Fast Video Poker Games

28 May 2020

By John Grochowski

If Double Double Bonus Poker is a roller coaster and Triple Double Bonus Poker is a bungee jump, what do you make of Triple Triple Bonus Poker?

A skydive? A skydive with a hole in the parachute?

Triple Triple just recently came to my attention, the newest in International Game Technologies’ line of video poker games.

Over the decades, IGT has added games with increasing volatility, more chances to win big and greater chances of depleting your bankroll at lightning speed.

Triple Triple takes that to a new level with multiple hands that can land you a 4,000-coin jackpot for a five-coin bet.

As in most games, you get 4,000 for a royal flush. Like Triple Double Bonus Poker but unlike any others, you also get 4,000 for four Aces with a 2, 3 or 4 as the fifth card.

Unlike any other game, Triple Triple also pays the 4,000 on four 2s, 3s or 4s with an Ace kicker. That moves your chances of hitting the 4,000-coin bonanza to about once per 5,900 hands, compared the once in 40,000 or so – depending on game and strategy – when the only route to the top payback is a royal flush.

There are tradeoffs, of course. From Double Bonus on up in the volatility scale, video poker games pay 1-for-1 on two pairs instead of the 2-for-1 on Jacks or Better or Bonus Poker. Triple Double Bonus goes another step and reduces the three of a kind return to 2-for-1 from the standard 3-for-1.

Triple Triple Bonus needs to have one more makeup hand to pay all its bonuses, so it pays only 3-1 on straights instead of the usual 4-1.

That leaves a really wild ride. The 4,000-coin hands account for nearly 14 percent of the overall return, compared with 2 percent when royals are alone on the top paybacks.

The top-paying version returns 99.75 percent with expert play. Here’s the full pay table, per five coins wagered:

Royal flush, 4,000; straight flush 250; four Aces with a 2, 3 or 4, 4,000; four Aces, 800; four 2s, 3s or 4s with an Ace, 4,000; four 2s, 3s or 4s with a 2, 3 or 4, 2,000; four 2s, 3s or 4s, 400; four 5s through 9s, 250; full house 45; flush 30; straight, 15; three of a kind, 10; two pairs, 5; pair of Jacks or better, 5.

There are alternate pay tables. The version listed above is a 9-6 game, since the one-coin paybacks are 9-for-1 on full houses and 6-for-1 on flushes. A 9-5 version reduces the payback to 98.6 percent, with 97.6 on an 8-5 game and 96.6 with a 7-5 pay table.

A deeper dive into strategy will have to wait for another time, but one thing players are sure to wonder about is whether they should break up two pairs in favor of a pair of 2s, 3s or 4s.

The short answer is “no.” Even the possibility of a 4,000-coin jackpot isn’t enough to toss away the certain payback on two pairs. With 2-2-10-10-6, the average return per five coins wagered is 8.40 coins if you hold both pairs, and only 5.21 if you keep the 2s and discard the rest.

However, if you have a full house such as 2-2-2-10-10, then the better percentage play is to go for the big one. The average return on 2-2-2 is 53.92 coins, while the pat full house brings 45. You wouldn’t make that play in Double Double Bonus, but Triple Triple is a game for thrill seekers.

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