Bits & Odds

Free Double Double Bonus Video Poker

Double Double Bonus is a high-volatility five-card draw game built on Jacks or Better that awards massive bonus payouts for Four of a Kind, peaking at 2,000 coins (400 for 1) when you hit quad Aces accompanied by a low 2, 3 or 4 kicker. Play it free in your browser right here without creating an account or installing software. The machine below loads on full-pay 9/6 Double Double Bonus (paytable ddb_4, 98.98% optimal return), and the selector gives you access to all 12 Double Double Bonus schedules in our database.

Double Double Bonus
Double Double Bonus
Payouts for Double Double Bonus, in credits, for each number of coins bet. The column for the current bet is highlighted.
Hand 12345
Royal Flush 250 500 750 1,000 4,000
Straight Flush 50 100 150 200 250
Four Aces + 2-4 400 800 1,200 1,600 2,000
Four 2s-4s + A-4 160 320 480 640 800
Four Aces 160 320 480 640 800
Four 2s-4s 80 160 240 320 400
Four 5s-Ks 50 100 150 200 250
Full House 9 18 27 36 45
Flush 6 12 18 24 30
Straight 4 8 12 16 20
Three of a Kind 3 6 9 12 15
Two Pair 1 2 3 4 5
Jacks or Better 1 2 3 4 5

Press Deal for five cards. Nothing here costs anything and nothing is stored.

Credits200 Bet5 Win

What the solver would have done

The hand you were dealt

Your hold, and the solver’s, appear here the moment you draw.

This session

Nothing on this page is stored or sent anywhere. Reload and the counters are gone, because there is no account to keep them in. The switch is on the machine itself, under the cards.

How to play Double Double Bonus

Double Double Bonus uses a standard 52-card deck with no wild cards. You select a stake between one and five credits and click Deal to receive five cards face up. Click on the cards you wish to retain (or use number keys 1 to 5) and press Draw; the discarded positions are refilled from the 47 unseen cards in the stub, and the resulting five-card hand is paid according to the schedule on the cabinet glass.

Playing all 5 coins per hand is mandatory if you want the published return. On bets of 1 through 4 coins, a Royal Flush pays 250 coins per coin staked; on a 5-coin bet, the Royal Flush jumps to 4,000 coins (800 for 1). Every four-of-a-kind tier scales by coin count, which means a 5-coin bet pays 2,000 coins on quad Aces alongside a 2, 3 or 4 kicker, 800 coins on Four Aces with any other fifth card, 800 coins on Four 2s, 3s or 4s with an Ace through 4 kicker, 400 coins on Four 2s through 4s without that kicker, and 250 coins on Four 5s through Kings.

To pay for those five separate four-of-a-kind tiers, Double Double Bonus cuts the Two Pair payout from the standard 2 coins per coin wagered down to 1 coin per coin wagered (even money, the same as a pair of Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces). That single reduction from 2-for-1 to 1-for-1 on Two Pair is the engine behind the game's high variance and is the reason several standard Jacks or Better hold rules flip upside down in Double Double Bonus.

Because so much of the return sits in Four Aces and low quads with a kicker, session swings in Double Double Bonus are roughly double the variance of 9/6 Jacks or Better. You will experience longer stretches of even-money pairs and two-pair hands punctuated by 250-coin, 400-coin, 800-coin and 2,000-coin quad hits.

Double Double Bonus pay table

Full-pay 9/6 Double Double Bonus pays 9 for 1 on a Full House and 6 for 1 on a Flush while dividing Four of a Kind into five distinct payout rows. The complete 1-to-5-coin payout table from the machine above is shown below.

Hand 1 coin 2 coins 3 coins 4 coins 5 coins
Royal Flush 250 500 750 1,000 4,000
Straight Flush 50 100 150 200 250
Four Aces + 2-4 400 800 1,200 1,600 2,000
Four 2s-4s + A-4 160 320 480 640 800
Four Aces 160 320 480 640 800
Four 2s-4s 80 160 240 320 400
Four 5s-Ks 50 100 150 200 250
Full House 9 18 27 36 45
Flush 6 12 18 24 30
Straight 4 8 12 16 20
Three of a Kind 3 6 9 12 15
Two Pair 1 2 3 4 5
Jacks or Better 1 2 3 4 5

With optimal strategy at 5 coins wagered, 9/6 Double Double Bonus returns 98.98% (98.9808% to four decimal places), which corresponds to a 1.02% house edge. Casino floors also spread 9/5 (97.87% return), 8/5 (96.79%) and 7/5 (95.71%) versions that look nearly identical except on the Full House and Flush lines. To inspect exact hand probabilities and combination counts across all fourteen outcome rows, visit our 9/6 Double Double Bonus hand odds and return analysis page, or use the game button on the cabinet above to compare all 12 Double Double Bonus paytables.

