Double Bonus Aces and Faces Video Poker Guide

Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker stands as a different twist on video poker by taking the unique characteristics of two different games and combining them. On the one hand, it mimics an Aces and Faces pay table by emphasizing four of a kind hands that include aces and face cards. But it features Double Bonus qualities that put more stress on those quad hands, no matter which cards are involved.

In the world of video poker, there are many different pay tables from which you can choose. The pay tables can truly change the way the game is played depending on how much is owed for each winning hand (and depending on what exactly those winning hands are). Whenever there is a change in the pay table, there will also be a change in strategy, expected payback, and volatility.

Most video poker games are played the same way in terms of the step-by-step process. Yet the pay tables can range far beyond Jacks or Better, which is the most common format for the game. If you want to branch out and try a game that offers you different ways to win, there are many ways you can do this by looking around casinos and gambling websites.

A Unique Approach

Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker offers you the chance to really enjoy a different feel to the game. That’s because it offers you two different twists on a basic Jacks or Better. You can probably tell by the name of the game that it’s not your run-of-the-mill video poker game.

Whenever you see the name “Bonus” in video poker, it’s an indication that you’ll be getting boosted payback on any four of a kind that you can achieve. It’s also common for those games to specify payback depending on which rank is included in the quad. And since we’re dealing here with “Double Bonus,” you can expect an even stronger lean to this style of play.

As for the “Aces and Faces” part of Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker, it’s a hint at what cards will mean the most to you in those quad hands. Many bonus games stress aces, twos, threes, and fours as the most lucrative ones to have in quads. But this game tells you upfront that you’ll be better off with four of a kind hands featuring aces and face cards (kings, queens, and jacks).

Giving and Taking Away

Whenever you have a game like Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker that drastically alters the basic pay table, there will be things that it gives you and things that it takes away. By stressing the quad hands, the game gives you more chances to win big on a single hand. That’s a bonus for those players who want to win a lot of money playing the game in a short period of time.

In the following article, we’ll tell you everything about the unique game known as Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker. We’ll explain how to play, and we’ll also talk about the pay tables that will change things up from basic video poker. On top of that, we’ll let you know what to expect in terms of payback, while also talking about developing expert strategy.

The Advantages of Video Poker

If you’re already associated with basic video poker and are more interested in figuring out what Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker is all about, you can skip these introductory sections. But if you are coming to this page without much knowledge of video poker, it’s a good idea to read on. This way, you’ll understand the basics of video poker to find out if it’s the right game for you.

Newcomers to the game might not realize all they have in store for them when they play video poker. Perhaps you think that it’s just another form of slot machine, since you can play it all by yourself just like you would the slots. Or you might be under the assumption that it’s like a table game because of the strategy you get to use.

In actuality, you’d be right on both counts. Video poker takes important elements of both slot machines and table games and combines them to make something that many gamblers feel is better than the sum of its parts. Take a look at all the ways this is true.

• Video poker needs only one person to play it. If you’re that person, you get to play without the pressure that you find at table games in terms of needing to know the rules and protocol. You can play at your own pace in a hassle-free environment.
• Video poker is one of the easiest casino games to understand. Most people with a little bit of a background in poker—even the informal, home game type—should have no trouble understanding. Even those who have no such experience should be able to get the basic notion within a few minutes of starting out.
• Video poker features a lot of variety. We’ve talked already about how pay tables can be adjusted to change up play, as is the case with Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker. But you can also play games with special features like multipliers, free hands, wild cards, and many other twists.
• Video poker lets you actually make a difference in whether you win or lose. If you’re the type that likes to be rewarded for good strategy, video poker gives you that chance. The players who make the best decisions will make more money playing video poker over the long haul.
• Video poker gives you some of the best payback of all casino games. Granted, you have to play with proper strategy and choose your games wisely. But you can actually have a legitimate shot at making a long-term profit playing video poker.
• Video poker is a game that doesn’t hide anything from you. There are pay tables clearly listed on every machine and online game that tell you how much winning hands pay. As far as how often those winning hands will appear, that can be ascertained from simple probability math.
• Video poker can be played online without you missing anything you might get from the casino version of the game. The payback, the strategy, and the rules of play are all the same. And you can earn that same kind of top payback that is found on video poker machines when you play the game at top gambling websites.

