How to play
Double Bonus is a five-card draw machine with a lopsided pay table: rich for quads, flushes and straights, stingy for two pair. It plays with one standard 52-card deck, reshuffled before each hand.
Start a hand by setting your bet (1 to 5 credits, raised by Bet one) and pressing Deal. Bet max is the shortcut: 5 credits and an instant deal. Tap the cards to keep; each one is labelled Held. Then Draw fills the empty spots from the deck and the table pays your final hand.
You start with 1,000 virtual credits. Hint, behind an optional ad, marks the hold with the best average return after checking every possible draw. If you run out, you can take another 1,000 for free.
Pay table
This is the “10/7” table, named for the full house and flush pays.
| Hand | Per credit |
|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 250 (4,000 at 5 credits) |
| Straight Flush | 50 |
| Four Aces | 160 |
| Four 2s, 3s or 4s | 80 |
| Four 5s through Kings | 50 |
| Full House | 10 |
| Flush | 7 |
| Straight | 5 |
| Three of a Kind | 3 |
| Two Pair | 1 |
| Jacks or Better | 1 |
Every quad pays exactly double what it pays in Bonus Poker, and the full house, flush and straight all pay more than on a 9/6 Jacks table. All of that is paid for by one line: two pair returns only your bet.
The numbers
At 5 credits with perfect play, this table returns 100.17%, an exact figure over all deals and holds. The catch is volatility. Only about 43.3% of hands pay anything under best play, lower than Jacks or Better, and a lot of the return sits in four Aces, which come about once every 5,000 hands. Long dry spells followed by one big quad are normal here.
Strategy
Double Bonus has a reputation for tricky decisions, and it earns it. Several holds that are automatic in Jacks or Better become close calls. Checked with the game’s exact hold values:
Aces up (A♣ A♦ K♣ K♠ 5♥). Keep both pairs, but only barely: about 1.766 against 1.764 for the Aces alone. It’s the closest call in the game. On Double Double Bonus, which pays four Aces even more, the answer flips to holding just the Aces.
Two pair without Aces (K♣ K♦ 8♣ 8♠ 5♥). Keep both pairs, comfortably.
A full house of Aces (A♣ A♦ A♥ 9♠ 9♣). Break it. Throw the 9s and draw two for the fourth Ace: about 10.11 per credit against the 10 you’d lock in. Thin, but the right play.
A full house of anything else. Keep it. 3-3-3-9-9 is worth 10 as it stands and only about 6.7 if you break it.
Four to a flush versus three to a royal (A♣ K♣ Q♣ 9♣ 3♦). Hold the four clubs. With the flush paying 7, the four-card flush (about 1.53) beats A-K-Q of clubs (about 1.41).
Open-ended straight draws (5-6-7-8 with a King). Hold the four straight cards. The straight pays 5, so these draws are worth much more than a single high card.
Three Aces with a kicker. Hold the three Aces only. There’s no kicker bonus on this table.
Bet the full 5 credits, and lean on Hint while the close calls become familiar.
If you enjoy Double Bonus Poker, try Double Double Bonus Poker or Double Down Stud next.