Double Double Bonus strategy in short

Because Two Pair only returns your bet (1 for 1) while Four Aces pays 160 or 400 for 1 and even Four 5s through Kings pays 50 for 1, Double Double Bonus rewards aggressive chasing of quads and punishes holding kickers at the wrong time.

Use the twelve ranked rules below to play 9/6 Double Double Bonus accurately from top to bottom:

  1. Royal flush, straight flush, or four of a kind that cannot improve its kicker: stand pat on all five cards.
  2. Dealt Four Aces with a 5 through King, or dealt Four 2s, 3s or 4s with a 5 through King: hold only the four matching cards and discard the fifth card so you draw one card toward a bonus kicker (a 2, 3 or 4 next to quad Aces, or an Ace through 4 next to low quads).
  3. Four-card Royal Flush draw: keep the four royal cards of one suit, even if that splits a made flush, straight or paying pair.
  4. Three Aces (including when dealt Aces full of another rank): hold only the three Aces and discard the other two cards. On 9/6 Double Double Bonus, breaking a dealt Full House made with Three Aces has a higher expected return (12.7169 units) than locking in the 9-unit Full House.
  5. Pat Full House (except Aces full), Flush or Straight: stand pat on all five cards. Keep 2s, 3s or 4s full intact on the 9/6 schedule.
  6. Three of a Kind (2s through Kings): hold only the three matching cards and throw away both odd cards. Never keep a low kicker next to Three Aces or Three 2s, 3s or 4s.
  7. Four cards to a Straight Flush: hold all four suited connectors.
  8. Pair of Aces, including when dealt Two Pair with Aces and another pair: hold only the pair of Aces and discard the second pair. Because Two Pair pays 1 for 1, drawing three cards to a pair of Aces beats drawing one card to a Full House.
  9. Two Pair without Aces (such as Kings and Sevens, or Twos and Eights): hold both pairs and draw one card toward the 9-for-1 Full House.
  10. High pair (Jacks, Queens or Kings), then three cards to a Royal Flush, then four cards to a Flush: hold in that order.
  11. Low pair (2s through 10s), then four cards to an outside straight: hold the pair ahead of the open-ended straight draw.
  12. Suited high-card draws, or a single Ace by itself ahead of unsuited King-Queen-Jack combinations: when holding an Ace alongside one or two unsuited face cards (such as Ace-King offsuit), hold the Ace alone because its quad bonus outweighs the straight potential; with no high card and no suited or straight draw, discard all five cards.

The single costliest mistake in Double Double Bonus is holding a fifth card (a kicker) alongside Three of a Kind or a pair. When you are dealt Three Aces with a Deuce and a Nine, holding the Deuce with the Three Aces cuts your chances of catching the fourth Ace in half (from 2 draws in 47 down to 1 draw in 47) and costs nearly 1.9 units of expected value on that hand. You only hold or draw for a kicker when all four cards of the quad are already on the screen, or simply by letting the two-card draw to bare trips bring in both the fourth card and the kicker naturally.

Three solved hands on 9/6 Double Double Bonus

Every hand below is checked against our complete 9/6 Double Double Bonus strategy table (paytable ddb_4), with expected values expressed in coins per 1-coin unit wagered:

Practise and learn more

To practise these kicker and Aces rules under live grading or inspect individual deals, use the links below:

Frequently asked questions

Should I hold a 2, 3 or 4 kicker when dealt Three Aces in Double Double Bonus?
No. Always hold only the Three Aces and discard the other two cards, even if one of them is a 2, 3 or 4. Drawing two cards gives you two chances in 47 to catch the fourth Ace instead of one chance, which is worth far more than pre-holding the kicker.
Why do you break Two Pair when one of the pairs is Aces?
Double Double Bonus reduces Two Pair from 2-for-1 to 1-for-1 while boosting Four Aces to 160-for-1 (and 400-for-1 with a 2, 3 or 4 kicker). Drawing three cards to a pair of Aces gives an expected return around 1.92 to 1.93 units, whereas holding Two Pair returns only 1.6809 units.
Do you also break Two Pair when holding a pair of 2s, 3s or 4s?
No. On 9/6 Double Double Bonus, when you are dealt Two Pair without Aces (such as Fours and Nines, or Kings and Sevens), you keep both pairs and draw one card toward the 9-for-1 Full House (expected value 1.6809 units, compared with about 0.88 units for holding just the low pair).
When should I break a dealt Full House in Double Double Bonus?
On the 9/6 schedule, you break a dealt Full House only when the three-of-a-kind portion is Three Aces (for example, A-A-A-7-7). Hold the Three Aces and discard the pair. If the Full House is made with Three 2s through Kings (such as 2-2-2-7-7), stand pat on the 9-for-1 Full House.
Is this free Double Double Bonus game played for real money?
No. The cabinet on this page runs entirely on free practice credits in your browser, with no sign-up and no cash stakes. Real-money casino links appear only inside the separate, clearly labelled advertisement blocks below the machine.