All of these factors combine to make Double Bonus Poker one of the more popular video poker games. What more could a live casino or online video poker player want?

Because of the different payouts for four of a kind hands, the strategy becomes more complex than those video poker games that have the same pay for all four of a kind hands. Also, because much more money is paid out in less frequent, higher paying hands, the variance is higher. To fund the higher pays for four of a kind hands, full houses and flushes; hands consisting of two pairs only pay one for one rather than two for one as in Jacks or Better or Bonus Poker.

As you may have guessed, as players got smarter with their play and more of them hammered the 100+ percent full pay games, the casinos responded by reducing most of their Double Bonus games to either 9/7/5 with a return of 99.11 percent or 10/7/4 with a return of 98.81 percent. As a result, full pay versions of Double Bonus Poker have become more and more difficult to locate. A short pay 9/7/5 (nine for one paid for a full house, seven for one paid for a flush, and five for one paid for a straight) version is more common, paying 99.10 percent with perfect play.

Surprising as it may seem, the strategies for the 10/7/5 and the 9/7/5 versions of the game vary only slightly. In fact there is only one strategy play that is different between the two. Because of this, the strategy table that follows has been designed to incorporate strategies for both of these games. This should help players as they only need to learn and possibly carry one strategy chart to play both games.

Notice from the pay tables that the return for the 10/7/4 version is only 98.81 rather than the 99.11 return for the 9/7/5 version of the game. Because a straight occurs much more frequently than a full house, the impact of lowering its pay is much more dramatic. Also, because of this, the playing strategy is significantly different than for either of the other two pay tables.

Notice in the above strategy chart how all of the hands that might produce a straight show up much lower on the list. That is caused by the one credit reduction in the pay for straights. This one credit reduction, however, amounts to a 20 percent decrease in the return for straights. This makes saving for a straight much less desirable. The percent of total return for straights in the first two pay tables (10/7/5 and 9/7/5) is 7.51 for each of them. The percent of total return for straights in the 10/7/4 pay table is only 4.85. That is what causes such a change in the playing strategy.

The return of the 10/7/4 Double Bonus Poker game is only a little under 99 percent and the variance is not that much different from the other pay tables for Double Bonus Poker. If this is the only Double Bonus Poker game that is available in your favorite live casino or online casino and you really like all the big pays that are a part of this game, this version may not be too bad for you to play.

TEST YOURSELF – DOUBLE BONUS POKER

In order to test your understanding of how to use the strategy charts, see if you can properly play the following hands based on the strategy for the 9/7/5 short pay version of Double Bonus Poker. This version is used in the test because the full pay version is not all that common in live casinos or online casinos any more. Decide which of the cards in each hand below you would hold (if any).

ANSWERS

1. 5♠ | 5♥
2. K♦
3. Q♦ | Q♥
4. 8♣ | J♣ | 9♣ | 10♣
5. A♥ | A♦
6. J♦ | Q♦ | A♦ | K♦
7. 4♣ | 6♣ | 5♣
8. 4♣ | 7♦ | 5♥ | 8♣