Chapter 7: Double Bonus

 

 

            Double Bonus (DB) is a modification of the jacks or better game, but it pays extra for certain four-of-a-kinds.   With expert strategy, double bonus offers a slight edge to the player (0.17%). Unfortunately, the expert strategy is fairly complicated to learn. However, the near-expert strategy presented here is not too difficult to learn (a little more difficult to learn than the expert strategy for jacks or better) and still offers a slight (0.16%) advantage for the player. Of course, when you consider the food and room comps, playing this game can provide you with a nice profit.

            Double bonus is somewhat riskier than jacks or better (See chapter 3 on variability for complete details). This is so because more of the total return is paid out on high paying hands. For example, four aces pays 160 coins ($200), and four 2s, 3s, or 4s pay 80 coins ($100) and other four-of-a-kinds pay 50 coins ($62.50). In fact, about 15% of the total return comes from four-of-a-kinds. Since four-of-a-kinds happen only about once in every 430 hands, it is sometime the case that you might play a couple of hours without getting any four-of-a-kind.  If this happens, then you may lose money at a rate of about $100-$150 per hour.   Playing 2 hours and losing $200 is a pretty unpleasant experience, but the up side is that you can really make money in this game if you are on a hot streak. It is not so uncommon to hit several four-of-a-kinds in an hour and win $200 in that one hour. In summary, this is a good game that offers a very slight financial reward, but it is risky.

            The full-pay version of this game is widely available in Las Vegas. (For exact locations in Las Vegas, see the links section).

This full-pay version is often referred to as 10/7 Double Bonus because the full house pays 10 and the flush pays 7.  Short-pay versions usually pay a little less for the full house and the flush. There is also a version which pays 80 coins for the straight flush (instead of 50) -- this version is available in several Las Vegas casinos.

 

 

 

 

Here is the full-pay payout table.

 

Hand                                         Payout (bets)

--------                                        -----------------

Royal Straight Flush                   800

Straight Flush                            50        

Four-of-a-kind (Aces)                  160

Four-of-a-kind (2,3 or 4)              80

Four-of-a-kind (5 thru King)          50

Full House                                 10

Flush                                        7

Straight                                     5

Three-of-a-kind                           3

Two Pair                                    1

Pair of jacks or higher                 1

 

            There are many other short-pay versions of this game. Figure 23 shows the most common variations and the total overall return.

 


           

Figure 23

            As figure 23 shows, the full-pay version (10/7) has a reward of  0.16% (with near-expert strategy),  although there are some versions of 10/7 which pay 80 bets for the straight flush (instead of 50 bets) -- these offer a reward of 0.5%.  There are many casinos that offer 9/6 versions with a reward of -2.1%. 9/6 double bonus is a terrible game, even with good food and room comps, you will still be playing at a disadvantage.

            There is also a game called “9/6 double double bonus”.  This game pays 400 bets ($500) for four aces when the fifth card is a 2,3 or 4. The game also pays 160 bets ($200) for four 2s, 3s and 4s when the fifth card is an Ace, 2, 3 or 4. This game is even more risky than 10/7 double bonus, and the reward is negative (-1.1%). With good room and food comps, you can be ahead slightly playing this game, but in general you are much better off playing 10/7. Of course, this game does offer a little more excitement , but there are some slight strategy modifications to achieve the -1.1% return).

            So grab your “Double Bonus” card, and we’ll look at some examples that will show you how to use the strategy.

 

            Consider the following hand:

                               

 

Since we have a pair of jacks, then we start at the “Pair” box and see if we can improve upon the hand. As it turns out, we also have four to the straight flush. Since there is a red line from the “J-A” part of the pair box to 4 SF/Royal, then we hold the four to the straight flush and throw away the jack. This case is somewhat rare, you will usually hold a pair of jacks.

 

Consider the following hand:

                               

 

Since we have a pair of jacks, then we start at the “Pair” box and see if we can improve upon the hand. As it turns out, we can’t improve upon our pair, so we are done and hold the pair of jacks.