As you can tell from that list, video poker has a lot to offer. But first, you need to learn how to play the game, which, as we said, isn’t that difficult. Read on to understand the process.

Step-by-Step Guide to Playing Video Poker

Step 1: The Bankroll

When you play Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker in casinos or on gambling websites, you can win real money. But first, you have to put real money on the line, which is what the bankroll does for you.

If you’re playing in a casino, your bankroll will come from the money you put into the machine. Or if you’re playing online, you’ll need to fund a gambling account with either a credit card, a wire transfer, an alternate method like cryptocurrency, or whatever method is allowed by the site you choose.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll see that your bankroll is rendered in units known as credits or coins. These units are based on whatever the denomination is that you happen to be using. For example, 10 credits at a 25-cent machine are worth $2.50 (10 times .25).

Step 2: The Bet

When you play Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker, you’ll have the choice of betting anywhere from one through five credits per hand. There are some other video poker options which you let you bet more per hand. But the basic setup is one through five per hand, in one-credit increments.

You can choose a different bet amount each time. Or you can settle at one betting level. If you choose, you can bet the maximum amount of five credits and have the cards dealt all at once by pressing the “max bet” button.

In most video poker games, and Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker is one of them, the payback for a royal flush is drastically altered by the size of the bet. Take a look.

Royal Flush Payback

• 1 credit bet = 250 credits won
• 2 credits bet = 500 credits won
• 3 credits bet = 750 credits won
• 4 credits bet = 1,000 credits won
• 5 credits bet = 4,000 credits won

You can see how the payback jumps at the five-credit level. It goes from 250 to 1 to 800 to 1. And even though the royal flush is rare, it can happen, and you’ll be frustrated if it happens when you haven’t made the max bet.

Granted, betting five credits per hand puts more pressure on your budget. But it also offers you the best average payback in the long run. In other words, if you want to be a serious video poker player, you really can’t afford to bet any other way.

Step 3: The Hand

If you’ve ever played the card game known as Five-Card Draw, you’ll recognize the way that video poker is played. The process is the same, in that both follow the basic rhythm of deal, discard, and draw. And the goal is the same in both games as well: making the best possible poker combination with your final five cards.

But Five-Card Draw requires that you beat out everyone at the table to win the pot. That can sometimes mean forming a poker hand that’s really tough to beat. Or it can mean bluffing your opponents into giving up their hands.

Video poker is actually simpler than that in terms of what it takes to win money back from your bet. All you have to do is to have one of the winning combinations on the pay table in your hand when the process is over. In terms of Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker, here are the combinations that will return you some payback from your original wager:

• Pair of jacks or better
• Two pair
• Three of a kind
• Straight (five cards of consecutive rank, like 3-4-5-6-7)
• Flush (five cards of same suit)
• Full house (three of a kind and two pair in the same hand)
• Four of a kind
• Straight flush (straight with five cards of same suit)
• Royal flush (ten, jack, queen, king, and ace of the same suit)

This list features the lowest-paying hands on the top, then the hands pay more and more with each step you take down the list. The one exception is that, in Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker, four of a kind hands, in some cases, pay more than the straight flush.

The other thing you need to understand is that the list goes from hands that are easy to make, on the top, to ones that will be very difficult to achieve. As a result, you probably realize that the rarer the hand might be, the more it will pay. That correlation is at the heart of video poker decision-making.

