ULTIMATE FOUR OF A KIND DOUBLE BONUS

‘Added Bet Bonus’ video poker games remain insanely popular and among this genre, the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind’ series has plenty of fans. In this article, we’ll cover a variation that combines the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind’ rules with the ruleset from the long-running ‘Bonus Poker‘ series. The common theme among all ‘Added Bet Bonus‘ over ‘Bonus 2.0‘ games is that the player must add an additional bet amount to activate the bonus feature. In the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind’ series of games, you pay an extra coin per hand (making each hand six coins rather than five). In some of the newer games of this genre you essentially ‘double‘ the bet you make on each hand to activate the bonus feature (betting 10 coins per hand instead of 5 coins).

The same advice goes for this ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind’ variation as goes for the rest of the genre. If you’re not going to invest the sixth coin to activate the bonus feature you’re much better off playing a ‘regular’ Double Bonus Poker game. The return percentage on the most common ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind’ Double Bonus Poker pay table is decent at 99.46%. If you’re going to play without the bonus, however, you’re not going to get that return. More importantly, you can find a better return percentage on a variety of other ‘Double Bonus Poker’ variations playing five coins per hand.

‘Ultimate Four of a Kind‘ is typically found in the same multigame format as ‘Ultimate Aces‘. Like ‘Ultimate Aces‘ these machines offer a number of very common rulesets with the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind‘ bonus added. In most Deuces Wild variations. We’ll cover each of the games individually since they each have a unique paytable and in some cases their own dedicated strategy decisions. In most cases, however, the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind‘ games use identical strategy to their non-bonus counterparts.

ULTIMATE FOUR OF A KIND RULES

The ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind‘ series has slightly different rules from game to game. On the ‘Jacks or Better’ version, there’s only one hand that activates the bonus feature. On some of the ‘Bonus Poker‘ games, there are multiple hands. On this version, all of the Four of a Kind hands activate the bonus feature though just like the ‘regular‘ version of this game they offer different base payouts for hands of different values. For the most part, the game plays like a normal version of the specific ruleset. When a player makes the bonus hand on the draw (usually 4 of a Kind) he activates the bonus feature.

When the bonus feature is activated, the player picks cards face down from a 53 card deck (Joker added). Since the majority of the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind‘ machines in use are three hand games, the player is awarded picks for each qualifying hand. Some games (eg: the ‘Ultimate Four of a Kind Bonus Poker’ games) awards different amounts of ‘card selections’ for certain hands. On this machine, however, each qualifying hand awards one selection. The cards the player selects are revealed and based on their value a bonus of varying amounts are paid. This also varies slightly from one ruleset to another.

BONUS CARD PAYS

• JOKER 4000
• ACE 400
• 2-4 260
• 5-K 200

ULTIMATE FOUR OF A KIND DOUBLE BONUS POKER STRATEGY

The strategy for Double Bonus Poker is essentially the same as ‘Bonus Poker‘. There are a few adjustments in the hand hierarchy to reflect the higher payout on 4 aces and the lower payout on two pair. It’s similar to basic ‘Jacks or Better‘ except it seeks to minimize the ‘lower paying‘ hands while giving a player a better opportunity to hit the 4K bonuses. The only real difference between ‘Double Bonus Poker‘ and ‘Bonus Poker‘ is the payout on the 4K hands. The two pair payout is also reduced. One of the harder things for me to get used to playing the various bonus poker variations was holding the ‘Ace‘ when given a choice between high cards. In traditional JoB you’re discouraged from holding the Ace in that situation since it reduces the chance of drawing to a straight or straight flush.

• Royal Flush
• Straight Flush
• Any Four of a Kind
• 4 to a Royal Flush
• Three Aces
• Full House
• Flush
• Straight
• Three of a Kind (2-K)
• 4 to a Straight Flush
• Two Pair
• High Pair
• 4 to a Flush
• 3 to a Royal Flush
• 4 to an outside straight
• Low Pair
• AKQJ Unsuited
• 3 to a straight flush
• 4 to an inside straight w/ three high cards
• Unsuited JQK
• Unsuited JQ
• KQ, KJ Unsuited
• J10 Suited
• AK, AQ, AJ Unsuited
• Ace
• KT Suited
• Jack, King or Queen
• Discard Everything