the already doubled Four of a Kind Payout rates while keeping the even payouts for the Two Pair hands.

Double Bonus Poker: pro tips and tricks

Some of the strategic rules that one has adopted over time, especially by playing Jacks or Better, might not be applicable when playing Double Bonus Poker.

For instance, let’s say that the player holds a Full House, which in some other Video Poker variants is not the kind of hand you would want to split. In Double Bonus however, keeping the Aces and getting rid of the extra pair is what most of the experienced Video Poker players would do, due to the high payout rate that one might win if the fourth Ace is drawn.

Another common mistake that a lot of beginners make in Double Bonus is keeping a low pair on a Straight and a Low Pair hand. For the sake of illustration, let us assume that the player has a hand consisting out of a pair of 8s, a Jack, a 9 and a 10. In this case, the player should hold onto four consecutive cards – 8, 9, 10 and Jack – which can result in a Straight Flush and pay 50 to 1 as oppose to the 25 to 1 payout odd for a lower pair.

Where to play Double Bonus Video Poker?

Boyd, Plaza and The D are only some of the venues offering Double Bonus Video Poker machines, which, thanks to their high volatility, are much easier to find than Jacks or Better.

The interesting thing about this game is that it was not very popular for ages in Vegas, but you now see it more and more. This is probably because you now get a choice of game, so they can offer this one as an extra choice, without taking away a classic Deuces Wild or regular Jacks or Better game from the casino floor

Double Bonus Poker Casinos

When you play for real money in a casino, you probably want to study the tactics in a bit of details, because it requires a specific strategy that is different from the regular games of video poker, like Jacks or Better.

For this reason, a lot of players would stick to games they know and love (and know how to play optimally) like Jacks or Better or Deuces Wild.

Double Bonus Poker Volatility

Because you get a much higher payout for 4-of-a-kind, the wins are reduced for lower hands. This makes the game far more volatile and you could go for long periods without winning much money, then suddenly hit a couple of 4 of a kind hands and find yourself up big time.

So, the Double bonus game is generally better for pros than for amateurs.