The Deal

When you’ve made your bet and activate the deal, the amount of your bet will be deducted from your bankroll, and five cards will appear on your screen. These five cards will come from a simulation of a standard deck of 52 cards. The game’s software will keep these cards rapidly shuffling until the moment you activate the deal, at which time the top five cards will appear as your deal.

At that moment, the remaining 47 cards will return to the shuffling process. When you activate the draw after making your decision (more on that below), the top cards on the deck will replace the cards you’ve discarded (however many cards that might be). That completes the hand. The deck is returned to 52, and the shuffling begins again, starting the process over.

The Decision

This is the point in every video poker hand where you get to exercise some strategy. You’ll have to choose which of the five cards in your deal you want to hold and which you want to discard. Remember that the goal is to end up with the best possible poker combination when all is said and done.

If you hold a card, it will be part of your final hand. Meanwhile, if you choose to discard a card, it will be replaced by one of the 47 cards still left in the deck after the deal. Keep in mind that you can keep or hold any sequence or combination of the five cards, and that includes holding all five or discarding all five.

What are the keys to this decision? Always think of these two factors:

• What winning combinations can you possibly make out of what you have and what is still in the deck?
• What is the potential payback you might achieve out of those combinations?

The second part is often overlooked, but it is crucial if you want to win big playing video poker. There will be times when it makes sense to reach on a rare hand, even if it raises your risk of losing the hand. In some cases, that risk will be worth the potential reward.

Sample Video Poker Decision

Let’s imagine that you’re playing Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker and receive the following five-card deal.

There are no winning combinations to be found here, at least not in the deal. But with the draw, there are several winning possibilities within your reach. Here are some of the options you could pursue:

• Hold the pair of fives. If you do this, you’d be drawing three cards, and there would be many winning combinations open to you. The most lucrative would be four of a kind which, as we mentioned above, gets a payback boost on the Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker pay table.
• Hold the four clubs. This would be a narrower approach, where you’d be drawing just a single card with the idea of ending up with a flush. The flush offers solid payback in the middle of the pay table, and you’d have a nine (clubs left in the deck) in 47 (cards left in the deck) chance of getting it.
• Hold the five, six, and seven of clubs. If you went this direction, you’d have the widest range of possible winning hands open to you, compared to the other two choices. Among these possibilities is the straight flush, which offers some of the highest payback in the game.

These aren’t the only possibilities, but they are the most logical based on what you have and what’s left in the deck. This sample hand gives you an idea of the risk/reward give and take that comes into play when you’re playing video poker.

In many cases, your decision will be much more obvious. You’ll find, even on tough hands, that the process for making these decisions will become much quicker the longer that you play video poker. Most video poker players can play several hands per minute.

The Draw

To make your decision, you’ll press the buttons or click on the icons corresponding to the cards you wish to hold from your deal (if any). You’ll leave the cards you want to discard alone. Make sure that you make these indications properly so that you don’t make a mistake.

When you hit the “draw” button, any discarded cards will be replaced by other cards from the deck. This finishes up the hand. If you have made one of the winning combinations on the pay table, you’ll see your bankroll change to reflect the winnings, which also will include the return of your original bet.

You can continue playing video poker in this manner as long as you have the credits to wager. If you choose, you can always cash out your winnings. At any point that you run out of credits, you’ll have to replenish your bankroll to continue.

The Double Bonus Aces and Faces Video Poker Pay Table

We mentioned a little bit above about the importance of the pay table. In the case of Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker, its pay table is what makes it unique. And you should take the time to understand its intricacies so you can decide if it’s the type of game for you.

If you’re new to video poker, just seeing a pay table on its own won’t mean too much to you. You might not realize why certain payback amounts are good or bad for you. That’s why you should always look at it in context.

To do that, let’s first take a look at the pay table that is sort of the baseline for all video poker games. That game is Jacks or Better, and it’s the most common of all pay tables. Take a look.

