How to play
Bonus Poker Deluxe has the simplest bonus rule of any video poker game: four of a kind pays 80 per credit, full stop. Four 2s pay exactly what four Aces pay. No kickers, no rank tiers.
Bet from 1 to 5 credits. Bet one moves the stake up one credit per press, Deal gives you five cards, and Bet max puts 5 credits in and deals immediately. Tap each card you want to save (it shows Held), then press Draw to replace the rest. The replacements come from the 47 cards left in that hand’s deck; every new hand reshuffles all 52.
Hint reveals the strongest hold after an optional ad, using an exact calculation across every draw. Your bankroll is 1,000 virtual credits, and an empty bankroll can be refilled with 1,000 more at no cost.
Pay table
| Hand | Pays per credit |
|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 250 (4,000 at max bet) |
| Straight Flush | 50 |
| Four of a Kind, any rank | 80 |
| Full House | 9 |
| Flush | 6 |
| Straight | 4 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 |
| Two Pair | 1 |
| Jacks or Better | 1 |
Next to the 9/6 Jacks or Better table, only two lines differ: quads more than triple (25 to 80), and two pair drops from 2 to 1. The full house and flush keep their 9 and 6, which is why this is often called the “9/6” version of the game.
The numbers
With perfect play at 5 credits, the return is 99.64%, counted exactly over every deal and hold. Four of a kind arrives about once every 424 hands, so an 80-credit (or 400 at max bet) hit is a regular event in a long session rather than a rare jackpot. Royals come about once in 42,000 hands, and around 45% of hands pay something.
The catch is the two pair line. Two pair is the second most common win in Jacks-style games, and here it only returns your bet. Expect more hands that feel like a push.
Strategy
Because every quad pays the same, the rank of a pair stops mattering for the bonus. A pair of 5s has exactly the same quad potential as a pair of Kings; the only difference is that Kings already pay 1. A few hands, checked with the game’s exact hold values:
- Two pair, even small ones (5♣ 5♦ 9♥ 9♠ K♣): keep both pairs. Two pair pays only 1, but the four-card hold is still worth about 1.68 per credit against 0.82 for one pair. The full house at 9 carries it.
- Jacks up (J♣ J♦ 5♥ 5♠ 9♣): same answer, keep both pairs (1.68 against 1.53 for the Jacks).
- Low pair plus four to a flush (5♣ 5♦ 7♣ 9♣ K♣): break the pair and draw to the flush. About 1.21 against 0.82.
- A pair of Kings plus four to a flush: keep the Kings. A paying high pair is better than the flush draw here.
- Full house: always keep it. Breaking 5-5-5-9-9 to chase four 5s is worth about 6.6 per credit, well below the guaranteed 9.
- A-K of mixed suits: hold both. If you’re down to one card, the King alone is very slightly better than the Ace alone on this table (about 0.430 against 0.424).
Play max credits for the royal bonus. Beyond that, the strategy is close to Jacks or Better, and Hint covers the edge cases.
If you enjoy Bonus Poker Deluxe, try Bonus Wheel Show or Bosphorus Catch next.
