Per Reader’s Request, How Strategy Changes on Double Bonus Poker When Full Houses Pay 9-for-1 Instead of 10-for-1

By John Grochowski on Monday May 21, 2012

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All video poker games are available in several pay tables. Casinos choose which versions they want to install. In Double Bonus Poker, for example, players refer to the top-of-the-line pay table as 10-7-5 Double Bonus, because it pays 10-for-1 on full houses, 7-for-1 on flushes and 5-for-1 on straights.

A reader wrote to ask about a version he’d been playing of late:

“I used to play a lot of 10-7-5 Double Bonus Poker,” he wrote. “Now the best I can find is usually 9-7-5. How much does the strategy change?”

The drop in full house payoff from 10-for-1 to 9-for-1 doesn’t change Double Bonus Poker strategy by very much. There’s really nothing we can do to force the pace of full houses. If we’re dealt two pairs, we’re almost always going to hold them, regardless of the full house payoff.

There’s one exception, and that’s when your two pairs include a pair of Aces. In full-pay 10-7-5 Double Bonus, where your five-coin bet is going to get you 50 back on a full house, the better play is to hold both pairs. You have a four chances in the remaining 47 cards to fill out the full house, and your expected value is 8.83 coins per five coins wagered for holding both pairs. That nudges out the 8.82 EV for holding just the Ace pair.

That’s a close enough call that dropping the full house payback to 9-for-1 leads to a strategy switch. The EV for holding just the Aces drops a smidgeon, to 8.77, but the EV of holding both pairs takes a steeper drop, to 8.40. So when dealt two pairs that include a pair of Aces in 9-7-5 Double Bonus, we hold just the Aces and toss the other three cards.