Jacks or Better Pay Table

Coins/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 of a kind	25	50	75	100	125
Full house	9	18	27	36	45
Flush	6	12	18	24	30
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
Three of kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pairs	2	4	6	8	10
Jacks or better	1	2	3	4	5

Jacks or Better is known as a pay table that pays directly based on your likelihood of making each hand. That puts it the most in line with basic poker strategy. Once the pay table changes, that’s when you have to start changing that strategy up a bit.

To understand the pay table for Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker, it’s first important to look at basic Aces and Faces and its unique characteristics:

Aces and Faces Pay Table

Coins/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 of a kind (aces)	80	160	240	320	400
Four of a kind (faces)	40	80	120	160	200
Four of a kind (any other)	25	50	75	100	125
Full house	8	16	24	32	40
Flush	5	10	15	20	25
Straight	4	8	12	16	20
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pairs	2	4	6	8	10
High pair	1	2	3	4	5

The first thing you probably notice is that Aces and Faces based its four of a kind payback on which cards are involved, as opposed to Jacks or Better, where all quads pay the same. Aces are the best, in terms of payback, followed by face cards (kings, jacks, and queens). Four of a kind for twos through 10s pays the same as those hands would in Jacks or Better.

Because the payback for quads Aces and Faces is higher than payback for straight flush in Aces and Faces, it upends the natural order of video poker in a way. Four of a kind is an easier hand to make than a straight flush, based on pure probabilities.

Now, we’re ready to move on to the full-pay table for Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker. By full-pay, we mean that it’s the highest-paying version of the game that you’re likely to find in casinos and on gambling websites. Take a look.

Double Bonus Aces and Faces Pay Table

Coins/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 of a kind (aces)	160	320	480	640	800
Four of a kind (faces)	80	160	240	320	400
Four of a kind (any other)	50	100	150	200	250
Full house	9	18	27	36	45
Flush	7	14	21	28	35
Straight	5	10	15	20	25
Three of a kind	3	6	9	12	15
Two pairs	1	2	3	4	5
High pair	1	2	3	4	5

You can probably see where the “Double Bonus” comes into play. From the middle of the pay table to neat the top, Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker offers higher payback on most hands. Take a look at the comparison.
Hand

Straight	4 to 1	5 to 1
Flush	5 to 1	7 to 1
Full house	8 to 1	9 to 1
Four of a kind (2s through 10s)	25 to 1	50 to 1
Four of a kind (jacks through kings)	40 to 1	80 to 1
Four of a kind (Aces)	80 to 1	160 to 1

In the case of the four of a kind hands, the Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker pay table gives you twice as much as basic Aces and Faces. On top of that, you’re getting as much or more on all quads than you would with a straight flush.

You might think from looking at all that Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker is completely flawless. But you might have missed the fact that the payback for two pair pays back even money on that table. That’s compared to 2 to 1 for two pair on Aces and Faces.

Considering all the other areas where Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker, you might not think that change matters too much. But you have to remember that two pair will occur much more common than those other hands. And as a result, the lower payback will have a major impact on your gameplay.

Double Bonus Aces and Faces Video Poker and Volatility

Volatility is a factor you should consider whenever you decide to play video poker. It measures the impact a pay table will have on your bankroll over short periods of time. The higher the volatility, the more drastically you can expect your bankroll to swing between profits and deficits.

Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker adds much more volatility to the mix than either Jacks or Better or Aces and Faces. That’s because of the contrast between the high payback for four of a kind and the low payback for two pair. You should expect a somewhat bumpy ride for your bankroll when playing this game.

Double Bonus Aces and Faces Video Poker Payback Percentage

Payback percentage is a measurement that tells you what you can expect from a video poker game in the long term. It’s based on the probability of winning hands and the payback for those hands. You’ll see it listed as a percentage based on your original bankroll.

For the full-pay version of Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker, the payback percentage sits at 99.24%. In other words, when you play the game for a certain amount of time, you can expect to have 99.24% of your bankroll remaining. That means you can expect a 0.76% loss, which is the house edge for this game.