Of course, if you have two-pair, three of a kind, a full house or four-of-a-kind, then you would hold those because they all have connections from the pair box.

Double Bonus has a connection from a full house to 3 aces, because 3 aces is worth more because there is a chance at getting 4 aces, which pays so much. Adding this rule has only a small effect on your expected value, but it adds a lot to the excitement value when you go for those four aces.

 

Let’s consider another hand:

 

                                 

 

We have a low pair, but we also have three to the royal. Since there is a connection from pair “2-10” to the “3 Royal”, then we hold 3 royal and throw away the pair.

 

            If we don’t have a pair, the next box we check is the “Flush box”.  When we are dealt a flush, we almost always keep all five cards. The one very important exception is the connection from the flush up to the “Four-to-the Royal” hand. Why is this hand so valuable? Because there is a 1 in 47 chance of picking up the royal which will yield 800 bets. So part of the expected value is 800/47,which is about 17.  In addition, there is an 8 in 47 chance in getting another flush and also a chance to pick up a straight. This expected value of 18 is much higher than the expected value of a flush (6). So if we are dealt the following:

 

                   

Then we toss the 3 of clubs and go for the royal. We also toss a 5-card straight if we are dealt four-to-the-royal (see the connection from the 5str up to the 4 Royal in the 4-flush section).

 

The only situation in which we do not hold four to the royal is if we are dealt a straight flush like this one:

                   

 

Since double bonus pays 7 bets for the flush, then 4 to the flush is usually better than 3 to the royal. The exception to this rule is that if you hold K-Q-J or Q-J-T to the royal, then you hold that even if you have four to the flush.

 

The next box is the straight box. We hold 5 to the straight and four to the straight with 0 gaps (i.e. an outside straight).

 

The next box is the “3 to the straight flush” box. Let’s look at an example.

 

                      

 The 7-8-10 is a 1-gap straight flush.  Since there are no connections up, then we can stop and just hold the 3 to the straight flush.

 

            If none of the rules on Side 1 are satisfied, then we determine the number of high cards and find the best hand based upon the number of high cards. This makes the strategy a lot easier to use than strategies where the expected values are just listed because the strategy presented here highlights which hands we need to check.

            We can have from 0 to 4 high cards. Let’s look at each high card section of the strategy card (i.e. Side 2).

 

            Four high cards always make an inside straight (listed as 4str1) because four high cards can only mean jack, queen, king and ace. If we are dealt four high cards and get to this part of the strategy card, then we simply hold the 4 high cards.

 

 

 

Let’s look at some 3 high card examples:

                                   

 

Here we have 3 high cards and one is an ace, so we would satisfy the AHH rule (at the left part of the section. However, we also have two high cards in the same suit (the King and Queen of Diamonds). But we are not done yet because we also have 4 to the inside straight with 3 high cards, which is above the “Suited 2” box.

 Here’s another 3-card example.

                  

In this case, we’ve got the King, Queen, and Jack combination, but we also have 4 to the inside straight with 3 high cards so we hold the inside straight. Importantly, the inside straight must contain 3 high cards. For example, let’s look at the following hand.

                  

In this case, we have the AHH combination, which means that we hold the two cards that are not the ace (i.e. the queen and the jack). We do NOT hold the 4 to the inside straight (8-9-J-Q) because this holds only two of the 3 high cards.

 

The suited 2 section refers to two-card combinations that are in the same suit. Consider the following hand:

 

                  

While we have two high cards in the same suit (the king and jack of clubs), we also have 3 to the flush (because we also have the 3 of clubs). We hold 3 to the flush (with 2 high cards) above the suited 2 high cards UNLESS the two high cards are queen and jack. Notice that all of the combinations in the “Suited 2” part of the card lead to the “3FL-2” hand EXCEPT the queen-jack. With no other cards in the same suit, simply hold the two suited cards.

 

Let’s look at some 2 high card examples:

                 

Here, we’ve got a King and a Jack, but we also have a jack-ten in the same suit. Since there is a connection from K-J to suited jack-ten, then we hold the suited jack-ten.

