Ask the Slot Expert: Deuces Wild Double Double Bonus Poker Found

Question: Glad I was able to bring to your attention the video poker game Deuces Wild Double Double Bonus Poker.

I live in Vegas and play the game at the DURANGO casino. Since you noted that it is also found at the GREEN VALLEY RANCH casino it may possibly be found at other Station Casinos but I have not seen the game elsewhere.

I have yet to find a posted strategy for playing it but generally I use the Deuces Wild strategy with one major modification - giving up all natural full houses by discarding the pair, keeping the three of a kind, and hoping to get that natural four of a kind.

It is a nice game because it gives you the opportunity with just one extra coin to have some bigger wins and not be dependent on just the four deuces.

Answer: When I lost something as a kid, my grandmother would tell me, "Wer sucht, der findet." He who searches, finds.

On my next casino visit, my mission, should I chose to accept it, was to find a machine with Deuces Wild Double Double Bonus Poker (DWDDBP). The message had barely self-destructed before I saw a machine with DWDDBP displayed in the top glass.

Now that I know where to look for DWDDBP, I've found many machines that have it.

I found it on many multi-game machines. The key to finding the right kind of machine is in what games are being multi-ed.

Some mult-game machines have a collection of video poker gimmicks listed in tabs on the left side of the screen. DWDDBP isn't listed among Quick Quads, Ultimate X, Chase the Royal, etc. That's one reason why I never knew of its existence before.

The kind of multi-game machine I found DWDDBP on is one that has additional types of games. Poker, Keno, Blackjack and Slots appear in tabs across the top of the screen. DWDDBP is just one of many video poker paytables listed on the Poker screen. Makes sense. It's really just another paytable, not a gimmick.

It helps if you look in the right place. That reminds me of a geeky, computer science/electrical engineering joke one of my professors told.

A team of engineers was trying to figure out why a critical computer system was not working. The CEO asked for a status. The CIO said that the engineers were working around the clock.

To which the smart-aleck engineer quipped, "What if the problem isn't near the clock?"

Ba-dum tsss. Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week.

I don't pay attention to all the noise on the paytable screen. I just look for Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, and maybe Bonus Poker. As a general rule, the more adjectives in a paytable's name, the worse it pays. No wonder I never noticed DWDDBP before.

I played on one machine for a while. On one hand, I held a pair of Jacks and got the other two for a 250-coin payout for a natural quad instead of the usual 20. This game can be fun. So far, that's the best hand I've gotten. Like the reader who made me aware of this paytable, I started with a Deuces Wild strategy and made some adjustments for hands with triplets.

Later when I went back to play that machine again, it was in use so I went to another machine. I was about to my put money in when I noticed something different about the paytable.

The paytable on the second machine was not as good as the paytable on the first. This section of the paytables was different:

I found both paytables at Suncoast. So far, I've found only the first paytable at Red Rock, but I haven't checked many machines. I hope Durango has the higher-paying paytable. Check the paytable the next time you play.

Remember how Sergeant Esterhaus ended each roll call on Hill Street Blues?

"Let's be careful out there."

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