ULTIMATE ACES DOUBLE DOUBLE BONUS VIDEO POKER

Double Double Bonus Poker‘ has some popularity among sharp players as if you look you can find pay tables offered as high as 100.7%. The most common paytable returns 98.98 percent. You’re probably not going to be surprised at this but adding the ‘Ultimate Aces’ rules don’t do anything good for the payback percentage.

ULTIMATE ACES RULES

The ‘Ultimate Aces‘ rules are the same regardless of which variation of the game you’re playing. The basic premise is that for an additional bet per hand the player gets a bonus on any hand with a dealt Ace. Since the game is typically found in ‘triple play‘ form this means that max bet is 15 coins for three hands (5 X 3) plus 15 ‘bonus bet’ for three hands (5 X 3) equaling 30 coins per play.

Any time an Ace shows up on the first deal the player automatically gets a bonus on all winning hands. Note that you do not have to hold the Ace to get the bonus. The bonuses are random but the more Aces in a hand the higher the bonus amount. The bonus amount ranges from 2X to 10X. According to game manufacturer IGT the average bonus multipliers are as follows:

• 1 Ace: 3.4X
• 2 Aces: 4.5X
• 3 Aces: 6.0X
• 4 Aces: 7.6X

The ‘Ultimate Aces Double Double Bonus Poker‘ format offers a return of 98.20% with max coins bet. There are other pay tables available with a lower return but the 98.20% paytable is the most common.

ULTIMATE ACES DOUBLE DOUBLE BONUS VIDEO POKER STRATEGY

Like the rest of the ‘Ultimate Aces‘ family the strategy for ‘Ultimate Aces Double Double Bonus’ is the same as the regular version. This game adds a new wrinkle with a number of bonus hands that require holding the ‘kicker‘ on a four of a kind. We’ll expand on the strategy for kickers at the end of this article.

• Royal Flush
• Straight Flush
• Any Four of a Kind with or without ‘winning’ kicker
• 4 to a Royal Flush
• Three Aces
• Full House
• Flush
• Straight
• Three of a Kind (2-K)
• 4 to a Straight Flush
• Pair of Aces
• Two Pair
• 3 to a Royal Flush (KQJ)
• High Pair (JQK)
• 3 to a Royal Flush (AKQ, AKJ, AQJ, KQT, KJT, QJT)
• 4 to a Flush
• 3 to a Royal Flush (AKT, AQT, AJT)
• 4 to an outside straight
• Low Pair
• AKQJ Unsuited
• 3 to a straight flush
• 2 Suited High Cards
• 4 to an inside straight w/ three high cards
• Unsuited JQK
• Unsuited JQ
• Ace
• J10 Suited
• KQ, KJ Unsuited
• KT, QT Suited
• Jack, King or Queen
• 4 To an Inside Straight
• Discard Everything

FINAL NOTE ABOUT STRATEGY

As is the case in all ‘Bonus Poker‘ games the key is to shoot for the Four of a Kind hands. In this game you need to be mindful of the kicker. Some video poker experts holding an appropriate three of a kind with a winning kicker. For example:

2D 2C 2H AD X

The strategy above doesn’t delineate this practice. I’ve personally used the ‘hold the kicker with 3K‘ method for years with good success.