ULTIMATE FOUR OF A KIND DOUBLE DOUBLE BONUS

The next in the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind’ series is yet another ‘mashup‘ with the ‘Bonus Poker‘ family. ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind Double Double Bonus‘ is a mouthful to say but a fun combination of the ‘old school‘ bonus poker format and the new ‘bonus 2.0‘ format. The term ‘bonus 2.0‘ was coined by yours truly to refer to the many games where you pay an additional amount to activate a bonus feature. In this series of games, you pay an extra coin per hand (making each hand six coins rather than five). In some of the newer games of this genre you essentially ‘double‘ the bet you make on each hand to activate the bonus feature (betting 10 coins per hand instead of 5 coins).

The same advice goes for this ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind’ variation as goes for the rest of the genre. If you’re not going to invest the sixth coin to activate the bonus feature you’re much better off playing a ‘regular’ Double Double Bonus Poker game. The return percentage on the most common ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind’ Double Double Bonus Poker pay table is decent at 99.27%. If you’re going to play without the bonus, however, you’re not going to get that return. More importantly, you can find a better return percentage on a variety of other ‘Bonus Poker Deluxe’ variations playing five coins per hand.

‘Ultimate Four of a Kind‘ is usually found in the same multigame format as ‘Deuces Wild variations. We’ll cover each of the games individually since they each have a unique paytable and in some cases their own dedicated strategy decisions. In most cases, however, the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind‘ games use identical strategy to their non-bonus counterparts.

ULTIMATE FOUR OF A KIND RULES

The ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind‘ series has slightly different rules from game to game. On the ‘Jacks or Better’ version there’s only one hand that activates the bonus feature. On some of the ‘Bonus Poker‘ games there are multiple hands. On this version, all of the Four of a Kind hands activate the bonus feature though just like the ‘regular‘ version of this game they offer different base payouts for hands of different values and with different kickers. For the most part, the game plays like a normal version of the specific ruleset. When a player makes the bonus hand on the draw (usually 4 of a Kind) he activates the bonus feature.

When the bonus feature is activated, the player picks cards face down from a 53 card deck (Joker added). Since the majority of the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind‘ machines in use are three hand games the player is awarded picks for each qualifying hand. Some games (eg: the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind Bonus Poker’ games) awards different amounts of ‘card selections’ for certain hands. On this machine, however, each qualifying hand awards one selection. The cards the player selects are revealed and based on their value a bonus of varying amounts is paid. This also varies slightly from one ruleset to another.

BONUS CARD PAYS:

• JOKER 4000
• ACE 400
• 2-4 235
• 5-K 200

ULTIMATE FOUR OF A KIND DOUBLE DOUBLE BONUS POKER STRATEGY

The strategy for Double Bonus Poker is essentially the same as ‘Bonus Poker‘. There are a few adjustments in the hand hierarchy to reflect the higher payout on 4 aces and the lower payout on two pair. It’s similar to basic ‘Jacks or Better‘ except it seeks to minimize the ‘lower paying‘ hands while giving a player a better opportunity to hit the 4K bonuses. The only real difference between ‘Double Bonus Poker‘ and ‘Bonus Poker‘ is the payout on the 4K hands. The two pair payout is also reduced. One of the harder things for me to get used to playing the various bonus poker variations was holding the ‘Ace‘ when given a choice between high cards. In traditional JoB, you’re discouraged from holding the Ace in that situation since it reduces the chance of drawing to a straight or straight flush.

It’s important not to forget that different Four of a Kind hands have different base values. They might all activate the ‘pick a card‘ ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind‘ bonus feature but there are significant differences between the payout of the base hand. It’s easy to get so fixated on activating the bonus that you forget to play optimal strategy. Don’t make this mistake!

• 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.