Super Double Bonus Poker Strategy

By John Grochowski on Friday June 16, 2017

betting-strategy, gambling, gaming-strategy, gaming-tips, video-poker, video-poker-machines

There is a seemingly endless variety of video poker games, each with their own pay tables and strategy nuances.

One Interesting game is Super Double Bonus Poker. Like Double Bonus Poker and many other games, it pays 160-for-1 on four Aces for an 800-coin bonanza with a maximum five coin bet. It also pays 80-for-1, or 400-for-5, on four 2s, 3s or 4s.

What sets the game apart is a 120-for-1, or 600-for-5, payday on four Jacks, Queens or Kings. On most games, those hands pay 250 for a five-coin bet. Upping that to 600 on the most frequently held cards is a major plus.

Players familiar with video poker strategy but new to Super Double Bonus, often wonder what to do with a full house with three faces, such as King-King-King-4-4. In games that pay 800 or more for four Aces, the expert play when dealt Ace-Ace-Ace-4-4 is to break up the full house, hold the three Aces and discard the other pair. Is the 600-coin jackpot on four faces enough to break up a full house with Kings, Queens or Jacks up?

Expert play in that situation depends of the pay table. The full pay version of Super Double Bonus pays 9-for-1 on full houses and 5-for-1 on flushes, and returns 99.7 percent with expert play. More common are 8-5 (98.7 percent) and 7-5 (97.8 percent) pay tables.

How big an impact the 600-coin pay on face quads makes on decisions depends on the pay table. In the 9-5 game, if you’re dealt K-K-K-7-7, you’re better off holding the full house for a 45-coin return than break it up and go for the fourth King, with a 41.7-coin EV.

But when the value of the full house is reduced, the situation reverses. In 8-5 SDP, the EV of 41.44 for holding just the Kings tops the 40-coin return on the full house. It’s no contest if you’re playing the 7-5 version, where the full house pays only 35.

Of course, sometimes you’re going to be left with three of a kind for 15 coins and collect less than if you’d held the full house. But whenever the five-coin return is 40 coins or fewer, the optimal Super Double Bonus play is to play breakup and hold three Jacks, Queens or Kings.