Let’s look at another example.

                  

Here, we have a queen and a jack. Looking at the 2–card section, we see that Queen-jack-ten is above queen-jack, but we’re not done because the 4-card inside straight with 2 high cards is above the Q-J-T hand. Therefore we hold the four cards to the inside straight.

In double bonus, the 3-card flush with 1 high card is held above and two high-card combination except queen-jack. Consider the following hand:

 

                  

Here we have K-Q, but we also have 3 to the flush with one high card (e.g. the K-T-3 of clubs), so we hold the three clubs.

Consider the following hand:

                  

 

            Here, we have an ace and a queen, but the strategy card tells us that a single ace is better than an ace-queen.  We don’t hold the single ace however, we need to go to the 1-card section of the card and follow the connections up from the “A” part. When we do this, we find that a 3-card flush with high card is above the ace. Since we do have the ten of clubs and 3 of clubs along with the ace, then we have a 3-card flush with the ace, so we hold all 3 clubs.

           

            Let’s look at some 1 high card situations:

                      

Here we have a queen, but we also have connections from the queen to a 3-card straight flush with 2 gaps (i.e. the 2,4, and 6 of hearts). So we keep the 3-card straight flush.

Let’s look at another hand:

                      

Here we have a single queen as before, and 3-to-the-straight flush (with 2 gaps), but we also have a Q-T royal (see connection above the 3sf with 2-gap hand). Also, notice that there is an inside straight here (2-3-4-6) but there are no high cards in the inside straight. If the inside straight did contain a high card, then it would be better than any other 1-card hold (see the highest part of the 1-card section).

 

Here’s another hand:

                  

 

Here, we have a jack, which has a connection up to 3-to-the flush, but the suited-jack-ten is above the 3-card flush. Therefore, we hold the jack-ten of clubs.

Let’s look at another example.

                  

Here, we just hold the ace because none of the higher connections are satisfied.

Let’s finish the 1 high card section with the following hand:

                   

            At first glance, this looks like we should hold a solo ace. However, the ace can be used as a low card for straights, so the ace, 2, 3, and 5 make an inside straight with 1 gap. Even though the ace is being used as a low card for the straight, this hand still qualifies as a 4 card inside straight with 1 high card and thus we should hold the inside straight instead of the ace. The reason why the ace is considered a high card is because if we pick up an ace, then we have a pair of aces.  In other words, the “highness” of the ace is important for picking up pairs, not for the purpose of being a high card in the straight (because all straights pay the same regardless of how many high cards they contain).

 

Let’s look at some 0 high card examples:

 

                   

 

Here we have 3 to the flush, but we also have 4 to the inside straight, so we hold the inside straight. If the 3 of clubs had been an eight, then we would just hold the three cards to the flush.

            With 0 high cards, you need to check all three boxes. The boxes should have been moved to the right, but this would have required too much space.

            Consider the following hand:

                   

 

Here, we have 4 to the inside straight.  We need to check the inside straight rule even though we do not have 3 to the flush. This is because the hand is in a box, and we need to check all hands that are in a box.

Let’s look at another hand:

                   

 Here we have 3 to the flush, but we also have 4 to the inside straight. But we also have 3 to the straight flush, so we hold the 2,5 and 6 of hearts.

If none of the boxes in the 0 high card section are satisfied, then we toss all 5 cards. This might look something like this:

                    

 

 

            That’s it. Using the strategy will be somewhat difficult at first, but with practice will become automatic to the point where it requires very little effort. The hierarchical and graphical nature of the card will facilitate your learning. Of course, you will need to consult your strategy card when you are beginning to learn, but in time you will need it less and less.

            With this strategy, you will be playing near-expert strategy which will give you about a 0.16% reward. With good food and room comps, you will be significantly ahead.

            The only way to learn this strategy is to practice playing it. If you're serious about getting better, see the links section for a link to Winpoker, which is cheap software that allows you to practice a huge range of video poker games.