In terms of actual money, let’s take a look at what means:

• $1,000 bankroll = $992.40 remaining ($7.60 loss)
• $10,000 bankroll = $9,924 remaining ($76 loss)
• $100,000 bankroll = $99,240 remaining ($760 loss)

Looking at the expected losses, you might wonder whether or not it’s worthwhile to play Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker. But you have to remember that, as you play, you’ll likely receive VIP perks from your casino or gambling website. And those perks can help to offset the loss and give you the chance at a long-term profit.

Keep in mind that this is true for the full-pay version of Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker. But there will be other pay tables that you might find that pay you less.

For example, the below pay table for Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker offers lower payback for the full house, flush and straight, with everything else the same. As a result, the payback percentage drops to 96.54%, which isn’t beneficial for long-term play.

Double Bonus Aces and Faces (Alternate Pay Table)

Coins/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 of a kind (aces)	160	320	480	640	800
Four of a kind (faces)	80	160	240	320	400
Four of a kind (any other)	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 pairs	1	2	3	4	5
High pair	1	2	3	4	5

Strategy for Double Bonus Aces and Faces Video Poker

When it comes to video poker strategy, there is actually a right way to play every deal that you get. In other words, you can’t just hope to come up with your own strategy. In each deal, just one out of the possible 32 combinations of holds and discards you play will maximize the payback for that hand over the long haul.

That phrase “over the long haul” is the key part of that. If you play just a small sample of video poker, you can get away with making wrong choices of what to hold and discard if you get lucky on the draw. And by the same token, you might be unlucky even when you make the correct choices.

But the longer you play, the luck will start to lose effect compared to the probabilities. That’s when it becomes important that you’ve been playing with the right strategy all along. And it’s also important that you base your strategy on the game you’re playing.

Playing to the Pay Table

We’ve told you about the unique nature of the Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker. Knowing about that should affect the way you play. Take a look at the following deal as an example:

Your first instinct, especially if you play Jacks or Better, might be to hold the two pair. That would ensure you of 2 to 1 payback. And you’d still have a chance of drawing a full house.

But when you’re playing Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker, two pair pays only even money. In other words, you would get paid as much if you ended up with just the pair of aces as you would with the two pair. In addition, by discarding the three cards besides the aces, you’d leave yourself a chance at four aces which, as we know, represents a massive payoff in this particular game.

As a result, the right play on this deal in Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker would be to hold the aces only. And that shows you how important it is to base your strategy on the pay table. It also shows you how learning video poker strategy can be a tricky process if you try to do it on your own.

Getting Help With Video Poker Strategy

The best way to learn video poker strategy is to let somebody else do all the hard work of figuring out the math for every single deal that you get. All you have to do is study their results. Luckily, there are resources out there that do just that for you.

There are two main sources of video poker strategy that we recommend. Make sure that anything you use is tailored to a Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker pay table, for the reasons we showed in the example above. Once you’ve done that, try one of these two methods:

• Video poker training software: With training software, you learn through doing, by playing practice hands. As you play, the software will tell you the right plays in every situation. After you practice in this way for a while, the right plays will start to become ingrained, and you’ll be ready to play Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker for real money.
• Strategy charts: You can get perfect strategy from an online chart in the amount of time it takes you to memorize it, which admittedly won’t be easy. The chart lists all possible card combinations that have some value heading into the draw and ranks them. Once you have these rankings in your head, you’ll know the right cards to play in every single deal that you get.

Double Bonus Aces and Faces Video Poker Pros and Cons

Conclusion

Double Bonus Aces and Faces video poker provides you with a juicy pay table, especially if you want to win big in a hurry. Try to focus your strategy on quads with aces and face cards, and you can really take advantage. Just be ready for a sagging bankroll when those hands don’t come down the pike enough to make up for lower payback on two pair.